Jacob Wutzke Keeps It Cool at The 1905

The tendency for young musicians, especially those who work in the language of jazz, is to overplay. Can we blame them? After all the work they’ve put into studying and training on their chosen instrument, why not let ’em show off their chops when they’re onstage?

Drummer Jacob Wutzke, blessedly, took the opposite tack when he slipped behind his kit at The 1905 on Sunday, Feb. 16. Though he looks like he surely gets carded every time he goes near a bar, the young Montreal musician exercised the kind of restraint in his playing usually seen in players deep into middle age. He had the skills to go off—which he handily proved during the last song of his hourlong set—but preferred to let grooves and subtle shifts in dynamics set the tone for the evening.

All the better to amplify the finer details of his playing and that of his chosen cohort, guitarist Jack Radsliff and bassist Abbey Blackwell: the rattle of the bobby pins Wutzke had in one of his cymbals and his playful hi-hat work; Radsliff’s judicious use of effects and his tendency to sing a countermelody to everything he was plucking out; Blackwell’s understated, deep-pocket rhythms. And with this stripped-down trio, Wutzke’s original material had more time to breathe, allowing his melodies to linger in the air a lot longer.

The set was structured, it seemed, to reserve the trio’s energy for the last song of the night: the title track to Wutzke’s new album, You Better Bet. The tune was speedy and vertiginous, as if the drummer had spliced together rhythm phrases from his favorite jazz recordings. Showy? A bit, especially as Wutzke leaned in to some particularly vicious fills and cymbal splashes. Fun to experience firsthand? You better bet.