Drummer Matt Wilson had much to say at Firehouse 12 on Friday night, but there was one word he used the most. He used it when bassist Paul Sikivie unfurled a series of ideas on his instrument, again when Sikivie and reeds player Jeff Lederer played as if they were talking, again when all three of them executed an elegant turn of phrase. Again and again, that word was “beautiful.”
Drummer, bandleader, and educator Matt Wilson, who turned 60 this year, has appeared on hundreds of albums, 14 of them as bandleader, and is on faculty at several conservatories. The Christmas Tree‑O — one of several ongoing groups for Wilson — has toured the United States and Canada and holds down an annual sold-out in New York.
But Friday at Firehouse 12 marked a milestone: “Today is the official 15th anniversary of this band,” Wilson explained during the set. “We looked younger. We’ve gotten older but we don’t want to grow up,” and “we have great audiences who put up with us.” The banter made clear what was apparent in the music already, which is that Wilson and his company played not only with consummate technical skill and precision, but with their senses of humor fully on display. They were serious musicians who didn’t take themselves seriously. With a setlist that included “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Good King Wenceslas,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” and several others, they were there to have big fun, to create joy, for themselves and all who had come to hear them.
Wilson began with a simple two-beat count-off — “uh, uh” — and the band was off on a fast swing, Lederer storming out of the gate with Sikivie leading the charge. They dug deeper into the music and the energy level rose, crackling with innovation and precision. Wilson then slipped into a drum solo that began by eerily following the melody. He found the rhythm in the notes, and the rhythms within those. Lederer then returned with a blistering solo that elevated the mood even further. He ended on a high keen, and Sikivie and Wilson let the song fall away; they ended with Wilson using only the sound of his sticks clicking together to keep time.
For the next number, Wilson laid down a rhythm on the toms with mallets while Sikivie provided an effortlessly agile repeating statement; it was more than enough for Lederer to float a plaintive soprano sax melody over it. Wilson let out a small cry of appreciation, then switched up the sound, now playing the snare with just his fingers while Sikivie took an extended solo.
“Yeah, Paul,” Wilson said. Sikivie responded with idea after idea, each one a rhythmic and melodic whole that built off the last.
“Beautiful,” WIlson said, for the first time in the set. He gave a signal, and Lederer returned with a solo that spanned his instrument’s range. Wilson cheered and Lederer responded in kind through his sax, until they reached the end of the song’s form and settled into a smoky ending.
The third piece started with Wilson on brushes, and the trio, with Lederer now on clarinet, exhibited some near-telepathic communication in the timing of their playing of the melody, much of it in the service of humor, musical jokes the bandmates told one another and the audience. In their solos, over a greasy, bluesy shuffle from Wilson, Sikivie and Wilson both settled into rhythmic modes more like speech. For a moment, Sikivie’s solo captivated both his bandmates, as they listened eyes closed, heads swaying in time.
The trio has recorded two albums, the first, self-titled, from 2010, and the second, Tree Jazz: The Shape of Christmas to Come, released this year. “It’s dangerous when you have two Christmas albums,” Wilson said, acknowledging that crooner Andy Williams only had one, and Mariah Carey only one song. In addition, for every great Christmas song recording, “there are probably 500 that aren’t very good — and we’re probably in that 500, but hey, we’re trying.”
“Mariah was supposed to sing with us,” he joked. “She’s playing at the Barclays Center instead. I don’t know what happened. We told her about this gig a long time ago.” He also acknowledged the carols’ ubiquity, announcing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” by saying the band got it “from an old fakebook called a hymnal.”
But the Christmas Tree‑O showed that a lot could be pulled from their familiarity. Because everyone knew the songs already, the band could experiment that much more, have that much more fun, and let the audience in on those jokes. Each member of the trio excelled at reconfiguring the songs, turning them inside-out and back again in inventive, delightful ways. In a truly spirited rendition of the Sephardic Jewish song “Ocho Kandelikas” (“we try to celebrate everything that’s going on in the holidays,” Wilson said), Lederer systematically deconstructed his clarinet while playing his solo, taking off part by part until he was down to his mouthpiece. For Wilson’s solo, he engaged in the whimsically nerdy practice of changing the meter of his solo — from 1/8 through 8/8, with all stops between — in response to Lederer throwing pieces of paper with the numbers 1 through 8 at him.
“Usually we pass the hat for clarinet repair at this point,” Wilson joked at the end.
For the final number, “Up on the Rooftop,” the band cut the melody into a call-and-response over an energetic swing that broke suddenly into Sikivie talking a walk by himself and an extended drum solo from Wilson, then moved into the Lederer-penned song “Shine Your Light,” which featured a chant that Wilson got everyone in the audience to sing along with.
“Shine your light,” everyone sang. “Shine it where the light is needed most.” It was a heartfelt moment that turned hilariously ludicrous when Wilson brought the hi-hat to the center of the stage for the band to play a tight, playful version of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” in a drama involving three elf figurines that Wilson gave high-pitched voice to. The audience dissolved into helpless laughter. It was ludicrously heartfelt.
Firehouse 12’s 2024 season concludes with the Jeremy Pelt Quintet on Dec. 20. Visit Firehouse 12’s website for more information.
