The timing couldn't have been better. A cloudless Sunday afternoon, nowhere to be and no obligations to keep. A quick train ride out of the city proper to the sprawling Bois de Vincennes, home to ponds overflowing with lilies, sun-dappled paths, and a summer-long jazz festival. I had come to see Hyperactive Kid. I knew absolutely nothing about them, but was hooked by their name; more fitting for strung-out kids making music on Gameboys in a dorm room than three well-dressed young Germans, playing their heartfelt, unique brand of jazz to hundreds of retirees in a park outside of Paris.
The set-up is deceptively simple; drummer Christian Lillinger takes center stage, to his left stand saxophonist Philipp Gropper and seven-string guitarist Ronny Graupe. The first piece has no identifiable head section; instead it starts with an unassuming drum solo, building into a skittering, wavering crescendo of polyrhythmic frenzy. And when Gropper enters the mix, he doesn't match the drummer's speed nor his flailing energy; instead striking a counterpoint, moving through the harsh clatter like a dumb animal, long, gurgling notes that rarely stick to Lillinger's insane rhythms. He shifts from time to time into Ornette Coleman territory, almost melodic patterns that never quite resolve, never quite give you something to hold on to. Guitarist Graupe sometimes mirrors Gropper’s wailing, cacophonous melodies, the two parts intertwining, sometimes indistinguishable.
Yet it is Lillinger who steals the show. At first glance he is Greg Saunier, Deerhoof’s (jazz-trained) virtuoso, always on the edge of losing all control, yet doing so with pinpoint accuracy Then he is Inspector Gadget, pulling Purim groggers, bells, shakers out of thin air and incorporating them into his never ending study in the absurd. When he grabs a megaphone from behind his kit, running across the stage and creating rhythms with his breathing patterns, jaws start dropping. Arcade Fire theatrics for the sexagenarian crowd.
I left euphoric. I had come with no expectations, no point of reference. What I experienced was better than a great performance; it changed my idea of what jazz could be.
Hyperactive Kid's website: hyperactivekid.de
Hyperactive Kid's MySpace: www.myspace.com/hyperactivekid3
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