Angelika Niescier is looking forward to her trio’s Thursday night concert at The Treelawn Social Club with an extra degree of anticipation. It’s not just that she gets to play with cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Savannah Harris or that the gig is part of the New Ghosts presenting organization’s tenth anniversary. No, the cherry on top—or maybe we should say the sour cream—is the pierogies.
A bit of explanation might be helpful here. Though she’s lived in Germany for 43 of her 54 years, Niescier was born in Szczecin, Poland. When I told her that Cleveland has a significant Polish community that celebrates Pierogi Week, she exclaimed, “Really? Oh my god! That’s so cool!”
Niescier’s considerable enthusiasm and energy in conversation is more than matched by what she brings to the bandstand. This is a rangy, athletic band that comes right at the listener, with Niescier jabbing and whirling like a saxophonic Bruce Lee over Reid’s and Harris’ insistent, sinewy rhythm. Exhilarating doesn’t begin to describe it.
The band’s high voltage barrage is a sound much bigger than you might imagine only three players could produce. Much of the credit belongs to Reid, the peerless cellist who can hold down the bottom like a bass player, then effortlessly move to the front line to act as a second horn without breaking stride.
Reid’s use of the bow especially intrigued Niescier. “That’s a really different sound,” she said by phone Friday evening. “It’s more classical but also more gritty because it’s the higher register. Tomeka is the person who is materializing all the sounds I had in my head.”
The two met at Cologne Jazzweek 2022 in Niescier’s hometown where one year before, Harris had played with a group led by trumpeter Peter Evans. “I love Peter Evans, so I was like, “Who’s this drummer?” I saw her live and I had her in the back of my mind and for the festival.”
In March 2023, the newly formed trio entered a Chicago recording studio for sessions that were released six months later as Beyond Dragons (Intakt Records), the terrific recording that found its way onto many critics’ lists of the year’s best. Chicago music is known for it’s big-shouldered physicality and that characterizes the much of the record.
So does a molten dynamism that carries even the quieter compositions along on with unstoppable momentum. “The burning thing,” Niescier said. “It’s a thing. That’s what I’m striving for always.” Asked where it comes from, she said, “I don’t know, but I guess it’s life. But also, I really listened to a lot of Coltrane and Wayne Shorter back in the day, and also, those are some all-time inspirations. And Stravinsky..”
Not surprisingly, Niescier cited the “Rite of Spring,” an influence immediately detectable in “Risse” (Cracks), where a start-and-stop unison saxophone and arco cello line is rudely interrupted by distorted, car-alarm blasts over brutally crashing drums. Is this Niescier’s warning that we’re entering the terra incognita where the dragons dwell?
She insists that the unknown lands she was thinking of were musical, not political. Still, she said, “We live in a very intense, special, and maybe especially in Germany, in a dangerous time, a time to try to be very focused and very aware and awake to not let specific things happen again. And since art is always reflecting the situation we live in, I think you can’t really differentiate it from the vibe and also like the political situations. It’s always there and we live in those states, and we have to work, and our art obviously reflects it.”
Angelika Niescier with Tomeka Reid and Savannah Harris, Thursday., March 13, 8 p.m., The Treelawn Social Club, 15335 Waterloo Rd., Cleveland, Tickets $20, available here.
NOTE: This article was written by a real human being. No artificial intelligence or generative language models were used in its creation.
Red beans and ricely yours,
jc
