ON THE SCENE WITH HOWARD LONDNER
Jan 10, 2013 – The Triple Door
The Gregg Belisle-Chi Trio
Gregg Belisle-Chi – guitar
Chris Symer – double bass
Evan Woodle – drums
The only problem I have with tonight’s gig was the song list for the first set (three sets total.). Too many mellow songs in a row ( when you’re old like me you want some more excitement.).
About Mr Belisle-Chi… this kid can play! He is very good. If I was all about competition like downbeat or earshot I would vote this kid as one of the up and coming superstars of the Seattle jazz scene.
While the first set was mellow, Gregg always tried to give the songs that all important emotional extra that great musicians do. The next set was great! All the songs were either more up tempo than before, or if as slow or slower than before, much more interesting. That is, most weren’t just tunes, they intricate and more complex pieces to perform and listen to. The same was almost true of the third set, just not as much as the second.
Gregg plays with a lot of skill, always tries new ideas and techniques, always trying to present the music as artfully as possible, always striving for the listener to feel as if Gregg played this music just for him.
Evan Woodle also played great. Always good fills, solos, and accompanying the others. Mr Woodle is a racer session kid. Evan, like Gregg, have both learned all the vocabulary of their art and are writing the verses their way. Good! Because it sounds so good!
Mr Symer really had it all going on tonight. No matter if he was plucking or bowing the bass, he sounded great. His accompanying always insightful, his bass lines always interesting, often making outstanding statements, always harmonizing well, solos, killer great. Chris did more bowing than I’ve heard him do in a gig before. Sounded awesome. Hope he does more
of it.
I want to write about this one song of the second set, Ornette Coleman’s Lonely Woman. Their presentation was knock out, light’s out, everybody else can pack up their stuff and go home. It seemed as if the three (I’m not a musician and I might be getting this wrong.) were playing at different tempos, so the trio was like a polyrhythm all it’s own, everybody serving up the music a little differently, all together. Yeah, man! That’s the best kind of jazz!
Thank you Gregg, Evan, and Chris