-- Dave McKenna
Hoover
There was a unique intertwining of past and present D.C. post-punk at the Black Cat Saturday night, where one band conjured decade-old magic and another sizzled in the here and now.
The past came from Hoover, a quartet that didn't quite last two years after its original formation in 1992. The group produced some singles, one tightly wound album for Dischord Records -- "The Lurid Traversal of Route 7," which received a splendid remastering and reissue three months ago -- and a posthumous EP, before their members, notably bassist Fred Erskine, went on to other projects. Erskine, drummer Chris Farral and guitarists Joe McRedmond and Al Dunham reunited as Hoover for a UK tour late last year, and they sounded astonishingly contemporary Saturday night, uncoiling songs like "Cuts Like Drugs" as if they'd never been gone. Through the dark, shifting guitars, lead vocals (balanced between Erskine, McRedmond and Dunham) that alternately yelped and floated, and a bass-drum bottom that flirted with punk-dub, it was clear that Hoover's imprint had touched many bands that came after it. Their set was a joyous reminder of a singular, too often forgotten group.
Jean Grae, who headlined the hip-hop show at the Black Cat but tried to show a softer side of her music as well.
(Craig Wetherby)
|
|
Indeed, there was a tiny sliver of Hoover in the galvanizing set by one of Dischord's most dynamic current bands, Medications. Behind the fearsomely busy drums of Andrew Becker, Devin Ocampo's prickly guitar runs stop-started, then smashed into Chad Molter's edgy bass. Saturday night's set suggested their soon-to-be-recorded full-length debut could be a new D.C. milestone.
-- Patrick Foster
Curtis Fuller Sextet
Drummer Jimmy Cobb, a Washington native whose extraordinary résumé includes a landmark alliance with trumpeter Miles Davis in the late '50s, received a horn-powered 76th birthday salute from his band mates when he stepped onstage at Blues Alley on Friday night. But soon Cobb was back at work, balancing hard bop propulsion and finesse for the latest edition of the Curtis Fuller Sextet.
The lighthearted bandleader and trombonist, who turned 70 last month, reminisced throughout the opening set and frequently alluded to some of his former employers (Art Blakey and Count Basie) and associates (Freddie Hubbard and Milt Jackson). Basie's legacy was celebrated with an effortlessly swinging version of "Good Bait," crisply driven by Cobb's ride cymbal and neatly punctuated by pianist John Hicks. Hubbard's "Up Jumped Spring," proved as buoyant as its title suggests -- a jazz waltz vibrantly colored by Fuller's trombone, Javon Jackson's tenor sax and Donvante McCoy's trumpet. The arrangements were often dotted with solos that contrasted Fuller's slippery phrasing with Jackson's imposing tone and McCoy's darting melodicism. Two of the highlights, however, were designed as showcases for members of the ensemble. Playing in a quartet setting, Jackson turned "Body and Soul" into a carefully modulated emotional arc, the tension slowly building and tapering off. Then Hicks, during a solo interlude, saluted Billy Strayhorn with a lovely and impressionistic medley of "Chelsea Bridge" and "Star-Crossed Lovers."
McCoy and bassist Corcoran Holt, the youngsters in the band, were generously featured as well, and their input frequently jacked up the energy level and brought a big smile to Fuller's still youthful face.
-- Mike Joyce
