Across a cliché divide: Hansen and Walters string quartets at Jazz Kitchen

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Walking into a packed Jazz Kitchen on a Sunday afternoon to hear a couple of string quartets, I can't

Gary Walters and Peter Hansen had a matinee showcase.

avoid recalling the old Monty Python introduction: "And now for something completely different."

So it was, although the featured composers— Gary Walters and Peter Hansen — have distinguished records as creative and performing artists there, notably together in the early part of the century as members of the Icarus Ensemble.

Formerly a contrabass player in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Hansen invited four current members to perform his String Quartet No. 1 in E and Walters' "Bluesberry Jam."

Besides its interlocking, punning title, Walters' piece, enjoying its first public performance, showed his high comfort level across several genres. Retired from the jazz faculty of Butler University, Walters keeps his composing and playing schedule judiciously crowded. "Bluesberry Jam," a delicious three-movement blend of bluegrass, jazz verging on free jazz, and the blues, was played with sparkle and a keen sense of idiom by Jennifer Farquhar and Sophia Cho, violins; Zhanbo Zheng, viola, and Stephen Hawkey, cello.

Quartet from ISO dug into new works.
After a duo interlude by pianist Walters and bassist Hansen, the ISO quartet returned to the stage for Hansen's more conventionally designed work, with syncopation pervading the first movement in a nod to the swing without which "it don't mean a thing," then placing an evocative scherzo next to a slow movement with a moody, modal initial statement yielding to some well-judged sentimentality. 

The finale posed a motto theme against a descending bass line that progressively encompassed the "grooving" mentality Hansen had promised in his oral program notes.

Both works would be worth hearing again. And there was no letdown when Hansen and Walters occupied the stage as compatible jazz partners. Capped by Bill Evans' "Waltz for Debbie," which morphed into a swinging 4/4, the brief set also included a nicely worked-out elaboration of Erik Satie's "Gymnopedies No. 1," an expansive treatment of the second-movement theme from Dvorak's "New World" Symphony, and the old pop standard, "Alone Together," a favorite among jazz musicians, which was notable for a poised arco solo by the bassist.

My overall impression is that both seasoned artists know what they're about, whether they're making something new and written down for the sake of collaboration or doing the kind of composition jazz players do improvisationally whenever they take the stage. 

[Performing photo by Kip Tew]


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