This year, for me, Big Ears was all about the drummers…
Best of show:
Tyshawn Sorey, in his trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano, being way more aggressive and powerful than he is on his more subtle recent standards records… at several points, he and Frisell were simply balls-out wailing, and Joe Lovano couldn't keep up… at other times, Sorey proved himself a master of dramatic timing and dynamics; he is an amazing drummer. (I missed him with the Vijay Iyer Trio but heard it was fantastic.)
Master of the simmer:
Gerald Cleaver: saw him three times, first with Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra, where he kept a solid yet continually morphing groove (along with drummer Chad Taylor, who didn't seem as comfortable in that setting); with William Parker's In Order to Survive (more rock-solid grooves); and with William Parker's Mayan Space Station (where he got a bit looser while backing Ava Mendoza's outstanding guitar playing)
Nasheet Waits with Tarbaby, featuring David Murray: my god, he was powerful (and I do mean Waits….Murray was great too but Waits took my breath away)
Best brush work:
Ches Smith (with the Brian Marsella Trio) --also saw him with Zorn's Cobra (which featured four drummers!). With the trio, he was on fire and played the best I've ever heard him
Tomas Fujiwara: cooking with Mary Halvorson's Amaryllis (although I preferred Belladonna, her string quartet set) and in a quieter vein with Ben Goldberg (again with Halvorson and also with the sublime pianist Sylvie Courvoisier)
Pheeroan akLaff: amazing performance with Wadada Leo Smith Quartet. Had an interesting double bass drum setup, with a second floor tom to the left of his hi hat.
Kenny Wollensen: with Cobra (also saw him on vibes with Zorn's Gnostic Trio)
Chris Corsano: absolutely on fire with Zoh Amba
Carmen Castaldi: drummer for Joe Lovano's Trio Tapestry: amazing, subtle, inventive, especially when Marilyn Crispell was soloing
Dave Lombardo: fire and brimstone in a trio with Zorn and Trevor Dunn (too bad Bill Laswell wasn't there for the planned Painkiller fest, but this was just fine), and then again in Cobra
Chad Taylor: in a power trio with James Brandon Lewis and also with Exploding Star Orchestra
Wayne Anthony Smith, Jr.: I -think- this was who played drums with the Sun Ra Arkestra. Whoever it was was cooking, driving the band with a solid and slightly skewed swing.
Best drummer I didn't see:
Andrew Cyrille (but I saw him last year, and I was lucky enough to see him years ago in Boston in a band with Reggie Workman, Geri Allen, and Joseph Jarman)
I mean, damn, any one of these shows was enough to send me back to the woodshed. Seeing this much great drumming over a period of 3 ½ days was overwhelming!
