JazzHouse.org
By Howard Mandel
Chicago AACM composer-flutist Nicole Mitchell's suite based on the futuristic novels of the late Octavia Butler was a highlight at the not-overly crowded Vision Fest Friday night. The multi-part piece for Mitchell's young, unabashedly talented nonet was dense, dramatic and daring, though hampered by difficulties mixing the variously-amplified ensemble in the highly reverberent space. A series of timbrally glinting ensemble blasts, separated by pauses, launched the music, and singer Mankwe Ndosi set an other-earthly tone with sighs, laughs, howls, gasps, appropriate to but not literally depicting Butler's "Xenogenesis trilogy," about an exterestial race colonizing earth through interspecial breeding. Tomeka Reid's plucking provided prickliness, but pianist Justin Dillard had to hammer to cut through the din, tenor saxopist David Boykins was woefully under-miked, and Mitchell, whose close harmonies for the horns were often based on her own low register, seldom popped out, either, until she arrived as some driven rhythmic figures The drummer's grooves were good, too -- leaving me interested to hear a second performance or recording of this world premiere. -- Howard Mandel