A trickle of excited conversation ran through the audience Friday night just before Lioness took the stage. For serious devotees of live music, of jazz, of Firehouse 12 as a storied listening and recording room, the thrill of attendance cannot be taken for granted, now that audiences and fans worldwide have learned what it’s like to not have it available. As for me, I had the time to unhurriedly grab another glass of water, and fetch a better pair of headphones before the band hit, maybe even crank the heat up a notch. I was watching live, from home — even though pandemic restrictions have been lifted.
Livestreaming is a Covid-era innovation in the performance world that now looks likely to remain with us long after the pandemic ends. Just about everyone — from individual musicians to smaller clubs to larger performance spaces — learned the technical aspects of how to do it out of necessity during the shutdown of 2020. But having adopted the technology, musicians and music venues are learning that some audience members prefer streaming to attending a show live, or, for a variety of reasons, are grateful for the virtual access because otherwise they could not attend they show at all. These audience members are willing to pay for high-quality audio and video streamed to their homes. Of the New Haven-area clubs, Firehouse 12 has led the way in building professional livestreaming into its concert series, with separate tickets available at a lower price than it costs to be in the room.
What I saw on screen in front of me on Friday, with extremely clear audio, and from multiple camera angles, was a celebration of the living tradition of jazz, with a lot of inspiration drawn especially from the bebop and post-bop eras. Co-founded by guitarist Amanda Monaco and baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian, Lioness is a musical collective with a mission to celebrate and promote the achievements of women working and composing in jazz. As Lioness dug into “Boom,” by Natsuko Henderson, a strong bass groove was established by Mary Ann McSweeney and joined by Sevian’s baritone. Drummer Lucianna Padmore brought sophistication to the groove behind Monaco’s spare, well-chosen voicings. This was an incredible bed of energy to drive the band’s three-saxophone frontline, as Sevian, tenor saxophonist Jenny Hill, and altoist Sarah Hanahan each drew from different areas of the saxophone’s language and timbral possibilities in their solos — making it all the more powerful when they united in lockstep for the head.
With clear audio and crisp video, a professional livestreamed production like what Firehouse 12 offers is a vast improvement over the living room and rehearsal space streams musicians were offering in the spring of 2020. The experience is not a one-to-one replacement for being in the room, but the additional camera angles provide some advantages.
It was great to not have to strain to see what Padmore was doing on the drums, as is so often the case at a live show when the drummer is in the back of the stage. And Padmore brought a lot to the varying styles the set called for, whether fast swing, more groove-based moments, or places where she opened up the pulse, dancing freely across the kit.
It was also genuinely great to clearly see the camaraderie on stage. It was especially noticeable during the second tune, Sarah Hanahan’s “Continuance,” which started with a fast alto line that was quickly harmonized by the other two horns, and quickly opened up to solos. You could see members of the band trying (and ultimately failing) to hold back smiles during each other’s solos. You could see Padmore and McSweeney coordinating hits and flourishes behind the frontline, and the temporary shift into and out of half-time during Monaco’s solo was extremely fluid. Hanahan’s sensibilities as a soloist were especially welcome here — she eagerly escalated the tension and energy, and reveled in chromaticism and altissimo screams.
In addition to its performance activities, Lioness has a stated education mission, which includes helping to nurture and mentor the next generation of women jazz musicians; both Monaco and Sevian are teachers at Berklee School of Music in Boston. As an ensemble, Lioness began with a Women in Jazz concert series that was presented at Flushing Town Hall in Queens, now in its third year.
The band members also highlight the work of women composers — which on Friday was almost exclusively pieces by members of the band. Lauren Sevian’s “Etilletas the Elitist,” a contrefact, or composition borrowing existing chord changes, from John Coltrane’s “Satellite, gave the band a chance to stretch into modality.
Two compositions by tenor saxophonist Jenny Hill, including the jazz waltz “Above Treeline,” let the band explore some rich, almost romantic melodicism, and included some more intricate arranging — in particular the choice to have the tune fade away on Sevian’s solo, drawing the melancholy out of the chord progression.
And Monaco’s suite-like composition in 9/4, ‘Old School Flava,” was inspired by a former bandmate’s love of Missy Elliot on tours, featuring a thorny head that could’ve been a synth line in a ’90s East Coast production, but also featured the most breathing room for individual players, as the tune played with varying levels of pulse and momentum throughout.
Where the livestream experience differs most significantly from in-person attendance is, of course, in the atmosphere. Similar to getting takeout food, sometimes what you really want is not just the music, but the experience of sitting among others to enjoy it. On Friday night, however, the room was at capacity. Monaco is an alum of Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, and the room seemed to have at least a few local acquaintances in it.
So the moments I found myself most wishing I was in the room were those when the band was casually bantering between songs, with themselves or with the audience. I wanted to cheer during a solo, to clap, to ask clarifying questions. Leaving a comment on the livestream didn’t seem like a satisfying substitute.
But as the last nearly two years of digital events have taught us, sometimes access makes all the difference. As the audience trickled into the studio before the gig, I watched the streaming audience do the same. A tally on the upper-left corner of the screen slowly rose as set time approached, with nearly 20 people watching at one point. Whether due to mobility, scheduling, distance, or Firehouse 12’s stringent Covid-19 safety regulations, that’s 20 people that would not have been able to experience the music otherwise. It is a credit to Firehouse 12 that they take streaming as seriously as they do.
And as the raucous blowing section of McSweeney’s composition “The Burner” came to a close, the picture faded, leaving the house mics on. With my eyes closed, I could picture myself in a seat, listening to the excited conversation between band and audience, marinating in the post-concert joy as well as any experience.
For information on upcoming concerts at Firehouse 12, visit its website.
