The Fire and Water Quintet — Myra Melford , Mary Halvorson , Ingrid Laubrock , Tomeka Reid , and Lesley Mok — performs at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center Performance Hall on April 19, 2024. If we are to trot out the “supergroup” trope — more marketing schlock than anything — may all supergroups be like Fire and Water.
The Fire and Water musicians sounded, undeniably, like themselves. Together, they sound like little else on today’s jazz scene. Melford applies that same balance of liberty and structural rigor in her treatment of the band. Her compositions frequently divide the quintet into sub-units of three and two, one with the melody and the other accompanying.
Pianist Myra Melford performs as part of the Fire and Water Quintet at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center Performance Hall on April 19, 2024.