POP MUSIC

Saturday, April 21, 2007

John Abercrombie Quartet

About the last thing you'd expect to hear from the usually reserved jazz guitarist John Abercrombie is an impression of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi touting transcendental meditation at Yankee Stadium. Perhaps the sight of a packed house at Blues Alley on Thursday night had something to do with it.

In any case, Abercrombie wasn't merely in a good mood, he was in terrific form, collaborating -- and fluidly improvising -- with violinist Mark Feldman, bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron. A remarkably tight ensemble, the quartet spent the opening set performing tunes drawn from the three albums it has recorded. The arrangements were often enlivened by flowing improvisations, additional counterpoint, colorful thematic tangents and amusing allusions to pop songs.

Abercrombie, who favors a warm, finger-picked tone, set the uncluttered mood for each piece, often moving from free time into subtly swinging choruses or funk-accented grooves. He didn't create harmonic motion so much as imply it with partial chords or shifting arpeggios, and his single-note soloing was lyrical enough to iron out angular melodies and wide intervals when necessary.

The veteran guitarist's band mates shone as well. Feldman infused "Wishing Well" with a mixture of rhapsody and whimsy. Johnson, playing a slender upright bass, contributed lovely melodic interludes. And Baron, who wielded brushes and sticks in typically nimble fashion, generated an exhilarating pulse during the Ornette Coleman-penned "Round Trip."

Still, the parts were no match for the whole -- the sound of four musicians conversing with great ease, ingenuity and wit.

-- Mike Joyce

TV on the Radio

As TV on the Radio opened its sold-out two-night stand at the 9:30 club Wednesday, all the parts for a great rock-and-roll show were on display at some point. But rarely at the same time.

The harmonies of lead vocalist Tunde Adebimpe and backup singer/lead guitarist Kyp Malone on "Province" and "I Was a Lover," for example, created a wall of sound not unlike that found on Peter Gabriel's early solo works. And for much of "Young Liars," rhythm guitarist David Sitek strummed his Telecaster at the speed of a hummingbird's wings.

The Brooklyn band also occasionally provided the visual thrills that all great live acts must. During "The Wrong Way," Adebimpe hopped around as if on a pogo stick, all the while whirling his left arm in circles fast enough to make one wonder what his elbow ligaments are made of. When the spirit moved him, Malone, sporting a massive beard and even more massive Afro, launched into a total-body shimmy so smooth that he seemed to be gliding across the stage.

All the band's powers were unleashed on "Wolf Like Me," the most straightforward rocker in the TVOTR songbook and far and away the most exciting performance of the night.

But, alas, given the quality of the ingredients, the high points were in short supply. TVOTR's members often seemed intent on out-artsying their strengths. But one example: Sitek affixed a set of chimes to the headstock of his guitar for "Dreams," and gave up the furious strumming to brush his accessory against the drum kit, a routine that sapped energy with no obvious sonic payoff. And the fans didn't do the band any favors, oozing disinterest whenever the music wasn't moving along at full speed and full volume. During the spaciest portions of "Blind," a psychedelic tune that might best be heard on headphones, more folks in the balcony were facing each other rather than taking in the show.

-- Dave McKenna

Ozomatli

Los Angeles-based Ozomatli is all about breaking down barriers. The group's music sneers at the word "genre," whipping hip-hop, Norteno, rock and funk into a populist polyrhythmic spree. Language barriers? Each of the nine band members gets a turn at the mike, and they sing in Spanish and English. Racial barriers? Please. Ozomatli's lineup is a veritable rainbow coalition. But the barrier they smashed most thrillingly at the end of their aerobic two-hour set at the State Theatre in Falls Church Thursday night was the one between performer and audience.

Kicking off with "City of Angels," from Ozo's new "Don't Mess with the Dragon" LP, the show peaked early, then kept right on peaking: A verse of Grandmaster Melle Mel's "Beat Street" segued into the title track from 2004's Grammy-winning "Street Signs." The brassy "Magnolia Soul" honored the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Singer-guitarist Raul Pacheco invited the packed house to "take the cosmic low-rider to East L.A." for "After Party," a confection that ought to blare from car windows all summer. By the time M.C. Jabu Smith-Freeman jumped up onto the left bar to lead the band through the party anthem "Saturday Night," it seemed the temperature couldn't get any higher.

Closing the set proper, a careening "La Misma Cancion" became a marching-band vamp when the band quit the stage for the floor -- with the sweaty throng surrounding them and the horn players aiming skyward so as not to knock anybody's teeth out as they continued to blow. Those who'd manned electric instruments traded them for tambourines and cowbells, banging out a primal rhythm as they made several slow orbits of the room before concluding the gig from atop the front lobby merchandise tables.

Ozomatli's records sometimes suffer from too-much-all-at-once, but onstage, more is more. What saves the group's merrily ungoverned shows from the dreaded torpor of the jam bands is its demonstrated belief that the way to raise your consciousness is to raise your pulse.

-- Chris Klimek