A Promising Young Trio at the Joe Henderson Lab

Last night the Joe Henderson Lab on the ground floor of the SFJAZZ Center presented a program in a series called Artists on the Rise, launched by SFJAZZ Education. The “mission statement” for this program describes is objective “to showcase a new generation of cutting-edge talent, from undiscovered Bay Area treasures to young artists on the national scene.” Last night’s program included a jazz piano trio whose progress definitely deserves to be followed.

Pianist Chris McCarthy clearly commands a wide diversity of styles and a highly imaginative capacity for inventive improvisation. He also knows how to let his fellow trio members have more than a fair say in the matter. Drummer Jongkuk Kim has a solid command of polyrhythmic disciplines, as well as a keen sense of how each of his instruments can contribute patterns of pitch. This makes him just as inventive as McCarthy, seeking out his inventions on his own unique plane of discourse. Finally, there is the bass work of Kanoa Mendenhall. While, for the most part, she provided “continuo duty” last night, she had a couple of occasions to unfold and elaborate a few melodic lines of her own. My guess is that she has enough in her knapsack to sustain a full solo set of her own invention.

The only bad news about this situation is that the trio was there for backup, rather than as the “main attraction.” They were performing behind Sasha Berliner in vibraphone; and, as might be assumed, Berliner had “top billing” for the evening. All the pieces were her original compositions, some from her debut album Gold and the rest from Azalea, which has been scheduled for release this coming September.

Sadly, Berliner’s capacity for invention came across as rather pale in the context of the rich colors unfolding in the trio behind her. She also explored the use of “concrete” sounds controlled through her laptop, which gave little indication of any connection to the music. (Since no titles were announced, there may have been a connection to the words in the title.) Technically, Berliner had a solid command of her instrument, but her improvisations tended to orbit around a rather limited set of tropes. As a result, by the time her one-hour set had hit the halfway mark, there was an uneasy sense that what would subsequently come from her would be “more of the same.”

When it comes to tracking “cutting-edge talent,” my own preferences will tend towards McCarthy, Kim, and Mendenhall, each of whom has the potential to put out a thoroughly satisfying solo set and each of whom knows how to contribute to a dynamite trio.