Trondheim plugs into The Hub
Trondheim, Norway, November 23, 2001

By Baar Stenvik

Some of us have for quite some time now longed for the darker side of jazz-rock. Something with a bite, something a bit dirtier. And then suddenly it came to Trondheim on the November 23, 2001. It came from Brooklyn and its name was The Hub. And then it left again, leaving the lucky 50 or so people who actually showed up at the concert completely baffled.

The Hub went on stage with a minimal setup: a stripped drum set, an electric bass of the good old fender kind, and an alto sax. The music, however, was almost violently intense in its mood changes and constant genre switches. The Hub draws on a variety of styles including metal, hip hop, funk and jazz. And they end up with a sound that is definitely their own Hub-ish mix. At times it sounds like the tunes arise from contrasting textures as much as chords and melodies. Like when bassist Tim Dahl goes straight from sounding like a spastic deconstructionist Jaco Pastorius, to generating a carpet of aggressive, flowing sound with the help of a fuzz box.

The sense of timing of the musical elements is one of the group’s strengths. They know when to groove and when not to, and they do both convincingly. The material is all their own (except a charming tongue-in-cheek rendition of “Doxy” as an encore) and they know the tunes well. The overall feel is energetic, aggressive – but then again suddenly comes a soft peace, and the contrast makes it even more so.

I’m sure many people would shake their heads at the musical leaps and bounces performed by The Hub during this concert. However I find one of the most amazing things is that this sounds so right. So strange, yet so logical. At one moment Sean Noonan is hitting his drums with something that very much resembles pure rage and hatred, and a red-faced Dan Magay is forcing angry and desperate sound from his saxophone – the next moment they are both playing lightly, delicately, controlled, with a subtle sense of humor. And their presence in the music at all times makes it sound like a completely natural musical progression.

I sincerely hope, and I think there’s a very real possibility that I may sometime in the future be able to brag about having attended a The Hub-concert as early as in 2001, at a time when only 50 people showed up, and few of them had ever heard of the band before. It is a shame that perhaps the best concert arranged by Trondheim Jazzforum this year attracted so few people. The next time The Hub show up in Trondheim, I hope the number of attentive listeners will be multiplied at least by five.

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