by Stephanie Manning
Arts Renaissance Tremont keeps things fresh — after all, the ‘R’ in ART stands not just for “renaissance,” but also “reimagined.” The organization’s embrace of experimentation and creativity keeps their programming memorable among Cleveland’s many arts offerings.
It’s inevitable that taking those risks means they might not always pay off. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth it.
“UnchARTed Territory,” the first concert of ART’s 35th season, exemplified this idea. On September 19, the audience arrived eagerly and early to Pilgrim Congregational Church in Tremont, prepared to watch a group of five jazz musicians work together for the first time. Each player had composed a short piece (or two) for the occasion, and those of us gathered would watch them rehearse and then perform the music. An intriguing premise.
Ultimately, the freewheeling concert structure resulted in the musicians spending much more time talking than they did playing. Sometimes the talking was to the audience’s benefit — pianist Addison Frei, bassist Todd Coolman, drummer TJ Reddick, trumpeter Omar Lateef, and saxophonist and flutist Charles Pillow each got to explain their compositional inspirations and thought processes.
The rehearsal segments, though, didn’t really add to the listener’s understanding of the music, and they were complicated by microphone issues and crosstalk. There was a lot of waiting for the music to start — but once it did, the vision of the concert began to come together.
Todd Coolman, playing an electric bass rather than an upright due to a recent thumb injury, said his love of harmony inspired “The Neophyte.” Gentle and tropical, the piece conjured up a gentle summer beach between the swish of the cymbal and the melody shared between flute and muted trumpet.
TJ Reddick’s “Lonely Road” created a similarly relaxed air as well as a self-reflective one — Reddick explained that the music helped him process his current stage in life. With its swung, relaxed rhythms, the piece did feel like an inner monologue, the kind of thing you would listen to while out walking in New York City. Addison Frei contributed a clever, twisting piano solo before the music gradually faded away.
Poet Henry David Thoreau is the “Brother Henry” referenced in the title of Charles Pillow’s piece, a tribute to the musician and poet’s shared love of the natural world. The music combined an energetic, pointed opening with a more relaxed, saxophone-led section. But it was difficult to get the full sense of it, as the players only rehearsed it in chunks before intermission was called.
The most programmatic piece was Addison Frei’s “King’s Strut,” which used musical elements to correspond to what Frei witnessed on a safari in Tanzania. The laid back swagger of the lion came through in the drums and the abrupt moments of silence, while the fluttering trumpet and saxophone imitated the skittering of gazelles.
The two pieces Omar Lateef brought were just as fun as Frei’s, starting with “Roots,” which featured an active bass line groove inspired by Lateef’s hometown of Detroit. And the breathlessly fast “Go Time,” the program’s closer, imitated how Lateef and his wife often get their kids up and out of the house.
“Good luck, everyone,” Lateef said cheekily, before the quintet fearlessly gave their all — the trumpeter particularly showed his virtuosity with a dexterous solo. Hard to believe that this was technically a rehearsal.
Photo by Gary Adams Photography
Published on ClevelandClassical.com September 30, 2026
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