For all the live performances at the expanding multitude of Hudson Valley venues, none may match the bold sensibility championed by the edge-pushing curators at Elysium Furnace Works. Led by James Keepnews and Mike Faloon, EFW’s mission is, in its founders’ words, “to present the work of vanguard artists in settings as dedicated and uncompromising as the art itself.” The final event of their momentous 2024 season will surely deliver on this promise when the electric, eclectic, and deliriously intense power trio, Harriet Tubman, cuts loose at Poughkeepsie’s VIB Theater on December 7 at 8 pm.
Harriet Tubman was formed in 1998 by guitarist/vocalist Brandon Ross, bassist Melvin Gibbs, and drummer JT Lewis. They take their moniker from Harriet Tubman, an African-American woman born into slavery who was renowned as a liberator of other slaves who, like she, chose to seek freedom by escaping to the North. She accomplished this with the help of a secret network of safe houses, or “stations,” on what was known as “The Underground Railroad.”
Before joining forces, Gibbs built an eclectic discography collaborating with artists including Ronald Shannon Jackson, Arto Lindsay, George Clinton, and Henry Rollins. Ross has done the same in his work with Cassandra Wilson, Don Byron, Henry Threadgill, Tony Williams, The Lounge Lizards, Jewel and more. JT Lewis has divided his time between studio and live work with an a-list of leading names in jazz, R&B and pop, including Whitney Houston, Sting, Bill Laswell, Sonny Sharrock, and William Parker. Together, the trio has waxed five critically acclaimed albums, including I Am A Man (1998), Ascension (2011), and their latest, The Terror End of Beauty (2018)
The music of Harriet Tubman is both familiar and fresh, a unique blend that allows the listener to experience the music free from distracting labels of style or genre.
Several critics have likened their style to a free jazzy, future-forward extension of the musical terra firma first laid down by Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys. There are also elements of Delta Blues, King Tubby-style dub, electronica, 70s-styled jazz fusion, metal, ambient, noise- and progressive-rock.
While Ross may be best known for his mannered acoustic guitar work with vocalist Cassandra Wilson, he is genuinely liberated in this trio, like Harriet Tubman herself. Ross conjures spacious textures and loops as the backdrops to melodies and solos that often impart a white-hot fire, as captured on “Farther Unknown,” the opener of their latest album. Gibbs was once called “the egg in the meatloaf” by his former boss, the late great drummer/bandleader Ronald Shannon Jackson of the Decoding Society.
In this band, he provides the sub-harmonic foundation for their wildly wonderful and unpredictable sonic excursions, alternating between deep, steady grooves punctuated with thunderous chords and rapid-fire melodies of his own. Drummer Lewis provides the beats, which are polyrhythmic, funky, tribal, and swinging. Lewis functions at the conductor, creating the pulses and crescendos that propel the surprisingly dense sound produced by the trio. Harriet Tubman has a bit of everything for anyone with open ears, – free jazz, metal, blues, electronica, noise, swing, funk and dub – often co-existing happily in a single bar of music.
Elysium Furnace Works’ 2024 season has brought Hudson Valley music lovers some of greatest names in jazz with an experimental edge. Past concerts have featured local guitar hero David Torn, The Matthew Shipp Trio, legendary Ornette Coleman collaborator bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and trumpeter Peter Evans. Fans of experimentally-minded guitarist should also consider checking out EFW’s November 16 event at VBI with AM/FM. This power duo of guitarist Ava Mendoza and violinist Gabby Fluke-Mogul synthesize a heady brew of avant-jazz, blues, and noise – radically upending experimental music(s) past, present, and future.
Harriet Tubman will perform on Saturday, December 7 at 8 PM at the VBI Theatre of Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center at 12 Vassar Street in Poughkeepsie. Tickets are $30 in advance and $40 at the door — advance tickets are on sale here.
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