What to Do Tonight: Drew Gress at Jazz Standard
Hot on the heels of releasing his delightfully head-scrambling album, The Irrational Numbers, bassist [Drew Gress] and his Seven Black Butterlies quintet hit the [Jazz Standard](http://jazzstandard.net/red/secondary/jazzCalendar.html). As the new album shows, Gress sure can get a band to go full-throttle into the swirl of improvisation. But that alone doesnt lift Numbers above the ever-present din of downtown experimental jazz. Not only does Gress have a knack for melody – which he throws you like a line off the side of a boat, so that no matter how much the structures may gnash and twist, youve always got something to hang onto – his underlying focus lies in composition. Which means that, as the structure of the music dissolves, theres an invisible blueprint holding it up at all times. On Numbers, Gress and company hit on a fire that blazes but also comforts at the same time – in contrast to other jazz units that tend to just try to tear your face off. Gress is so attuned to interplay and its relationship to composition that hed be great to see in any format, but this show is all the more appealing because Seven Black Butterflies is the same exact band that appears on the album. Not unlike master jazz bassist Dave Holland or even Miles Davis, Gress knows how to work with his instrument to serve the music as a whole while really pushing the other musicians to kick up clouds of dust. In other words: not for bassists only -- and not to be missed, as tonight marks Gresss only scheduled appearance until a musicians workshop in April.
Wed. 3/26 at the Jazz Standard, 116 E 27th St, 212-576-2232; 7:30 & 9:30, $20.