Hellbent at Performance Works

Performance Works was torn a new one last night when Michael Blake returned to his old Vancouver digs from Brooklyn, accompanied by his aptly-named "Hellbent" project.

Anyone who has been following the markedly-left-of-centre shows that the Vancouver International Jazz Festival has offered over the years will be familiar with Michael Blake, who showed up in 2004 with an adventurous Danish rhythm section and treated us to a serving of Blake Tartare. Memories that stretch back to 2002 might also remember slide trumpet player, Steven Bernstein, from when his own project, Sex Mob, opened for (and blew away) the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. Add to the mix Calvin Weston, whose incendiary drumming was punctuated by battle cries that would do Mingus proud, and tuba player Marcus Rojas, who locked in grooves with that giant horn as if he were playing a bass guitar (à la Kirk Joseph from the kings of New Orleans, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band) and you've got an evening of the good stuff.

Listening to Blake as he brazenly probed Hellbent's diverse compositions on his tenor sax while Bernstein split the air with blistering slide trumpet solos against an unrelenting rhythmic backdrop was like meeting the more aggressive younger sibling of Eric Dolphy's "Out To Lunch" album. Their late-set interpretations of songs by Duke Ellington and the Jackson Five were a nice touch. Thumbs up.

Photo courtesy of Don_Gato.