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DON BYRON QUARTET
MILES AND SMILES
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The Don Byron Quartet at the Regattabar a week ago Thursday was a one-off event, but it didn’t sound that way. Byron is touring behind his latest Blue Note CD, Ivey-Divey, which is roughly a tribute to the horn-piano-drums recordings of Lester Young, with Byron joined by pianist Jason Moran and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Byron has played some dates with that band, but at the Regattabar he was joined by long-time associates Dave Fiuczynski on guitar, bassist Lonnie Plaxico (who also appears on the album), and drummer Ralph Peterson. The second set on Thursday was at once as loose and as tight as you could ask for. Byron, playing his clarinet seated (and wearing a jaunty red sherpa hat) opened a cappella, sketching melodic fragments from a series of intervals, then building longer lines, dipping into his lower register for some deep, burbling tones before repeating the opening two-note rhythmic figure of Miles Davis’s "Freddie Freeloader." With the tune always in sight, the rhythm section pitched and yawed freely on the time, Plaxico stepping in and out of a straight walk, Fiuczynski playing comping chords in tempo or not, Peterson constantly playing against Plaxico’s expectations and drawing a steady smile from the bassist. Fiuczynski took a solo on a fretless electric guitar that alternated angular single-note patterns, whinnying Hawaiian tremolo effects, and bursts of single-note runs. Plaxico’s solo was just as unpredictable, mixing off-beat walking figures and abstract flurries in the upper register. By now, Byron had moved to tenor sax. The tune ended after 20 minutes, and Peterson immediately moved into another figure. "What’s he playing?" Byron asked Plaxico, then turned to Peterson, "What the fuck are you playing? Unable to beat him, Byron joined Peterson on a lengthy roiling duet based on "I’ve Got Rhythm" changes. Peterson was a marvel all night, playing with a 32-bar form like Byron’s good-humored "Lefty Teachers at Home" or "I’ve Found a New Baby" by suspending the time with out-of-tempo rolls and patterns before falling into cadence at the turn-around (more smiles from Plaxico) or playing in unison with Byron’s melody. He ended an extended solo on "I’ve Found a New Baby" by quoting the melody on his drums. On Miles’s "In a Silent Way" he even moved to trumpet, doing credible impersonations with Harmon mute and open horn after setting up the hi-hat/rim-shot funk rhythm. (His friend Dave Cowan came out of the audience to keep time while Peterson played trumpet.) Byron, meanwhile, was relaxed, avoiding his sometime tendency to overblow into his shrieking register and holding his own against Peterson’s thunder. He even did his own Miles impersonation, rasping "Teo! Teo!" while Fiuczynski hit the wah-wah and Peterson blew.
BY JON GARELICK
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