Schacter and Johnson Sound Their Jazz Improv - P.A.W. Print

Strolling down Cherry Stree t below Broad, by the Gilbert Building in the evening on a Monday, music wafts from an open window over head. To track these tones, one must hit buzzer number four. Depending upon on the alternating Monday schedules, one will be privy to either Ben Schacter's or Jef Lee Johnson's sweet mosaic of chaos.

For the last year and a half, the Highwire gallery has been host to an ongoing Monday night jam that features some of the finest and most progressive Jazz Philadelphia has to offer. Alternating Mondays, Schacter and Johnson thrill the faithful with their unique interpretations of the art.

The series recently featured a performance by Ben Schacter and his Quartet, Sung/Unsung, consisting of Jef Lee Johnson on guitar, Craig McIver on drums and Matthew Parrish on bass, and Schacter on saxes.

The quartet has been playing together for many years in one variation or another in an intense lineup. While Parrish's bass anchors a muscular backbone, Schacter's sax weaves fierce angles, pushed forward by McIver's light but authoritative Max Roach-esque beats. The sounds are then bejeweled by Johnson's own little school of outer space effects, making for complete and unified sounding combo.

The combo-- while I noticed no physical signals, commandeered changes that seemed merely understood. We seemed to be witnessing a relationship between musicians firmly grounded in the fine, telepathic art of improvisation. The musicians are comfortable with posing and addressing musical questions to one another before an audience. The band appears to be a family, based solely on the equal distribution of sound negotiated during improvisation.

True, Schacter and his tenor's fierce chops are very much in charge, the sounds and solos subtly shifting control like a lava lamp in a dark room. Groovy sax bleats mellow out to give way to some of the most melodic bass solos I have ever heard, performed by some very slippery fingers giving way to some brilliant polyrhythms from the drummer's sticks, and finally leading into one of the guitarist's masterful space explorations. Veering and expressing knowledge of everything from Bop to Fusion, to worlds between and beyond, Ben Schacter's Sung/Unsung will blow your mind.

Schacter detailed the origins of the sounds, "As far as influences go, I prefer to remain isolated, and let them come from the inside, not that I have any special insight. But I am very interested in playing what's in my head."

Alternate Mondays are commanded by the powerhouse riffs of Jef Lee Johnson. A veteran of session work with the likes of Chaka Khan, Sister Sledge, and McCoy Tyner, his driving playing is sure to please both purists and Jon Spencer devotees alike.

Johnson appears with his jet-propelled rhythm section of Dan Monaghan on drums and Chico Huff on bass during a particularly humid Monday night. The hot, wet weather perfectly suited the scene. Dim lights, surrounded by modern art, Johnson's chaotic and beautiful sounds filled the room and transformed it into some sort of futuristic jook joint.

While Johnson twisted his sweating face as if giving birth, his lightening hands commanded his Fender Stratocaster VII to conjure sounds otherworldly, brutal and beautiful. Standing before a guitar case filled with no less than eight effect pedals, Johnson's explorations seem to be an inversion of the entire history of the guitar.

Echoes of Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt, John McLaughlin and even Les Paul find their way into Johnson's bag of tricks. From muscular riffs to light interplay with his combo to spacey, almost Hawkwind-esque improv, the improvisation resounds in the ears of the audience.

The Highwire Gallery Jazz Series features Johnson and Schacter on alternating Mondays at 8pm at the gallery space, at 1315 Cherry Street (located between Arch and Race, below Broad on the fourth floor in the Gilbert Building). The events are curated by John Van Zandt, gallery and performance coordinator. For more information, visit the gallery's website at www.highwired.tv or phone (215) 829-1255.