Phillips’ Protocol V consists of Ernest Tibbs/b, Alex Sill/g, Jacob Scesney/sax and Dennis Hamm/key, who you wouldn’t have known just joined the team this week unless the leader had mentioned it. The band was tighter than Beyonce’s Super Bowl halftime outfit as they delivered a 90 minute mix of material from their most recent album and tidbits here and there from the past.
Phillips drove the band like an MG around the windy roads on the intricate and exciting “Jagannath” with tricky guitar licks by Sill, synthy sketches from Hamm and fire from Scesney’s alto, which then hovered like a helicopter with some wild dynamics on the deep soul groove of the snappy “Isosceles”. Hamm and Phillips created some tropical moods as Scesney’s tenor and Sills strings went in unison lines on the earthy “Nyanga” before Phillips went into high hat heaven as he changed grooves like gears on a Maserati on the funky riff fest of “Pentangle”.
The highlight, however was a three song suite of “Dark Star/Red Rocks/The Long Road Home” that was reminiscent of a 70s Yes album side, filled with ambition, colors and directions. Phillips described the opening as a “jazz rock ballad-go figure!” with Scesney starting things off with a sinewy soprano sax before Sill took over with a gorgeously jaw dropping acoustic guitar workout. Tibbs then got his chance for a lovely aria as he glided around Phillips before Dennis stretched out some keyboard concepts and the leader whipped everyone together and corralled them into a galloping climax of a close.
For the closing “Manganese” Phillips delivered a red meat of a drum intro to the ravenous audience, starting with crisp snares, slowly adding some rumbling tom toms and finally popping the clutch for a rocking gallops as Scesney and Sill raced to the end of the evening in a photo finish. Phillips summed up the song as well as the evening when he exclaimed, “It’s difficult, but fun!”. The ears got a workout, but everyone in the audience had a smile as they hung on with white knuckles as Phillips lit the fuse of fusion this Saturday night.
Upcoming shows at The Baked Potato include Marvin “Smitty” Smith 04/18, Charles Ruggiero 04/19, Bunny Brunel’s CAB 04/20, Albert Lee 04/21 and Robbie Krieger 04/27-28
