Polycultural polyrhythms

Percussionist Susie Ibarra illuminates worlds of rhythm.

by Greg Baise
4/5/00

Favoring reserve and discipline over wild ecstasies.

Illuminations

Friday & Saturday, April 7-8
Mackenzie Fine Arts Center
Henry Ford Community College
5101 Evergreen Rd., Dearborn
Call 313-845-9676 or 810-775-4770
$12 each show or $20 both nights

In a world that has experienced the revolutionary likes of Sunny Murray and Milford Graves, expanding the vocabulary of free-jazz drumming can be daunting. But New York drummer Susie Ibarra confidently rewrites her own rhythm book, reaching into the arsenal of shakers, bells, chimes and gongs that she keeps close to her drum kit to create a variety of polycultural polyrhythms. Though she is only in her late 20s, she’s already an impressive master of drums and percussion. With lessons learned from such free drumming avatars as Graves and Denis Charles, Ibarra investigates her individual improvisational voice, informed by her experiences playing gamelan, Philippine kulintang, and her studies of Latin and West African percussion – not to mention playing piano and organ in church, or her high school rock band.

Certainly part of her ear for the eclectic and innovative comes from her upbringing. "Being from a Filipino family and growing up in Houston, Texas, I heard an eclectic mix of music. In the park in the neighborhood I lived in, there’d be zydeco bands in the summer. There was a lot of blues, and rock ‘n’ roll. There were two jazz radio stations, one experimental, one more straight-ahead. And some funk," she explains.

Her conversion experience to the sounds of free jazz is not dissimilar to that of many others – she encountered Sun Ra.

"When I came up to New York in ‘88, one of the first live bands I saw in New York City was Sun Ra’s Arkestra. That had a really profound effect on me," she says.

Soon, besides playing straight-ahead club dates and in percussion groups, she was playing in avant-garde groups with people such as bassist William Parker.

Auspiciously, Ibarra made her debut with the formidable David S. Ware Quartet right here in Detroit in early 1996. A captivated audience at Alvin’s watched in wonder while this cool, unknown quantity contributed amazingly to the group sounds created by saxophonist Ware, bassist Parker, and pianist Matthew Shipp.

Last year, she left such well-established outfits as the Ware Quartet and William Parker’s In Order To Survive. Now she focuses on her own trio, with Charles Burnham and Cooper-Moore, both of whom have extensive roots in the New York scene. The Susie Ibarra Trio’s debut, Radiance, showcases the versatility and accomplishment of this group. Recorded last July, when the group was only a few months old, it’s subtler than Ibarra’s work with Parker and Ware. Still, it’s very powerful, with Burnham’s expressive violin, Cooper-Moore’s versatility as a pianist, harpist and twanger of the diddley-bow, and, of course, Ibarra’s dynamic drumming. Favoring reserve and discipline over wild ecstasies, Ibarra nonetheless exudes a powerful presence behind the drum kit. On Radiance, echoes of traditional Philippine music and West African kora music integrate with the tenets of modern improvisation and composition in an exciting and accessible manner. And there’s a great cover of Jimi Hendrix’s "Up From the Skies," to boot.

Such a pan-cultural approach befits the setting for Ibarra’s upcoming visit. Her Trio will headline the first of two nights of "Illuminations." Sponsored by Henry Ford Communiity College’s WHFR 89.3 FM and the New Music Society, "Illuminations" is a free-jazz festival that will present titans from out of town such as Ibarra and bassist Mark Dresser alongside homegrown heroes such as Stephen Rush and Quartex and Entropy Studios movers and shakers Mike Khoury, Ben Hall and Jason Shearer. Celebrating artistic expression in many forms, the fest will be accentuated by poetry, modern dance, and film both vintage and avant-garde.

Ibarra thrives on a pursuit of the new, not just in new directions in percussion, but in new contexts as well. As she says, "I like doing different things. It makes you grow."

Some of those recent different things for Ibarra include playing on the latest Yo La Tengo album, collaborating with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and performing in a duo with the godfather of modern improv, Derek Bailey. In fact, in early June the Bailey/Ibarra duo will open for the duo of Max Roach and Cecil Taylor at the Bell/Atlantic Central Park Series in New York City.

With a Central Park double-bill like that, you know that the free jazz scene is as strong as it ever was. As Ibarra explains, "I think that it has definitely grown, and there’s a new audience, and over the last six or seven years, it’s been growing. And that’s really exciting, especially seeing that there’s an audience (at) home here in the states. Now you have a growth of both players and audience for more adventurous music."

Grege Baise writes about music and other adventures for the Metro Times.