DAVE PIETRO, MATT PAVOLKA, and TONY MORENO @ Bar Next Door, July 31, 2009
JULY 31, 2009 -- MANHATTAN: I walked into the Bar Next Door half past midnight as Dave Pietro, Tony Moreno and Matt Pavolka were launching into their second set. There were only 10 or so people in the room, stragglers from what I hope was a packed first set. These guys deserved a full room, but it didn't seem to matter. They played as though people were squeezed in there right up to the bandstand (which was just a section of the floor in the small restaurant-bar, separated by a row of tables). The band being on the level (literally) with the audience was just one of the many elements at worked towards bringing the set to this particular place of comfort and spontaneous excitement.
These elements are important, and often overlooked, but should be sought out. They add up to a deliberate, demanding and unavoidable connection between a band and its audience, even if it's only three listeners for every performer. Aside from the unconventional band setup in a space so small, the room was dark, the musicians themselves no brighter than the bartender. The cover was cheap, and it was too late for anyone to really worry about what else they were going to do with their night. Drummer Tony Moreno's instrument setup was as modest as they come, a converted floor tom acting as a tiny kick drum, a snare, a hi hat, and one ride cymbal. Although Dave Pietro was the band-leader, he only let it show with little glances and the naming of tunes before they were played. The energy in the room was communal, the players eyes on each other, changing with each other, playing with each other, as a well seasoned group should. This was also the first time these three musicians ever performed together. These facts sum up to the ultimate welcome mat, the reason this night felt special: no pretense. There was nothing in the room to give an audience member the feeling of "Oh, this is what I'm going to get. I know this." Not a single clue to be found. If you were in Bar Next Door that night, you had no choice but to let the music bowl you over.
Dave Pietro would call tunes on the spot, and the band demonstrated truly how to take music written in history and make it their own. Jazz standards such as Wayne Shorter's United, Alone Together, and a gorgeous Thelonious Monk ballad were all taken, presented, and torn apart by the group. Pietro has a way of respecting the original composition, while still allowing his raw improvisatory navigations to make the piece and the performance entirely his own. He can play hundreds of notes within minutes and make you care about each one, and then have no fear of following that with the same note twenty times in a row. Moreno and Pavolka held their own in the sea of new ideas and first times, communicating with each other as a group. Moreno is a menace of a drummer, firing off machine gun snare rolls, and able to flip the rhythm on it's back, kick it while it's down, then yank it up and back into formation. Between that and Pavolka's strutting bass lines and quick responses to Pietro's motions, the rhythm section developed this amazing loose-but-tight agenda, which didn't let a listener drift off, even for a second.
To close the night, and put the icing of the pretense-less cake of a show, Dave Pietro only had these few, honest words to prepare the room for the band's final number: "We're gonna go out with a blues. And it's gonna be fast."
