Composer and drummer Harris Eisenstadt is a relative rarity – a composer and a drummer. But in his quintet, Canada Day, percussion isn’t up in the listener’s face; it creates textures – skittery, angular, even sometimes hushed – and intriguing, interlocking off-kilter structures. Drums, vibraphone and double bass build the foundation for floaty blasts and scrawls of trumpet and sax. This show at the Timucua White House is presented by the Civic Minded 5, whose selections can sometimes be a bit challenging; Canada Day, while avant-garde, isn’t made of such stringent stuff. The quintet’s exuberant melodicism (and the resemblance of their 2009 self-titled debut to Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch) means fans of jazz along the spectrum from ’60s post-bop to more recent experimental outings will be pleased. – Jessica Bryce Young
This article appears in Feb 22-28, 2012.
