Trophy drummer Jack DeJohnette brought his busy, enervating Latin Project to Tri-C Metro Auditorium Thursday night. The music was large and loud, despite some incredible, more intimate moments from each musician. This was DeJohnette's group and concept, so it made sense that the drummer, who first gained notice for providing the shifting rhythms in the Miles Davis Bitches Brew band, be front and center. But DeJohnette and his percussion mates overplayed so frequently the concert wound up feeling like more like heavy metal than jazz. And it didn’t supply the theatrics that can make a heavy metal concert enjoyable.

DeJohnette can play incredibly, and he's certainly dramatic. His work on Geri Allen's latest album and on Ivey Divey, the goofy and wonderful disk by Latin Project colleague Don Byron, is surprisingly tasteful and textured. But all too often, it was self-indulgent Thursday night. It was also peculiar. Why DeJohnette spent so much time introducing the pieces and touting his colleagues was a puzzle. It certainly compromised the pacing.

For those of you who care, the musicians were DeJohnette, Byron, pianist Edsel Gomez, timbalista Luisito Quintero, bassist (and sometime vocalist) Jerome Harris, and conguero Giovanni Hidalgo. The pieces were largely by Byron and Gomez l—also the most distinctive soloists.

Byron stuck to the clarinet for the most part, using the saxophone primarily for color. His clarinet was pixielike, daring and upbeat. He sat on a stool throughout, effectively conducting the show. Byron’s “You Are Number Six” launched the date powerfully with a long, escalating DeJohnette solo delirious with cymbal and snare. Ultimately, the tune turned impossibly dense, its texture so rich there was no room for solo. Ultimately, it didn’t rise above the interesting.

Gomez’s “Bayamon” soared more, as Hidalgo, Quintero and DeJohnette exchanged rhythms, Byron quoted from Dizzy Gillespie’s “Salt Peanuts” and the powerful Gomez popped notes and sprung chords like Champagne. That Gomez tune, his more lyrical and patient “Coqui’s Serenade” and Byron’s “Home Going” were the best.

There was plenty of sonic variety. “Coqui’s Serenade” began with Byron squealing on clarinet, DeJohnette whistling and Quintero on shaker. The tune brought you into the rain forest and, for the first time in the show, offered drama and atmosphere, not just density. Byron’s oddly folkloric “Whisper in My Ear,” launched by an overlong conga solo, kept the drama going, paving the way for Harris’ “Hand by Hand,” a tune that managed to be both wearying and weird. Harris’s wordless vocals were exotic and his bass solo was rich, but they couldn’t save a tune that wandered aimlessly from mood to mood.

At first, Byron’s “Home Going” seemed like a breakthrough: Not only did it pack mystery and contrast; it featured striking solos by both Byron and the remarkably energetic and daring Gomez. Too bad it wound up with percussion displays so indulgent they marginalized Byron, relegating him to simplistic saxophone riffing while Harris and Gomez comped, too far in the background.

So much smoke, so little fire made this concert more boring than brilliant. Perhaps that’s why as many people streamed out of the auditorium at the last note as stood to applause. Thankfully, there was no encore.
from Cool Cleveland contributor Carlo Wolff CWolff7827@aol.com

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