Jim Gilchrist: Animal or painter, Hoenig's Christmas bash is set to leave a lasting Impression

Published on Tuesday 8 December 2009 20:07

JAZZ International rings out the old year not so much with a jingle of bells as with a well-timed percussion barrage as the promotion agency brings the Ari Hoenig Trio to Edinburgh and Glasgow this week. One of the most distinguished drummers on the jazz scene, the American will be playing with a regular band-mate, the similarly New York-based Israeli guitarist Gilad Hekselman and the much-in-demand young Scots double-bassist Euan Burton.

At 36, Hoenig has established a reputation as an intensely creative drummer and composer, as well as an educator, and a musician who is as concerned with tone and texture as much as rhythm and pulse, using his kit rather as an Impressionist artist uses his palette – appropriately enough, one of his albums of recent years was called The Painter. "Sideman" is not a term which comes readily to mind in association with Hoenig, and one jazz commentator has described him as "a disconcerting phenomenon of the drums". Another reviewer at a recent concert likened him to "a cross between Animal (of The Muppet Show] and Max Roach".

"I do like to get the most out of any piece of music," he comments, speaking from his home in New York. "It's fairly dense, I guess. There's going to be a lot of things for the listener to latch on to. I'd be surprised if they were bored," he adds, with affable understatement.

So far as the Scottish concerts – at The Lot, Edinburgh, tomorrow and Glasgow City Halls Recital Room on Friday – are concerned, audiences can expect plenty of high-tension on-stage dialogue between the three players, with dramatic tonal contrast. "We'll be really feeding off each other, like a conversation. That's the way we play all the time – to have a conversation, to have fun, really."

When it comes to bringing the drum kit to the fore, he says: "I don't really believe in anybody staying a sideman. Everybody should have an equal voice up there."

He played in Scotland, again with Burton, a year or so ago, and after the Glasgow and Edinburgh gigs the trio moves on to France and Estonia. Both Hoenig and Hekselman, along with saxophonist Martin Kershaw, appear on the forthcoming album from Burton and pianist Tom Gibbs (of the Raymond Scott Project), expected to appear in January and provisionally titled "Forgotten Things". Hoenig goes into the studio himself in the new year to record his next album, though he's keeping the identities of his collaborators on that one close to his chest.

Considering he can be found stirring things up in such esteemed company as Joshua Redman, Kenny Werner, Mike Stern – or indeed, the Jazz Mandolin Project – or stretching the potential of the unadorned drum kit in his own solo projects, that could mean anything.

The Hoenig Trio concerts are part of a busy time for Jazz International, the promotion agency set up at the beginning of 2008 by the Edinburgh-based singer Todd Gordon, and the continuing seasonal flourish includes Gordon's own gigs – a Sinatra Birthday concert this Saturday in the Glasgow City Halls Recital Room with the David Patrick Trio and trombonist Chris Grieve, followed by "Todd Gordon's White Christmas" at the Lot, Edinburgh, on Sunday.

Further laying on the festive spirit is the Jazz International Christmas Concert, in Glasgow City Halls on 19 December, featuring saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski's quartet "plus special guests", while the New Year promises a gig at The Lot on 31 January with Scotland's own drumming phenomenon, Alyn Cosker and his trio. Looking ahead to February, there are events planned from pianist Brian Kellock and saxophonist Julian Arguelles, as well as Christine Tobin and Liam Noble's Carole Kidd reworking, "Tapestry Rewoven".

&#149 The Ari Hoenig Trio plays The Lot, Edinburgh, tomorrow and the City Halls Recital Room, Glasgow, on 11 December. See www.jazzinternational.co.uk