Christian Hertzog

San Diego Arts

Paul Rutherford, Torsten Müller, and Harris Eisenstadt

Short but sweet
By Christian Hertzog
Posted on Wed, Jan 25th, 2006
Last updated Thu, Jan 26th, 2006

In the heyday of Spruce Street Forum, famous improvisers from all over the globe performed in San Diego. Ever since it shut down, the number of world-class free improvisers playing here has declined. Trummerflora has been booking interesting groups and people at Voz Alta, but last week they were told by the board there that they'd have to pay a rental fee for the space, and so, like SUSHI and Sledgehammer, there is yet one more established San Diego performing arts organization without a venue.

Thus, the appearance by trombonist Paul Rutherford Wednesday evening at the UCSD Mandeville Recital Hall was especially welcome. Rutherford was one of the first free improvisers in England, forming the Spontaneous Music Ensemble with John Stevens and Trevor Watts in 1965. When most of the free improv crowd in San Diego were barely able to shake their baby rattles, Paul Rutherford and his contemporaries were bewildering or delighting European listeners. They made music that did not rely on existing compositions, that went so far as to avoid traditional harmonies, rhythms, exploring their instruments to incorporate any and all sounds into their music.

Rutherford rarely visits the U.S., and when he does, it's usually not the Southwest. Rutherford may not have the following of the late influential improviser Derek Bailey or the visionary saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, but dammit, he was there at the beginning of the European improv scene, he's madealmost 100 recordings since, and he's still out there playing rings around the youngsters.

He was joined for this gig by bassist Torsten Müller (a generation younger than Rutherford), and by L.A. drummer Harris Eisenstadt (a generation younger than Müller). You might expect Rutherford to step up to the front of this trio, but just as often Eisenstadt or Müller would be the focus of your attention, and throughout the evening all three musicians collaborated in creating unified textures in which noone really stood out. At such moments the trio achieved that elusive goal of many free improvisers, a true musical collective.

While Rutherford is known for extending trombone techniques (he is credited with being the first improviser to use multiphonics), these were kept to a minimum. Most of the concert, he laid back and played more lyrical lines using a conventional trombone tone. But he also demonstrated his enormous repertory of sounds from time to time: singing into the trombrone while playing a different note, vocalizing through the trombone, playing with a wheezy timbre. One passage was reminiscent of Tibetan monk chanting, a gravelly basso profundo with a chord on top of it, also suggestive of a didgeridoo.

While Müller was also proficient in unusual techniques on his instrument, Eisenstadt's sonic vocabulary was a little more attention-grabbing. To begin their second improvisation, the drummer had a five-minute solo in which he bowed the cymbals of his kit with what looked and sounded like a guitar string, eliciting vocal-type growls and squeals (which his companions later matched on their instruments). In the first number, he threw a cloth with a hole in its middle over a cymbal to muffle it, and in the last number had a odd, clunky, yet affecting moment playing a triangle rather sloppily at the same time he struck a cymbal.

The concert was short, barely an hour long, four improvisations lasting 15 minutes each. While I've heard more transcendental improvisation moments, it's still rare in San Diego to hear a trio so in tune with each other's sensibilities, a trio that remained solidly inspired throughout their entire set. They were generous with giving each other solo moments, the solos were worthwhile, and when the time came for the other two to reenter, they always did so with taste and sympathy.

Attendance was about 50 people, and probably half of them were there for a UCSD course requirement. You'd expect more of the local improvisation community to turn out for such a distinguished figure. Who knows if or when Rutherford will ever return here? I was certainly glad to be there, and I sensed that the other musicians in the audience treasured the concert as well.

For a copy of the program, click here.

Suggested listening:

A great introduction to Paul Rutherford's trombone techniques and improvisational style is his classic solo album, Neuph.

SOME FURTHER READING:

Interview with Paul Rutherford

Article on the Rutherford/Müller/Eisenstadt Trio

Harris Eisenstadt’s home page

Interview with Eisenstadt

Article on Eisenstadt

About the author: Christian Hertzog studied composition with George Crumb, Brian Ferneyhough, Robert Erickson, and Morton Feldman. He studied piano with Cecil Lytle and Aleck Karis. He has been hired by or collaborated with many local performing arts institutions, including the La Jolla Playhouse, SUSHI, Sledgehammer, Isaacs and McCaleb Dance, and City Moves. From 1995-2000 he was the executive director for San Diego New Music. In recent years, he has been a keyboardist with the Geisel Library Toy Piano Ensemble and the Teeny Tiny Pit Orchestra. In 2008 he won 1st prize from the San Diego Press Club in the category of Newspaper/Internet Reviews.
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