Despite the wintry chill of the first day of December, one could hardly feel anything but the intense heat emanating from the Jazz Battle at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. The battle was between alto saxophonists Ben Van Gelder and Aaron Holbrook, with the Winard Harper Trio acting as the band for the musicians to build upon. With Gelder hailing from Scandinavia and Holbrook representing Boston, the two did their hometowns proud by being able to compete with the likes of the Winard Harper Trio.

Beginning the show by showing the audience just who they were dealing with, the Winard Harper Trio opened the set with a numbing performance. Starting out with an up-beat jazz number, the trio warmed up, all showing their respective musical chops. With Ameen Saleem providing a steady rolling bassline and Winard Harper keeping a loud and charged tempo, their pianist, a twenty-one year old prodigy from the New School, would take center stage, displaying a wealth of musical poignancy almost unthinkable for such a young man. Setting the mood by either striking sharp chords or by rolling off subtle arpeggios, the pianist would allow his musical cohorts to improvise with him. Saleem would remain steady throughout the performance, dishing out walking bass lines that Harper would complement with vibrant strikes of the cymbals or inventive rhythm combination of high-hats and snare. The band’s overture was greeted with staggering applause, setting a high standard for the two young combatants to follow.

Gelder and Holbrook began their competition by doing a jazz standard with the rest of the band; the two would wedge in their solos in between numbers. At times, the two young competitors would trade standards, each performing or leading off a number with the accompanying trio. However, one lost sense of the competitive nature of the meeting and became engrossed in the sheer talent of each member of the jazz group.

Gelder showed off his repertoire of alto saxophone knowledge, delving into winding and major arpeggios that would trail seamlessly with the sonic back-up provided by Harper’s trio. Gelder proved himself a former saxophonist, sustaining long barrages of notes on extremely high pitches, still managing to let loose a river of legato major scales which managed to bring some peace to the raging fire of the band’s performance.

Holbrook was by no means outclassed; matching Gelder’s sweeping melodic trails with minor staccato bellows, Holbrook displayed a confidence and raw power in his playing that only added to the fervor of the music. Letting loose strong bursts of notes, Holbrook captured the audience’s attention with his deep sonic one-shots.

Saleem proved himself the talented bassist by keeping time with a rolling bass line. His hands conveyed a fervor that his maintained exterior did not compromise in the slightest; with fingers plucking wildly and his hands crawling all over the neck, Saleem showed the rest of his musical cohorts just why exactly he was on stage beside them.

Harper proved himself to be the center of the performance. Letting loose an explosive barrage of percussive chaos, Harper unveiled a mania in his drumming that left the mind numb and one’s ears ringing. Smashing a mind-boggling number of beats per second, Harper would instill life into the performance by detonating a sonic land-mine the likes of which are too concussive to remember. Harper would crawl over the drum set, at times manually smashing cymbals (without sticks, that is), at others displaying percussive dexterity by using one drumstick as a slide for which to other to ride to its destination. Harper made his presence known, displaying a height of musical vigor that is hard to encounter.

Listening, I lost sense of the battle component of the performance; each player managed to so seamlessly complement the others style that I didn’t feel as if you were watching a musical competition, but more of a reunion between veteran players. ‘