Concert Review: The Michael Dessen Trio Featuring Chris Tordini and Dan Weiss at le Grand Dakar, Brooklyn NY 3/19/09

by Vanessa Lee Raymond

 

Piece #1

 

They start us off slow,

A flag reaching half-mast.

On this grey day

The composition like weaving

In and out, and slow to build

Bringing a layer of murky surreal to the atmosphere

We’d been swimming and shivering through all day.

 

 

Piece #2

 

We get a blast of electronic but again there are underwater sounds

Dessen finally creates a sound he’s happy with and then he loops

It’s like crickets and frogs on a particularly damp night

But soon the dynamics are staggering

A low sweet bow line below

A crashing cymbal above

Calculated fluidity, they paw their scores like abacists

A slow bead of sweat trickles down Michael’s face

You can see it in the dark.

Usually he blasts us out of the water, ferocious and deft.

Today he is a different man.

He presses firmly into a sweet and piercing note then floats gently down.

 

At times it seems they lose the thread

But they don’t

I lose the thread

And they continue on.

 

 

Piece #3

 

My spicy fish sandwich with fried yucca arrives.

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