Combining Eugene Friesen's combustible spontaneity on the cello, Howard Levy's mastery of the piano and harmonica, and Glen Velez's proficiency on the frame drums, Trio Globo entranced the audience at Spaulding Auditorium Saturday night.
Called "a totally original voice in contemporary jazz" by music critics, the trio mesmerized the audience with their unique blend of jazz and world music.
Both musician and audience members alike received an education in listening as the group combined their original compositions with an uncanny ability to improvise that stunned the audience.
Each artist showed tremendous individual expertise on his respective instrument. Friesen and Velez demonstrated this expertise in impressive solo performances.
While the individual performances were full of soaring lyricism, the magical combination of the trio's sound was overwhelming.
The group introduced their tunes from the stage, allowing the trio to gain not only a relationship with the audience, but also to provide short reprieves from the intensity of their music.
The humorous jabs thrown between Levy and Friessen proved especially helpful in lightening the atmosphere. The trio was clearly having fun performing, a characteristic that was reflected in the music's buoyancy.
At one point, Friesen played the cello with a credit card, highlighting the creative energy and wit of the group.
Trio Globo performed three songs for the first time along with two completely improvised songs. This willingness to take risks allows the group to create their music with freedom from any musical "standards." Instead, they seem to set their own standards while performing.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Trio Globo's sound is their sense of adventure. Their songs are often played in exotic time signatures like 9/8 and 5/4. It is not uncommon to hear them juxtaposing these rhythms in the same song for a completely thrilling and exciting sound.
Every performance of a song contains a danger that each artist might select the wrong note, but from this danger comes the chance to bring music to the highest level possible. During this performance, the group unabashedly experimented with harmony, scales, and rhythm, much to the audience's delight.
Their desire to experiment showed in such songs as "Bulgarian-Brazilian Dorian Dream." Levy took a song from a Brazilian composer and combined it with his love of Bulgarian music to create an original composition with roots in jazz and world music.
The artists spoke to the audience through their instruments -- their voices -- throughout the show, but at no other point did this become more apparent than during the performance of a song about Levy's daughter. The song took the audience through the moods of a little girl, not only allowing the audience to see these moods, but also to feel them.
By the end of the night, the audience demanded more with a rousing ovation that brought Trio Globo back on stage for an encore performance.
