Adam Rudolph and Friends Explore Sound and Silence

Percussionist Adam Rudolph has been one of the improvisational world’s more adventurous players. He has, for example, worked for many years in tandem with veteran saxophone/woodwind artist Yusef Lateef in a continuing exploration of the cross-cultural linkages between jazz and a variety of world musics.

Rudolph also has performed with, among others, gnawa master Hassan Hakmoun, Indian tabla player Taranath Rao, Gambian kora player and griot Foday Musa Suso, and jazz masters Don Cherry, James Newton and Pharoah Sanders. On Saturday night at the Electric Lodge in Venice, he offered a focused view of his imaginative ideas with “Moving Pictures,” a collaboration with drummer Hamid Drake, multi-woodwind player Ralph Jones and Butoh dancer Oguri.

The music simmered with life, flowing effortlessly through time and space. Apparently progressing via some sort of pre-planned structure, it nonetheless had the feeling of spontaneous invention. And one suspects that a great deal of what occurred did, despite whatever structural elements were present, happen as the result of symbiotic interaction among the players.

Rudolph was generally positioned behind a battery of four tuned drums. But he frequently added thumb piano, African xylophone, hand drums, whistles and his own overtone singing. All of these various sounds, supplemented by Jones’ work on saxophones and flutes, were seamlessly integrated into a rhythmic flow largely driven by Drake’s wonderfully creative use of a fairly standard jazz drum setup.

At times, the music verged toward the avant-garde, with Jones delivering tenor saxophone solos invested with impressive dynamic subtlety. At other times, the music was more undefinable, a syncretic blending of tones, rhythms and timbres from a variety of sources. And in all cases, the ensemble honored the values of both sound and silence, using open space to provide dramatic punctuation within the works’ exposition.

The impact was enhanced by the presence of Oguri, moving in slow, measured fashion, with contained but ever-present emotional intensity, his lithe postures offering a continuing visual corollary to a compelling program of music.