Review: Jimmy Herring Band @ Highline

Jeff Sipe, Neal Fountain and Matt Slocum – all immensely accomplished players – sometimes hung back and worked in subtleties, laying a foundation for Herring to take over. Other times, especially on more uptempo choices like the Meters’ Funky Miracle, Slocum stepped up as a foil, taking solo flights of his own that were appropriately greasy, yet nimble. But it was Herring’s show through and through, and he served up every bit with grace and virtuosity: bent-tones and a touch of the supernatural here, chunky, good-natured attacks there and plenty of fireworks throughout.

Stylistically, it had no one theme. One after another came servings of tortured blues, rippling funk and plangent fusion, layered with piercing squeals, ethereal wails and engulfing note flights. There were groovy, cerebral conversations (Transients), spooky space-walks (Gray Day), and agony-laced blues deconstructions (Since I’ve Been Loving You). Herring upped the ante, too, inviting out fellow axeman and Brooklyn native Tom Guarna – who played with Herring as part of Lenny White’s project earlier this year – for four of the night’s 12 selections as a second guitar voice.

Best of all was a mid-set excursion through the Beatles’ Within You, Without You, whose mystic sounds, lilting phrases and abrupt stops saw Herring throttle forth, pull back, throttle forth again, and pull back across the song’s melody as the tempo sped up, forcing it to a point of almost unbearable tension before he exploded in a flurry of notes and tones and psychedelic effects, cleared the debris, and returned to the head. In a single song, it had all of what makes Jimmy Herring Jimmy Herring, and like the show itself, was an exhaustingly thorough showcase. You don’t want to see a guy like Herring taking on so much he’s distracted, but for a band with this breadth and depth, it’d seem cruel if this tour were the last of it.

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