There are no two people who will absolutely agree on what exactly jazz is. A complete deconstruction of everything that established music considers sacred would be an example of a definition that is neither accurate nor precise, but somewhat in the right direction. Because of all this, every type of avant-garde in music sooner or later sticks to jazz. There is hardly a bolder, crazier or more brazen creation in music than that heavily improvisational direction. From the big bands that raged a whole century ago to today’s almost scientific playing with the laws that apply in conventional musical waters.
Last night, the Belgrade audience had the honor of watching and listening to the Brooklyn band Sungazerinitially a bassist project Adama Neelya and a drummer Shawn Crowdera. If the rest of the text were to treat last night’s performers as a mere lineup of “some over there Berklee jazzers from New York”, in addition to irrevocably destroying the reputation of the site, we would be doing a great injustice to the four who blew away their select audience last night.
About an hour after the audience headed to the Dom omladine Belgrade, popular bassist and YouTuber Neely informed the audience that tonight’s performance will be different because part of their luggage containing their wardrobe was lost in transit. The journey from Brooklyn to (to them exotic) locations in the white world is not the easiest thing, and this is probably not helped by the difficulties with the local international airport. Some ninety minutes after the opening of the hall, Neely, Crawford, a masterful saxophonist, take the stage Jared Yee and a reclusive phenomenal guitarist Josh DeLa Victoria and the chaos of the collective class can begin. Juxtaposition of the opening music „Sequence Start“ from the stage that spread like a wave over the almost uniformly young, but above all colorful audience in Americana. Every activity on the stage was greeted with applause, but the band and the audience got closer together on things like „Threshold“ i „Dream of Mahjong“. The simultaneous breakdown and unmistakable drum groove isn’t something you hear every day, but Crowder’s incredible feel exceeds even the band’s basic promise of an experimental orgasm for the ears.
If in the studio Sungazer sounds too perfect, in front of the audience, the foot is removed from the brake and the accelerator is pressed, giving the impression that it is a completely riotous band. The audience, it seems traditional when it comes to Sungazer, saves the most hearts for the saxophonist Yee. Each of his announced solos or featured parts was greeted as if he had brought Olympic gold to the country, with humorous chants of his name going “Yeeeeeeeeee!”. While the drummer and the saxophonist are closer to the traditional forms of modern jazz, the quiet Mr. De La Victoria with his guitar pulls the Sungazer sound towards some more modern jazz lines. As a far more rambunctious (and dare we say funnier) Ben Monder of Bowie’s Blackstar, Josh flew his guitar through the skies giving the whole story a total fusion feel. What was really interesting was that the man never pushed himself into the foreground. After all, Sungazer is a band in which each musician is a class for himself and it’s nice to see that everyone on stage is in the mood to give space to each other. But even Weather Report had a leader, and here Mr. Neely largely takes over that role.
The bass guitar professor with a degree from Berklee and a million-dollar YouTube channel has long since received his doctorate in charisma, and is a natural choice as a broker between the band and the audience. You don’t have to take our word for it when we tell you that the almost full American listened to what Adam said and did what he wanted her to do as if hypnotized, but we know what we witnessed. From the traditional clapping in 7/8 on the track “Anthem” (which we tore up, considering the presence of that rhythm in the traditional music of the Balkans, ed.) to the so-called Sungazer two-stepper dance that irresistibly resembles a more casual version of the traditional Serbian kolcet. In addition to his entertaining duties, last night Neely demonstrated more than ever the size of his lower register. From djent grooves, fast riffs and all the way to tapping, Neely led the program with bass. That it’s not all about furious techniques, they also showed when they incorporated Vamos A La Playa, the famous camp hit of the music duo Righeira from 1983, into Bird on the Wing. With all the chorus singing of the audience made up of Gen Z youth and a few late Millennials.
One of the most beautiful moments was “Cool 7“, a song that will be on the band’s next album. It’s a slightly more ambient thing that brings to mind the music of Donny McCaslin with a good dose of Sungazer’s nerdy charm. Bringing the concert to a close, they played “I Walk Alone“, which, in addition to the dangerous break beat, also has vocals that, as in the rest of the concert, Neely fired from Ableton Live. The whole aesthetic of Sungazer’s sound is based on nerdy elements. “Dream of Mahjong” contains the sounds of Windows 98 and the ominous scream of a dial up modem when connecting to the Internet, Sequence Start sounds like Nintendo on steroids, and between each song Neely explained to the audience what kind of rhythmic tangle it is and why things sound the way they do. Sungazer’s songs are full of polyrhythms, atonal sections, an experimental approach that keeps you in suspense all the time. Even so, the band manages to sound infectious and fun, although the greatest pleasure is reserved for music geeks.
At the first of two encores, the band returned to simply smash “Vital Transformation” of the iconic Mahavishnu Orchestra, which Neely presented as proof that Sungazer is still a jazz fusion band (in a way). If it wasn’t the crown, then at least on par with the rest of the night, Vital Transformation was something magical last night. Neely gave blood, tears and sweat to Rick Laird’s relentless bass riff, while Crowder delivered one of the fiercest drumming performances America has seen. After the audience continued to demand Sungazer to play, Neely announced during the second encore that they had no more songs, but would play Sequence Start again, only 10 beats per minute faster (~10% faster than the original, ed.). With this masterful prank, the Brooklyn magicians ended their first Belgrade concert.
The satisfaction at the end could be felt in the air on both sides of the guardrail. The most interesting thing was to see that there is so much passion for a band that is experimental to the extreme. If we were to measure musicians in a sporting way, last night’s foursome would certainly be among the top 50 in the world in their category, maybe even in the Top 20 or less. As an eternal feather of what music can do, jazz is, as we said, always avant-garde. With that in mind, Sungazer is the flagship of 21st century jazz. Twenty years from now, we will be able to brag to the kids of that time that we watched that Sungazer in Belgrade, when Americana was almost sold out. And it was surreal.
Photo gallery – Sungazer – Belgrade
Source: balkanrock.com
