Watching Ari Hoenig play drums is like watching an acrobat. The sheer physicality of his playing, the polyrhythmic coordination of hands and feet, the mental exertion and unlikely balance he maintains even as the entire drum kit threatens to come crashing down around him, the palpable tension between control and release, with mallets bouncing and staccato bursts of sticks yielding to the cool sweep of the brush, the offbeat grace, the facial contortions, grimaces, and the expressions of surprise and sheer joy other players provoke from him: Ari Hoenig is entirely inside the music.
This film follows him into the musical interior, and around the New York City live jazz scene.
For working jazz musicians like Hoenig, the city is a thriving hub of musical projects and conversations, offering countless opportunities for players to learn from each other, create new music, and realize artistic ambitions.
Hoenig came up in the New York City scene, first as a sideman and then establishing his place as an internationally-renowned drummer and composer. (“Arrows and Loops,” recorded in 2011, is now part of the jazz canon, studied and emulated for its intensive use of metric modulation.)
Now Hoenig’s writing and playing are taking new directions. Original compositions and arrangements are being debuted, experimented with, and reworked by Hoenig and his collaborators at rehearsals in his Greenpoint basement and at small New York City clubs where Hoenig performs with the Ari Hoenig Trio and the Ari Hoenig Quartet (as well as with other musical acts).
In the basement rehearsals, players explore and adapt the new work. These are creative sessions, conducted in musical shorthand and dedicated to getting everyone into the groove of the new writing.
The live performances offer something else altogether: in small, serious listening rooms around the city, the players improvise and push boundaries, create compositions on the spot, exchange and build on musical ideas, and connect with the music and with each other.
Audiences come from around the city, and travel to the city from around the world, to witness these extraordinary performers at work. They gather to share an irreplicable, in-person, offline, ephemeral experience – live music – even as major labels neglect the jazz business and most people experience music alone and online.
Hoenig talks about music as its own entity, a being unto itself. And this being, this music, this sound lives in the city of its creation. Like the city itself, the music is ever-changing, unpredictable, kaleidoscopic, featuring difficult passages, feats of timing and coordination, and unexpected encounters. It’s got all the energy of the city where it’s happening. The filmmaking project sets out to capture this energy and to document a cultural moment, seeing New York City jazz, today, as an authentic expression as well as a source of urban vitality.
