Working through only five songs in his 45 allotted minutes, Ryley Walker patiently let the tunes from this year’s excellent sophomore LP, Primrose Green, unfold behind a quintet on Saturday, playing more orchestrator than mere guitar picker in leading his own outfit.
The Chicago songwriter pushed back against the pigeonholing of his sound and influences that have produced constant comparisons to John Martyn or Bert Jansch, instead emphasizing the improvised jazz pull of his work. Opener “Summer Dress,” languid in the late afternoon, stretched out Walker’s yelping vocal against the throb of upright bass and Ben Boye’s swirling psychedelic keys.
The quintet, including some of Chicago’s top improvisers, at times veered away from each other in the free breakdowns. The uncertainty of each turn as they kept eyes locked and Walker directed from behind his 12-string at the edge of the stage also breathed a vibrancy into the set. Most impressive was drummer Frank Rosaly, pushing as much as anchoring the sound with a light but captivating touch.
New tune “Funny Thing She Said” drifted through 10 minutes of free jazz that thinned some of the initial crowd, but the title track from Primrose Green brought cheers of recognition.
“We’re going to just play that song 10 more times,” smiled Walker in response.
“On the Banks of the Old Kishwaukee” worked a rootsier blues into the set, before erupting in the broiling tempest of closer “Sweet Satisfaction.” Though still defining his own sound, the 25-year-old Walker’s intense focus on developing textures suggests a progressively evocative turn that refuses to settle. He continues to build on his influences rather than simply extrapolating from them.
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This article appears in May 8 • 2015.
