2008 Woodie Awards
Humboldt State Gets Jazzy
Kiefer, Sally
Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: Music
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Melford played with an ensemble consisting of Marty Erlich on saxophone and clarinet, Mark Dresser on bass, and Matt Wilson on drums. They were invited here by The Redwood Jazz Alliance, a group that has been working to bring great jazz to its fans since Sept. 2006.
Paula Yoon, a local woman who is a jazz fan, said, "Jazz is tight and so together. And then they cut loose and the muse takes over and they see what happens. After that, they come back together again and are whole."
This is what Melford's group does. They are real jokers, but exact in their play. Bass player Mark Dresser plays warm, full tones with a bow, bowing more than one string for a complex sound. He keeps experimenting and acting out strange acrobatics with his bow or fingers. He uses his fingernails to vibrate on the strings. He makes the bass screech and then sound like a didgeridoo.
His playing is hypnotic. There are moments of almost perfect quiet and the bass sounds like buzzing bees. He gets some awkward noises out of the bass. He plays many notes in a melodic way with the rest of the group and then they break into total freaky madness, playing a mix of wild and surprising tones, that feels like a waterfall of chaotic colors.
In a moment of scrambling madness, Melford uses her hand or whole arm to pound on the piano. There are intense changes of dynamics. The bass and drum go from drilling in one single note that transforms into a simple groove into the full head of a melody. Then some new crazy improvisation starts again among the whole group.
Sarah Spears, a Humboldt State student who plays the trumpet, attended the show. "No one overpowered anyone. They were having a good time," she said. "I was really impressed with the bass player."
Melford looks like a mad pixie, sometimes springing off the piano bench. Both her feet bounce high in the air when she plays a groove. The crowd has all eyes on her. She is petite and flamboyant. As one person in the crowd said, she looks like a jumping spider.
The drummer at one point plays only the cymbals. He plays one like it is an om bowl, the metal bowl used in Tibetan ceremonies that rings as a stick is drawn around its edge. Wilson uses his sticks in ways you don't usually see. He uses both ends of the sticks to hit the drums and cymbals grasping the sticks in the middle and flipping his wrists back and forth. He waves his brushes in the air at the mike to make a swooshing sound to compliment the bass during a solo.
There is skilled interplay between each of the members of the group. Erlich wails a traditional jazz riff on the sax or clarinet while Melford picks out random piano chords with weighted coolness. Erlich gets showy with the sax, muting the bell on his leg and pulling it away in a wild motion. He moves the horn all around as he plays and honks crazy notes out at the drummer, ending a frenetic rambling.
The Redwood Jazz Alliance started as a group of friends that went to see shows in the city. They had the idea to invite musicians to play here when traveling between San Francisco and Portland. Eric Neel, one of the founders of the organization, said, "We just made a list of artists we like in San Francisco, New York, and Europe. We wrote to them and told them there's an audience here. That it's not a big scene but that they'd be appreciated."
The Redwood Jazz Alliance is a non-profit group and has received much support from local businesses, especially Wildberries and local radio and newspapers. They are working up a Web site and Web log. A special feature of The Redwood Jazz Alliance is to offer a free masterclass and workshop from the musicians, the day after their concert.
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