Shortcuts – Courvoisier/Rothenberg/Waits

Running time: 90 minutes 

Sylvie Courvoisier, piano; Ned Rothenberg, klarinet, alto saxophone, shakuhachi, shakuhachi; Nasheet Waits, drums

Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, multi-reedist Ned Rothenberg and drummer Nasheet Waits – New York City’s renowned and sought-after improvisers – have convened to form Shortcuts, a collectively-led trio, informed by the progressive jazz tradition from Ornette to Zorn (not to mention modernist chamber music and cross-cultural approaches). 

With Shortcuts, abstraction is tempered by earthiness, while experimental textures are imbued with rhythmic depth and harmonic free flight, imparting groove and melody to the music while swerving to avoid cliché. “Winds, piano, drums make for a relatively uncommon trio, but not having a bass player gives Ned and me more room to play in the lower register, just as it gives Nasheet more freedom with his bass drum,” Courvoisier said, describing the trio’s interplay. She performed at the Cankarjevi Torki Series two years ago with her “core” trio – featuring bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen – but the fact that Shortcuts operates as a truly egalitarian trio makes this upcoming lineup even more exciting and unpredictable.

Courvoisier, born and raised in Switzerland but now a fully naturalised New Yorker, leads multiple groups, including her electric, atmospheric Chimaera ensemble and the quartet Almathea, featuring Patricia Brennan, the vibraphonist who performed at our summer Jazz Festival Ljubljana with her septet. Beyond the quartet, the two artists also collaborate as a duo – a creative format central to Courvoisier’s artistic voice, as seen in her notable pairings with guitarist Mary Halvorson and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith.
Rothenberg – a virtuoso on the clarinet, alto saxophone and shakuhachi flute – has been hailed as a sonic innovator by DownBeat, L.A. Weekly and The Boston Globe. Along with being praised by The New York Times for the “near-religious focus” of his solo performances, his roster of collaborators includes Evan Parker, John Zorn, Sainkho Namtchylak and Katsuya Yokoyama.

A long-standing fixture among New York City’s most in-demand drummers, Waits is renowned for his signature fire and flair, as well as his deep rhythmic ingenuity, with which he delivers “what the music itself needed” while always introducing an element of unpredictability. He is a member of several ensembles, including The Bandwagon with Jason Moran, Third Eye and Blood Brothers with Abraham Burton, and Tarbaby, with which he performed last year at the Jazz Festival Ljubljana alongside guest artist David Murray.

Characterising the group’s appeal, Rothenberg says: “Some bands work off unity of sound, but this band operates with three distinct sound worlds, stylistically and sonically, that interact. Sylvie has a classical sensibility, and I have more of a world-music sensibility, so it’s fun for Nasheet – he can venture into a different vocabulary than with a more typical free-jazz improvising trio. And for the audience, they are sort of eavesdropping on what we hope is an interesting, intimate conversation among three sympathetic artists.”