JUSTICE IS COMPASSION, JAN 11 - GERALD CLEAVER, CHRIS POTTER, DAVID VIRELLES, TREVOR DUNN
- photography by © Clara Pereira / text by Filipe Freitas
Arts For Art’s Evolving Series: Justice Is Compassion had another great concert on Thursday, January 11th. The stimulating drummer Gerald Cleaver joined a stylistically challenging quartet to play free jazz. They surfaced at full force, stretching out over a free-form structure with Chris Potter, on tenor saxophone, embarking on moods that touched Ayler’s freedom, Coltrane’s spiritual voyages, and David S. Ware’s racing phrases and bursting energy. He had the harmonic dissonances and turbulent whirls of Cuban pianist David Virelles working in a constant action-reaction approach.
Bassist Trevor Dunn, who boasts an intense, brawny playing, formed a sturdy foundation with the drummer, whose enthusiastic solos left the audience in ecstasy.
However, throughout their extemporaneous non-stop music making, the mood wasn’t always so saturated. Potter injected some more folk-ish phrasing and discernible melody into the game, inviting his mates to create stimulating Afro-Latin grooves with steep avant-garde twists.