Rob Ewing belongs to a long, honorable and frustrating lineage of Bay Area musicians whose consistently inspired creative output is matched by a seeming indifference to self-promotion.
A passionately expressive trombonist, skilled bassist, effective drummer and often brilliant arranger, Ewing has forged enduring ties with a fascinating community of musicians, artists steeped in jazz, but unconcerned about traditionalist notions of “the canon.”
On Saturday, Ewing performs at Jupiter with his band Disappear Incompletely, an ensemble that explores the music of Radiohead. Marked by elliptical melodies, buzzing textures and slippery grooves, the music ebbs and flows according to its own inner logic, shifting tempos and dynamics unpredictably.
The band has been developing its Radiohead repertoire for the past few years, while maintaining a core membership that includes a cadre of musicians who are also inventive bandleaders, such as saxophonist Patrick Cress — whose mercurial quartet Telepathy has been a Bay Area mainstay for the past decade — and saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, who co-leads the stellar Permanent Wave Ensemble, which explores the music of the inestimable composer/arranger Carla Bley.
Keyboardist Michael Coleman, percussionist Jamie Moore, and bassist Eli Crews round out Disappear Incompletely, which is also joined by special guest Rebecca Griffin, a resourceful vocalist who brings vulnerability and self-possession to an expansive repertoire.
Andrew Gilbert lives in west Berkeley and covers music and dance for the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe and East Bay Express.
