Jojo Mayer

Having established himself drumming w/ the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Nina Simone, Mayer has been hammering out drum and bass riffs for a long time since. I caught him last night in a performance w/ his three-piece group Nerve.

The hype in the sardine-packed joint was tangible, and Mayer's riffs inspired people to hoot and holler throughout the set. Even though there were a couple of times when the music seemed pretty holycrapthisongisolamespeciallytheterriblekeyboard but at other times, my jaw was on the floor wondering how Mayer was producing beats that usually require supercomputer-generated algorithms, and my best efforts couldn't keep me from busting out a bit.