Paul Sikivie is an amazing bass player. As the Gainesville Sun article (in the post link) explains, Sikivie has a great jazz education and a lot of experience under his belt for such a young musician. The Gainesville Friends of Jazz and The Thomas Center were recently lucky enough to host an evening with Sikivie and two other extremely talented young musicans, creatively dubbed "The Paul Sikivie Trio."
The New York City based Paul Sikivie Trio consists of Sikivie on bass, Aaron Diehl on piano, and Lawrence Leathers on drums. Individually these three are each very talented, but together they are a more than the sum of their parts. The combination is a handsome, young, energetic, and tight ensemble.
The setting for the show was very mellow. There was a small crowd nestled in the cozy atrium of The Thomas Center. It could easily have been billed as "An intimate evening with The Paul Sikivie Trio." I didn't make it to the show in time for any introduction, but as soon as I took my seat it was readily apparent that the talent of this group was much larger than the audience there to support them.
From the first note to the last, the most pronounced features of the music were a strong sense of whimsy and superlative individual talent from each member. The whimsical quality came out numerous times, bringing a humorous tone into the songs which pulled the audience closer to the music in a much more gratifying way than predictable passages based solely on technical skill. The solos weren't a dizzying flurry of fingers and drumsticks, but ranged from simple to highly technical while providing a great depth of rhythm and melody. Dynamic swells and subtle shifts in style from phrase to phrase made literally every solo worth clapping for.
The group succeeded in making music that not only displayed their ability to play with a level of skill that is rare, but also in making truly entertaining music that engaged their audience. Going into the performance one fear of mine was that either the group would present an extremely avant-garde session, completely inaccessible to the small-town audience, or that they would play watered-down elevator jazz standards meant to entertain a group of totally naive listeners, like scientists playing nursery rhymes for a room full of orangutans.
I'm not a very experienced jazz listener, so I'll be the first to admit that I can't fully appreciate much of what happens in good jazz. I can say though, that what the trio actually presented was probably somewhere in-between high-brow, inaccessible jazz and the "Jazz for Dummies" version. There weren't any sounds that could be described as really experimental, but they steered well clear of the elevator genre as well. I would have enjoyed perhaps a little more experiment with grooves and playing around with meter, more of a freestyle jam at times. I would love to hear what would come out of a jam session with these three musicians deep, like Mariana Trench deep, into a groove. However, remaining fairly straight, and away from a total jam wasn't necessarily a mistake because the arrangements were clean and good, never completely expected, and always fun. There were good, tight passages with substantial groove a number of times. Sikivie brought together a lively mix of well written arrangements that flowed well. I would love to hear a collection of jazz standards arranged by Sikivie and performed by this group.
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The skinny:
* Pros: Great Jazz, Cheap, Right here in Gainesville
* Cons: You missed it
Make an Assessment:
I am still very impressed by this performance. I haven't seen any good jazz ensembles in a couple years and this was a fantastic surprise for the Gainesville jazz scene. Thank you to Gainesville Friends of Jazz for pulling this together.
As The Paul Sikivie Trio is based in New York, be sure to try and check out Paul Sikivie, Aaron Diehl, or Lawrence Leathers if you're in the city. You will not be disappointed by any of these three awesome young musicians.
Overall Review Score (I haven't figured out how I want to do this yet):
* Grade: A
* Score: 95%
* If it were a movie: ★★★★★
* My Feelings: "I wish I had practiced more when I still had musical potential. These guys are awesome. I want to start a jazz jam. Where'd I stash all my Mingus LPs?"
Bonus points also to Mr. Sikivie for acknowledging his mother during the performance. It takes character to stand in front of a room full of people, a grown man, and thank your parents before playing a song specifically for your mom. Speaking as a true Mama's boy, I know my mom would have been proud.
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