Concert Review: Joey Alexander / Joe Barna & Sketches of Influence @ Music Haven (Proctors Rain Site), 07/16/2023

Joey Alexander is a tough act to follow, even for Joey Alexander. 

Since playing his astounding 2015 debut show at Music Haven in his teens, the Bali-born jazz pianist celebrated his birthday onstage at SPAC, among other area shows, and returned to Music Haven Sunday (in Proctors, the rain site) as a multiple Grammy nominee, a star. 

Alexander’s rocket-trajectory echoes “Little” Stevie Wonder, a wonder right out of the box, with a second act as dazzling as his first. The “Little” also fits; coming onstage Sunday at Proctors, Alexander seemed slight as the umbrella I surprisingly didn’t have to use coming or going from the downtown theater.

Like Wonder’s, Alexander’s talent has deepened since his first fame. His songs tell stories whose compelling musical logic rings so clear that everyone can follow along, no small feat in modern jazz, where abstraction often rules. 

As in songs to come, Alexander launched the opening “Downtime” (an original) alone in a gospel-y blues mode that grew funk wings when bassist Alexander Claffy and drummer Kendrick Scott joined to build it big and boisterous. The standard “Stella By Starlight” got a way-above-standard reading, again taking off from Alexander’s solitary piano. Many players speed up “Stella;” Alexander slowed it down, emphasizing a relaxed, swinging bass-and-drums handshake.

When Alexander paused to announce those two tunes, I spotted guitarist Bert Pagano across the aisle from me, playing in the ace Albany fusion band Downtime.

We’ve seen Alexander upgrade his bands over time, and this trio has jelled in a short time into an intuitive, supportive unit. Scott made seriously gorgeous tones from his drums, while Claffy played with sensitivity and strength at every tempo. As advanced for his age in his taste as Alexander has always been for speed and harmonic sophistication, he never overplayed and let the songs sing their own stories. They came into the audience’s emotional space and took us somewhere else.

For example, his original “Bali” was all soft-spoken grace, a quiet reverie of home that the band decorated with a gentle dialog of piano and bass.

Joe Henderson’s jittery “Inner Urge” was the opposite, a pulsating groove that grew kinetic bursts as Alexander stood for more power, pounding repeating phrases. Nobody plays with more sheer physical abandon than Hiromi (awe-inspiring with her sonicwonder band at Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival last month), but Alexander really pumped this one.

Then the peaceful “Promise of Spring” let us catch our breath, Scott playing softly with hands and brushes until the end when he and Alexander sharpened the edges of things. “Warna” hit somewhere in between, Alexander leaving gaps with a stop-and-go cadence at the (under-used?) electric piano as Scott filled in the blanks until a hard stop.

“Remembering” took things up again, a restless groove tune that briefly quoted a Miles Davis “In a Silent Way” number. I couldn’t tell who started it, but everybody instantly boarded it, and off they flew. Riffs echoed and answered each other as Alexander again stood to flex and flow.

After the briefest of breaks, before the standing ovation faded, Alexander encored with Thelonious Monk’s sweet “‘Round Midnight.” Maybe the master’s best-known number surely belonged to Alexander on Sunday.

Troy-born drummer/composer Joe Barna opened with his muscular quartet in original tunes honoring heroes, family, friends, and band-mates.

A Place for Jazz impresario and WCDB Jazz DJ Bill McCann introduced Barna, noting his extra-vivid shirt. Barna’s emphatic you-can-see-it-from-Troy lime-green hue aptly predicted the colorful music he drove from behind his drum kit and spurred saxophonist Thom Avella, pianist Ian McDonald, and bassist Tarik Shah in forceful forward motion. 

They listened closely to each other and responded; the music felt conversational, intimate.

“The Heights” saluted Washington Heights, where Barna met his partner (now co-parent). “A Joyful Gathering” hailed both friend and all-purpose jazz booster Leslie Hyland and Music Haven spark plug Mona Golub, McDonald at his most lyrical here. Shah propelled “Gathering” with a gleaming solo and otherwise was the rock he always is. (A week with two Shah shows is good; he led his own trio at Jazz on Jay last Thursday.) “Thom hom” gave Avella extra space to shine, and he did, with a pretty tone and phrasing as fluid as McDonald’s. “Suite Lee” exalted the memory of the late, great Lee Shaw,” gleaming with love for the departed pianist. Here McDonald slid in and out of a poignant blues feel like Shaw did. “The Mandate,” a driving hard-bop number, earned a standing ovation as Barna clearly enjoyed exerting plenty of muscle. Busy and aggressive, Barna nonetheless gave everybody some space.

The Joe Barna Quartet (same crew as at Proctors Sunday) plays Thursday at Alias Coffee Coffee Roasters (219 4th St., Troy). 7:30 p.m. (917) 246-8248 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/joe-barna-quartet-at-alias-coffee-roasters-tickets-662467757897. Barna recorded his new “The Calling” album at Alias in January.

Photo Gallery of Joey Alexander by Rudy Lu

Photo Gallery of Joe Barna by Rudy Lu