Matthias Lupri Group - Boston, MA

[Gentle Giant]

During its last week of classes this past week, Berklee staged a percussion festival. Last night, Friday, June 29, was Matthias Lupri Group. Having enthusiastically reviewed his latest CD, Metalix, in the Record Review thread, I was eager to see him perform this newer, more experimental music live.

He did not disappoint.

Keeping the rhythm players from that album - the phenomenal drummer Jordan Perlson, excellent bassist Thomson Kneeland, and a guitarist you really have to see to believe, Nate Radley - Matthias added the wonderful percussionist/Berklee prof Jamey Haddad, and front and center the great George Garzone on tenor and soprano.

This unit cooked from the get-go.

Most of the program was drawn from Metalix. They opened with the two cuts that open the album, "Metalix: IV: Prelude", and "Wondering & Wandering". The former featured some atmospheric electronics and Matthias using a bow on his vibes, which produced a moody drone effect. Shifting into "W&W", the group began to kick some butt. Perlson is a driver and instigator. When he wants you to kick your solo up, you better respond or he'll play over you. Fortunately, his instincts in terms of when to push the dynamics is good. Garzone took lovely solos all night. I love how he builds solos; they are narrative in nature, he really does tell stories with his horn. No real pyrotechnics, and in some of the more "out" pieces he seemed a little hesitant, but he was solid throughout (and sight-read the whole program!).

In my CD review, I noted that Matthias is very generous, and he is onstage as well. Much of the time, he is content to paint swirls of colors for his other bandmates to work with. When he does feature himself, though, he is electric. He takes quite a playful approach to the vibes, coaxing delightful little patterns at times, then unleashing as if his mallets had been wound tight and now were spinning happily free.

Perlson and Haddad played like a single, four-armed unit. At one point, they were playing together so tightly that they were playing successive short parts of a pattern with the effect that if you closed your eyes you would think it was just one drummer drumming. During either "(another) Lost Creek" or "Glass Stairs", the front line and the percs were trading 4s in a neat way. It went Matthias -> Perlson -> Garzone -> Haddad, three or four times.

In my CD review, I was least impressed by Radley. In concert, I got to see just what amazing chops he has. However, I still feel that there isn't much room for him in this group's arrangements. Most of the time, he was just playing echoey chords in the background, and there were stretches of the concert when I almost forgot he was there. Think of it: the tone colors of a jazz guitar and a vibraphone aren't all that far apart, and so when both Matthias and Radley are doing chordal comping for Garzone or whomever, there's a certain sonic redundancy. You tend to pay more attention to Lupri, and Radley gets lost in the group sound unless and until he solos. Like I said, he's a great player, but I'm not sure this group has a place for him.

Just my opinion.

There were only three tunes in the 90-minute program that were not from Metalix. One was "Moonlamps", from 1999's Shadow of the Vibe, which featured Garzone. Another was from Transition Sonic, and the third was an intriguing piece by Haddad in which he ran a loop on which he stacked short patterns on a variety of percussion instruments, each time rendering the whole more complex, and which became the evolving backdrop for the group's improvisation.

Garzone played about half the night on tenor, the other half (generally the freer, more group improv sections) on soprano. I have to say I enjoy him more on tenor but he's such a great player every note has meaning so matter what he's playing.

In sum, the Matthias Lupri Group is for real. Don't miss 'em if they come to your town.