Davy Lazar with Andrew Bishop at Ziggy’s
Since it opened a few years ago, Ziggy’s on Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti has become one of the state’s premier musical venues — small but mighty, with wonderful warmhearted owners. The range of what one can hear there is wide and wide open, welcoming electronic music, indie rock and hip-hop of all stripes and, of course, jazz of many kinds, with a particularly hospitable nod to the more adventuresome trends.
Right now, for obvious reasons, shows are limited to the alley behind the venue and to a stage on the adjoining street, and on July 29 the guest was Davy Lazar, best known as a trumpeter, but who has developed into one of the finest electronic artists around, enhancing the local scene since moving back to Michigan from New York a few years ago. SEMJA Review On this evening he largely stayed with his complex modular synthesizer rig, only occasionally reaching for his horn, and on the second set he was joined by Andrew Bishop on tenor saxophone. This was hardly their first time together, and their familiarity was clearly an asset as they began to explore ways of settling into the difficult duo setting. Lazar creates extremely complex webs of resonances, and it requires good instincts for someone playing an acoustic instrument to find the proper space within this sound space and once Bishop found his, the music soared. Both are accomplished composers, and they patiently developed a grand piece of music that waxed and waned to just the right moment when it had to end, but within the journey they explored the wide-ranging sonic capacities of their instruments, sometimes in close embrace, occasionally going against each other, creating an orchestral palate that seemed impossible coming from just two players.
Compositional improvisation at its best!