Kris Davis’ Diatom Ribbons, Sylvie Courvoisier’s Poppy Seeds and the righteous Wrens fire up 60th Jazzfest Berlin

“I often wonder if Miles Davis were alive now, what would he be playing? I don’t think it’d be stuff like the Lincoln Center are doing… I think he’d be something like this,” so posited trumpeter/surrealist MC Ryan Easter with his coruscatingly heavy duty modular-synth-meets-jazz quartet, Wrens. The latter foursome are comprised of febrile virtuoso keys man Elias Stemeseder – who alternated between modular synth, keys and piano – grinding synth bass/cellist Lester St. Louis and the fractious drumming of Jason Nazary. The hour-long continuous electronic-goop of their sound matched droning sub bass, glitchy crunches and heavily altered harmonies, that while frequently static provided jagged jumping off points for Easter’s blistering trumpet playing. Stemesedar too would stretch between acoustic piano and synth to throw clusters of runs over the boiling mass of musical magma. A kind of improvised sonic Black Mirror, Wrens soundtrack the multiple global schisms of our times.

This set was one of the late night shows at the Quasimodo club, as part of this year’s Jazzfest Berlin’s 60th anniversary programme, and Easter’s provocative question about how jazz responds to the present – either by embracing or ignoring our dystopian age – is something that one couldn’t help but reflect upon on the wider programme. 

Happily Canadian pianist Kris Davis’ superb Diatom Ribbons harmoniously blend heart and head, and thanks to a very welcome appearance by Terri Lyne Carrington, alongside excellent local bassist Nick Dunston and the guileful electronics of Val Jeanty, they created acoustic-electric jazz with bite. With Carrington in relaxed and magisterial, and Davis fired up in a criss-crossing dialogue, Dunston responding emphatically, it was the ‘F’ factor, yes fun, that proved the differential and made for a truly outstanding set.

Across town at the A-Trane venue, thrills aplenty were present in drummer Devin Gray’s Melt All The Guns II – his trio with Ralph Alessi’s acerbic trumpet peppering the upper register while astonishing pianist Myslaure Augustin was a revelation. Matching freedom with form was key to their cohesion as well as Devin’s boiling. Spacious writing, melodies often fractured but weighty, Gray’s dynamic control all encompassing, each member mirrored each other’s timbre and mood in a circular dialogue. The drummer’s warm smiles betraying the undercurrent of joy in their music.

French pianist Sylvie Courvoisier also channelled elemental virtuosity, while her telepathic rapport with extraordinary vibist Patrica Brennan created another memorable showing at the Festspiele. The pianist’s leaping clusters of notes are rooted in her own distinctively spiky harmonic language and rhythmic sense, which, combined with the artful precision of Dan Weiss’s drumming and a forceful central role for the usually demurring Thomas Morgan’s bass and you have one hell of a band. Brennan often made notes sound rich and synth-like, or shimmer in waves, Courvoisier also bowing or plucking strings inside the piano or tapping the sides to make it sound like the hull of a ship, on a performance that floated effortlessly over hidden depths.

Ultra-exuberant festival closers Otomo Yoshihide Special Big Band, matched virtuoso energy, rock-gig volume and irreverent humour with jazz, prog and traditional big band sounds. Powerful solos coalesced with avant garde edginess in contrast to accessible, knowingly cheesy, themes, individual band members jumping up and gesticulating to conduct theatrically. There’s even room for a peppy take on Aretha’s ‘Say A Little Prayer’ that sealed the deal with the already enthusiastic crowd. Yet, things are already moving in more radically unhinged ways among the next generation of players, such as Trio Oùat at Quasimodo. Taking maximalist jazz into uncharted territory, pianist Simon Sieger gave a manically intense performance. Backed by grooving bassist Joel Grip and drummer Michael Griener, the threesome shifted from boiling Cecil Taylor-esque wildness to Sieger’s screaming spoken word protest poem/song (his righteous anger cheered on by the crowd), before switching to a bamboo flute jig, then Tuvan throat singing… of course. Sixty years on and Jazzfest Berlin is still delivering surprises – and that’s testimony to its continued success. Miles would have dug it too.