DAVE DOUGLAS & NOMAD @ THE CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER


How does a jazz chamber ensemble that was made to play in the mountains play at sea level?
Nomad, a group led by Dave Douglas, created to play a music festival 10,000 feet high in the Dolemites (one caveat to the festival....the musicians had to hike and carry their instruments up the mountain.) played a free show last night at the Chicago Cultural Center to find out.

Consisting of Marcus Rojas on Tuba, (who no doubt appreciates the lower altitude gigs, and the service elevator to carry the gear) Rubin Kodheli on Cello, Drummer Tyshawn Sorey, and reedman Myron Walden along with Douglas set out to recreate the music he wrote for the mountains.
Touring on their new Greenleaf CD, Mountain Passages, Dave Douglas returned for the third (each time with a different group) time to the Preston Bradley Hall, in the Chicago Cultural Center .
The Preston Bradley Hall is a daunting place, semi-precious stones encrusting the rotunda walls, and a domed ceiling to boot, make the sound cavernous. (Ice Cube makes his save the neighborhood speech in this room in Barbershop 2)
Douglas remarked during the show that every time he does a soundcheck here he asks, "how are we gonna make this work? and every time during the show....it works".
The small crowd listened in reverence to the pastoral and equally to the raucous. Douglas claims that there were two kinds of people who climbed 10,000 feet to listen to music, spiritual people and rowdy drunkards, so he wrote music for both.
There were inspiring moments with both, my favorite being the rowdy Gnarly Schnapps, and the venerable North Point Memorial, written for Douglas's father, ironically a mountain runner who died just prior to the project.
The highlight came at the end of the two hour show, the only song not from the CD, a tribute to Lester Bowie , that Douglas vowed to premiere in Chicago, and did with a flourish. A swinging, gospel-like tribute to the late Chicago trumpet player that brought the crowd to it's feet. Douglas claimed he can't imagine a world without Lester and this encore brought his spirit back to life in fine fashion.

Posted: Tue - March 1, 2005 at 08:55 AM          

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