By Matty Bannond
Nothing in Duisburg stays stuck in place for long. The north-west German
city, where the Rhine and Ruhr rivers converge, is home to the world’s
largest inland port. That gives it a restless and fast-flowing character
that neatly matches bassist Linda May Han Oh’s music. Her band sailed into
town on a cold night in mid-November to deliver a shipment of buoyant sonic
cargo.
Much of that buoyancy derived from three-part harmonies combining vocals
from Oh and Sara Serpa with Will Vinson’s strident alto saxophone. Their
voices resounded off the Lutherkirche’s black stone floor and floated up to
its high ceiling. Whirlwind percussion from Mark Whitfield Jr. completed the
group. Pianist Fabian Almazan was also aboard the band’s European voyage but
missed this show due to (sea)sickness. The concert was part of the
long-running
Intermezzo
series.
To cast off, the four-person crew used the rapid current of their leader’s
output to merge two tunes together. “Respite”, from the bassist’s sixth
album Glass Hours(Biopihilia Records, 2024), surged into a new
piece called “Block Party”. Oh was light-footed, dipping her bass like a
ballroom dance partner. Her dynamism imbued the written and spontaneous
material with irresistible momentum.
Just after the halftime interval, “Halo” gave the audience a chance to more
deeply immerse themselves in Serpa’s singing. The Portuguese improviser’s
expansive low notes flooded the venue and her crystalline high register
sparkled. The song is another bouncy composition that featured a boppy
saxophone solo followed by stormy sections from bass and drums.
With their piano-playing shipmate on shore leave, Vinson made two attempts
to navigate the keyboard. He even embarked on an extensive solo on “Prayer
for Freedom”, where the rhythmic focus contrasted with his more
phrase-driven saxophone explorations. Whitfield Jr. added a military
undercurrent via his snare. The effervescent drummer earned several of the
night’s loudest ovations.
Unusually, this tune used English-language lyrics instead of non-lexical
vocals. That gave it the air of a sermon preached at the church’s
congregation, while most of the concert felt more like a collective
revelation. This was an evening of venturesome music from a band that
transported listeners to warmer places than chilly Duisburg—before floating
away on the ocean of life, like a ship passing in the night.