Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum smiled from the stage at Firehouse 12 Friday night, explaining how good it was to be back there. “I cannot imagine my life without it,” he said, from his collaborations with Anthony Braxton to his numerous performances there with other groups. On Friday, however, he was there with UK-based pianist Alexander Hawkins, as part of the Crown Street bar- recording studio-performance space’s fall jazz series, running now into December.
The series started last Friday, Sept. 20, with Weird of Mouth. Next Friday, Oct. 4, features The Jay Leonhart Trio. On Oct. 11, Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri will play; on Oct. 18, Jason Robinson Ancestral Numbers; on Oct. 25, Michaël Attias Kardamon Fall; on Nov. 1, Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra; on Nov. 8, Dezron Douglas 3 PEACE, featuring Fabian Almazan and Willy Rodriguez; on Nov. 15, Jamie Saft, Joe Morris, Herb Robertson, and Bobby Previte; on Nov. 22, Ben Goldberg, Todd Sickafoose, and Scott Amendola; on Dec. 6, Tyshawn Sorey Trio; on Dec. 13, Matt Wilson’s Christmas Tree‑O; and on Dec. 20, the Jeremy Pelt Quintet closes out the series. Each evening features two sets at 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
At the beginning of the duo’s first set, Bynum explained that he and Hawkins, “one of my favorite piano players on the planet,” have been friends for 20 years — and have played together in a four-piece, the Converge Quartet — but that “this is the first time we’ve played in the States.” They were recording both of their Friday sets in hopes of making an album; addressing the audience, Bynum said “hopefully your positive vibes will be part of the recording,” joking that it might be refreshing for a change to be recorded “for artistic purposes and not surveillance,” as we constantly are in our day-to-day lives.
