Graz Orpheum

Jazzy light promotes the diversity of life

The Lux Quartet made a guest appearance at the Orpheum in Graz(Bild: Erika Kapin)

Allison Miller's Lux Quartet from New York made a guest appearance at Gamsbart Jazz in the Graz Orpheum extra and brought a radiant jazzy light to the melodious evening.

"The role of light and the diversity of life" is reflected in the music of the Lux Quartet, according to the press release. These are not just fine words, because the group led by New York drummer Allison Miller plays a concept-oriented, yet always lucid and melodious jazz at the Orpheum extra.

Miller herself leads the way with marching rhythms on the snare: her playing is a percussion concentrate of high density, which escalates in solos with a hard attack towards a rock sound, but also accommodates fast, fine-pored switching.

Underpinned by Miller's peaks of intensity, pianist Myra Melford and saxophonist Dayna Stephens lay out contrasting, deliberate, cool melodies in winding serpentines. A sometimes spiritual sound is woven into the evening: Flooded with light from the melodies, permeated with sound from the drums.

This is complemented by deliberately composed sound effects. After a wonderfully carnal solo, bassist Scott Colley leaves a repeated note, Miller mixes booming bass drums with the clacking of sticks - a scene of pure vibration. Then, suddenly, a change: the piano enters delicately, all that remains of the rhythm is the soft sparkle of cymbals. A cool moon rises.