Kenneth Jimenez Photo
Lilith.
Ingrid Laubrock’s Lilith opened Firehouse 12’s spring season of shows at its concert space, recording studio, and bar on Crown Street with a fiery set of Laubrock’s compositions that paid homage to female energy and to the venue itself, which continues to be a hub for experimental music in New Haven, on the East Coast, and beyond.
Firehouse 12’s spring concert season continues every Friday through June 7 with two sets a night, at 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. The next show, on March 22, features the Noah Rott Electric Quartet.
Lilith — Ingrid Laubrock on saxophones, David Adewumi on trumpet, Adam Matlock on accordion, Yvonne Rogers on piano, Eva Lawitts on bass, and Herny Mermer on drums — “is a reference to Adam’s first wife, who, unlike Eve, was formed at the same time and out of the same clay as Adam,” Laubrock writes in a description of the project. “There are many myths surrounding Lilith, but all have one thing in common: she is not subservient, but powerful and feared. At a time where women’s rights are in danger of being stripped, reverted or simply don’t exist, it seems to be fitting to celebrate a strong and inconvenient woman.”
The Germany-born Laubrock has made a serious name for herself as a composer and a player; the New Yorker called her a “fully committed saxophonist and visionary” and one of her compositions garnered notice in the New York Times. She has received numerous awards and commissions; among many other artists, within Firehouse 12’s orbit, she has worked with Anthony Braxton, Mary Halvorson, and Tyshawn Sorey.
Lilith began performing in 2023, stopping at the Blue Note in New York City, and has been playing out ever since. Before its Firehouse 12 appearance on Friday night, the sextet was playing at Hawks and Reed in Greenfield, Mass.
But Laubrock has been no stranger to Firehouse 12. “It’s a pleasure to be back,” she said from the stage before her set. She was last there in 2019, before the pandemic and Firehouse 12’s overhaul of its facility. “It’s nice to be in the new and renovated space,” she said.
She announced that the suite of material the sextet was about to perform would run just under an hour with no break, “just so you’ve been warned.” The text that would show up in the performance was from poet Erica Hunt. The music was Laubrock’s own compositions.
“It looks like more music than it is,” she said, as she arranged the pages on her stand. “Don’t worry.”
“Noisy ice,” sang Matlock and Lawitts, followed by shimmering notes from accordion and horns, while bass and drums fell into a lurching groove. “As the mind races,” they intoned. This opening salvo was a fitting introduction to everything else that would happen. Planned compositional elements and looser improvisational elements were held together in balance, and the musicians delivered all of it with a great deal of both concentration and crackling energy.
In the next passage, Laubrock started off alone on tenor sax with a series of searching phrases. Adewumi joined her with pulsing notes on trumpet. Together, they both became more agitated, almost playing tag as their phrases dodged and feinted around one another. The rest of the ensemble together came in on strong rhythms, stopped, started, stopped, and started again, contextualizing and recontextualizing the horns and offering new directions for them to go
Rogers then began a sinister vamp on piano that Matlock (who is based in New Haven and sometimes reports for this publication) laid a dark melody over. The addition of Lawitts and Mermer created a brooding moment that wouldn’t have been out of place in a modern film noir soundtrack. After Matlock and Rogers hung on a note together, Rogers led into a more uptempo piece. The traded lines between Laubrock and Adewumi spoke of a certain mischief and joy. As the musicians dug into her music, Laubrock smiled, looking pleased. The piece continued to build energy and ended on a series of wonderfully startling notes from sax and trumpet that sounded as though they’d been pulled from a vacuum.
The next piece gave Lawitts a chance to come to the fore with a long, wailing note that developed into a deep drone, reminiscent of meditative chanting. With the vibe in place, Mermer added expansive yet propulsive rhythms that allowed him to explore ideas as well. Laubrock gave them space to play. Then she gave a visual cue, and Rogers and Matlock laid down long, lush chords that Laubrock and Adewumi answered with urgent, tight phrases. Again the music built in energy. In a particular exhilarating moment, Matlock launched into an expressive solo while the rest of the band created woozy textures from their instrument not quite like anything this reporter has heard.
It was a reminder of why shows at Firehouse 12 are always worth checking out. Every time I have gone, I have heard a musician make a sound I didn’t know their instrument could make; every time, I leave with my ears opened just a little wider.
The rest of the ensemble fell away, leaving Matlock alone to slowly bring the energy down from its ecstatic high to a more contemplative state. Lawitts and Mermer then laid down the foundation for Rogers to take a walk on piano; she built her statement from insistent phrases that couldn’t be ignored. This broke into a sudden moment of serenity, like a ball at the top of the arc of its flight, then fell into a fractured music landscape in which the musicians traded jagged phrases. Laubrock took a solo that began with simple phrases that she then complicated. Rogers responded with sharp angles of her own. Adewumi, in his moment, worked his instrument up through its register deliberately, then cascaded downward as Lawitts and Mermer hit the gas. The solo ended with a series of gnarled sounds that offered the ensemble a chance for a left turn into a careening waltz that then stopped on a dime. A moment of silence.
Once again, the ensemble built up the music, for a final time. The actual intoning of a chant returned, with Lawitts and Matlock repeating the phrase “Thinking of oneself, one self” over stuttering drums and piano and foreboding sax and trumpet. Laubrock flashed Adewumi a smile, and they made a final musical statement together.
“Sweet!” someone said from the audience, just before a wave of applause broke. This was the first set of the evening; a second set, for a whole new set of ticket holders, beckoned.
“The group is called Lilith,” Laubrock said. “Hopefully we will play here again.” She caught herself. “We will, in an hour!”
For more information about Firehouse 12’s lineup of spring concerts, visit the venue’s website.
I guess I'm an old fart jazz is Boney James, Peter White kind of jazz. Not a jumble of loud notes. I would love to record this song and have them play it again to see if they could do it again the same way or is it just random. I would be ticked off if I had paid to hear this. I can see why no one wants to comment on this their still scratching their heads.