Bang on a Can All-Stars
Hogg Auditorium, November 11
Utilizing the thematic structures and basic instrumentation of classical music and the improvisation and irreverence of the avant-garde, the Bang on a Can All-Stars played something for everybody Saturday night. At the same time, it seemed that the enormous breadth of the three-hour program connected entirely with nobody. Bang on a xylophone here, a piano there; take bow to cello here, to bass there — the compositional threads were often difficult to detect, at times seemingly falling into pointless cacophony. When the flow was discernable, however, as on the opener, “Concerto for Six,” it was engaging. The engine cranked up with the wailing of an alto sax, probing in succession the instrument’s upper and lower reaches. The wildfire spread to the cello, piano, electric guitar, bass, and to the percussion, giving each a place in the limelight. At sudden intervals, the musicians would shout out a countdown from seven to one — in Chinese. This gave the piece variety and a certain levity, made obvious when bassist Robert Black started groping wildly at his instrument, banging on the wooden parts and caressing it with his hands before wildly swinging them into the air. The joke got old, though; the All-Stars were at their best when working together under a tight rhythmic umbrella. “Lying, Cheating, Stealing,” one of the group’s trademarks, featured a trio of percussionists beating on xylophone, triangle, and percussion blocks of some sort, the relentless Steve Reich-like rattling giving the composition a propulsive purpose. The evening’s highlight was the top-billed performance from Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, opener “1/1.” Built around a tranquil piano progression, the work’s open spaces were subtly filled by the All-Stars, creating a slightly more full construction than Eno’s dreamy wallpaper tonic for frayed nerves. More full, perhaps, but in no way any less sublime, any less transcendent. The All-Stars are the first and only ones to perform this piece using live instruments, and their ability to bounce the short theme fragments from instrument to instrument exuded in spades the comfort zone Eno was aiming for in 1978. Time ground to a halt as minds were set adrift from bodies in a most intoxicating manner. At the piece’s close, the All-Stars came back for one more short Eno work, a gorgeous arrangement of “Everything Merges With the Night” from Another Green World, proving that the sound of a can banging in the night need not be loud to be effective.This article appears in November 17 • 2000.