Tomeka Reid, Mazz Swift and Silvia Bolognesi met for the first time in 2009, on the date of their first performance as the string trio Hear in Now. When the trio took the stage at D.C.’s Black Cat at the Home Rule festival in June 2023, the music they created together evinced the nearly 15 years they’d spent growing together — as their trio; as collaborators supporting musical legends from the avant-garde to hip-hop; and as friends.
The things Hear in Now can do together onstage, particularly in their extended segments of free improvisation, are astounding: Lush, spontaneous arrangements spring forth from dissonant frenzies, then settle into undulating grooves. And while it’s exciting to be able to say that what we captured in 2023 is a one-of-a-kind performance, made unique by the trio’s extensive improvisations, the performance grounds itself in their recorded work as well: Look towards the end of the set for their graceful landing in “Malitalian Lullaby,” a callback to their 2012 debut album.
When three bowed string players play improvised music in the Black American Music tradition, it’s almost impossible not to experience that music in dialogue with the western classical tradition. But Hear in Now seems to throw off that yoke almost entirely, at least for me, and I hope for you too. When I listen back to this concert, I just hear three women making music entirely their own — music unlike any I’ve heard before or since. // Jamie Sandel, CapitalBop
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recorded June 23, 2023 at Black Cat – Washington, DC
CapitalBop x Home Rule Music Festival present: Hear in Now
Silvia Bolognesi — bass
Tomeka Reid — cello
Mazz Swift — violin
produced by: Jamie Sandel / All Power Media for CapitalBop
cameras: Jamie Sandel + Lauren Honesty
live/intake engineer: Elisa Binger, Black Cat
mix engineer + video editor: Jamie Sandel
The editing and publication of this video was supported by a grant from HumanitiesDC as part of the Humanities Grant Program, an initiative funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.