On Sunday night, Oberlin College students, faculty and residents gathered in the Cat in the Cream Coffeehouse for a musical performance titled “Jazz in the Sacred and Sacrilegious.” The show featured Vivek Mathew on piano, Martin Greenberg on bass and Casey Haskins on drums and tablas.
Midway through the show, Mathew told the audience, “Theology is often said to say the least wrong thing about God. Music does the same thing without words. The sublime and ecstatic elements of rapture can be captured and universally communicated through music in ways which religion cannot.”
The evening’s set showcased pieces which contained accidental or overt messages of a spiritual nature. The show lasted over two hours with an intermission, wherein the trio performed pieces by Mathew, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans among others.
With the house lights dimmed, the stage lights low, and plenty of the Cat’s famous oatmeal raisin cookies and tea going around, the evening’s atmosphere was reminiscent of a Greenwich Village late night jazz bar. Adding to the mellow feel, in a gentle and warm voice, Mathew gave various background anecdotes pertaining to the pieces throughout the show. He also took a moment to nod and pray toward the keyboard at the beginning and end of each selection.
The Oberlin appearance marked a kind of homecoming for the group. Mathew was raised in a small town outside of Columbus, Ohio. His mother and father were both in the audience. Interestingly enough, the trio has only been performing together for a few months. Mathew describes Haskins as a longtime friend. The two met a number of years ago when Mathew was a liberal arts student at Princeton University and the two were studying in Princeton’s jazz program. Haskins is a philosophy professor at SUNY Purchase and was on sabbatical at the time. The two reconnected three years ago after bumping into each other on the streets in New York City. Mathew recently met Toledo-based bassist Marty Greenberg through mutual mentor Gene Parker, an experienced saxophone player from the area. As a collective, the group currently plays gigs around the New York area.
The set opened with a mid-tempo rendition of “Nardis” by Miles Davis. Haskins deftly maneuvered between the tablas and drums, hammering out the time while adding numerous fills. Mathew’s playing was controlled and precise, laying down the chords with his left hand, and playing Monk-inspired single note phrases with his right.
The second piece was a Thelonious Monk number, which further served to evoke the musical style of its composer. A bass solo by Greenberg was short, but melodically tasteful and effective. The audience seemed to appreciate the trio’s enthusiasm and professional command of their instruments. “I understand the illusions they create when they quote various tunes,” Columbus resident Julian Halliday said, “Like in one song, there was a Kurt Vile excerpt, but the song wasn’t a Kurt Vile tune. Taking quotes from one piece and trying to show a connection is what jazz is all about!”
“Come Sunday,” described as the first “sacrilegious” piece of the evening, was light and free-floating. Haskins again displayed a lot of energy, switching between brushes and drumsticks mid-song. Greenberg added cool colors on bass, stretching the parameters of his melodic improvisation with numerous lines outside the given chord changes. The piece ended dramatically with Mathew running up and down the keyboard and Haskins’s rapid-fire drum beating.
The trio clearly shined on Mathew’s original compositions. The first, “Cross Currents,” featured rolling piano arpeggios and lots of modal chord flourishes. The piano was playing in an interested syncopation with the bass and drums lending the song a polyrhythmic feeling. The B-section was a refreshing change in rhythm and melody, with its strong Latin and Bossa Nova influences. The audience elicited applause and shouts at the conclusion of the song.
The highlight of the evening may have been a funk interpretation of “Love for Sale.” Before playing the song, Mathew likened the group’s eclectic rendition to his wearing a traditional North Indian Mogul robe despite his South Indian heritage. He described the consummate jazz artist as one who is willing to “wear other people’s clothes musically.” The piece featured a funky bass line and a taut drum groove. When Mathew stood for a portion of the piece to play the keyboard with his left hand and strum the insides of the baby grand with his right, the audience appeared amused. “I like funk, and the song tended towards that, but not abrasively so,” sophomore Maitreya Levanchild said.
Other highlights included a version of Jule Styne’s bouncy play-fest, “Make Someone Happy,” dedicated to Mathew’s mother. A haunting Rachmaninoff-inspired original, “Judas,” featured an impressive piano introduction and found the group in the peak of its collaborative efforts. Thematically, “Judas” dealt with the hypothetical psychological struggles faced by the infamous biblical character. A fun Bill Evans-esque “My Funny Valentine” closed out the show, prompting raucous applause from the attentive audience.