Helen Sung Quartet in Performant with Friction Quartet at 222

Helen Sung Quartet in Performant with Friction Quartet at 222

Helen Sung is a gift pianist, prolific composer who balances and broaches both the classical and jazz genres and morphs them into a fluid, hybrid conversant art form.  Having been reared in structured classical violin and piano, Sung's venture into jazz has been elliptical and magical.  Last night, at the intimate 222 cabaret, Sung performed with her talented quartet.  Then together with her quartet and the Friction Quartet.  Our introduction to the program was Sung's composition "Convergence" performed with her Quartet.  The piece reflected the blending and then separating of both classical and jazz forms.  Starting out with drums and a jazzy upbeat tempo on drums which was joined by piano and then bass and sax.  Despite the disparity, it was more apparent the how relationships between the two forms were asserted.  I enjoyed the riffs and solos of each of the talented musicians.  The bassist maintained a rich underscore for the classical piano and alto sax.  Sung asked for assistance in redistributing the microphone systems on the individual instruments which somehow lead to an open and unwelcome outpouring of input from audience members.  One woman informed her the piano was too loud to which Sung replied "I respectfully disagree."  Perhaps the intimate space gave too much leeway from feedback which I'm glad received push back from the artist.  The program went into a few compositions that were funded by a grant Sung received which was provided to women composers during the pandemic.  "Long Yellow Rose" was a work that was created from the grant.  It began sounding like a royal procession in a Baroque style that synthesized into a luxurious jazz solo on sax.  I was transfixed by the seamlessness of segue ways from one style to the another and how they balanced the compositions.  Sung brought the Friction Quartet on stage to perform two works by the esteemed Mary Lou Williams.  The friction Quartet had a cellist, violinist and two violas.  The sax player performed on flute which floated above the strings and the drums.  The final piece of the set was an avante garde piece composed by Carla Bley, the jazz legend who passed away just weeks ago and was a mentor to Sung.  "Wrong Key Donkey" was cacophonous with cymbals ringing against the plucking of all string instruments.  It sounded somewhat like animals braying.   Sung plucked the piano strings, the cellist ran his fingers flatly down the neck of his instrument, while strumming and the violinist wobbled his bow against his G string.  This was an unusual work and an odd selection to close out the set.  But, this was a unique performance which got off to a shaky start.  The concert utilized accepted forms of music, melded them into something surprising to churn over and contemplate.  This alone is something to celebrate.