photo: Dave Avidan (@davidanshots)

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Keyboardist Eli Winderman (Octave Cat, ex-Dopapod), bassist Jonathan Colman (Muscle Tough), and drummer John Morgan Kimock (Mike Gordon, Oteil and Friends) have formed an eponymous jazz-jam trio, the newest and most exciting this side of the Delaware River. They just released their self-titled debut LP – half originals, half covers – on vinyl, with a streaming launch slated for the end of the month. But on January 6th, before a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd at Philadelphia’s Silk City, the trio, joined by Winderman’s ex-Dopapod bandmate, guitarist Rob Compa, didn’t play a single tune from the new record. For that matter, they didn’t play a single tune from any record.

Instead, the evening served as the latest instalment of Colman’s “Dungeon Crawl” series, where he’s spent the last two years assembling groups of badass musicians to perform two sets of completely improvised music at Silk City on the first Tuesday of every month. The series grew from an improvisation manifesto – a Dungeon Master’s Guide, if you will – that Colman prepared over many late nights at bass retreats. The concept is simple: nix the setlists and rehearsals in favor of spontaneous composition and “on the spot” arrangement. Over the years, Colman has invited dozens of musicians into this laboratory, including members of the Disco Biscuits, JRAD, Lotus, Consider the Source, Dogs in a Pile, lespecial, snacktime, Paris Monster, and Out of the Beardspace, to name a few.

At this week’s show, coincidentally held on Colman’s 40th birthday – yes, there was cake! – the WCK trio and frequent collaborator Compa led the crowd through what felt every bit like a high-stakes homecoming. The atmosphere was quintessentially Philadelphia. Pre-show music from DJ O’Doyle Rules leaned into local nostalgia, dropping the iconic Action News “Move Closer to Your World” theme and “Go Eagles!” chants into classic soul grooves the likes of Roy Ayers Ubiquity’s “Everybody Loves the Sunshine.” By the time the quartet took the stage just after 8, the room was filled not with casual tourists but with the dedicated core of the city’s improvisational scene.

The first set was a masterclass in the organ-trio funk tradition of Medeski, Martin & Wood. (If you shut your eyes, you’d have sworn the year was 1998 and you were at Tonic.) Colman put his newest bass – a six-string Serek – to work immediately, using all the strings to move seamlessly between deep, thumb-heavy grooves and melodic chordal textures. The interplay between Winderman and Compa was telepathic, a byproduct of their long history that goes back to Berklee; as Winderman conjured whole-tone piano cascades from his four-keyboard rig, Compa answered with chorus-drenched altered dominant licks that more than satisfied the John Scofield fans in the room. For his part, Kimock channeled his inner Billy Martin, playing deceivingly complex rhythms with a snare that alternated from watertight to wide open.

Early in the set, Kimock took the band into a rhythmic clave, and Colman picked up the ball and ran with it, briefly dipping into Phish’s “Stash” territory before taking the jam to new heights. The  Dungeon Crawl philosophy of patient development was evident as he and Compa locked into a rigid pocket, allowing Winderman to transition from soul-style keys into a spiraling Hammond organ lead. As Colman dipped into his massive array of stomp boxes – the “crayon box,” as he calls it – Winderman covered the low end with his left hand, making room for his bandmate to shred otherworldly bass synth leads. Every member of the band had ample opportunity to play lead and supporting roles, and by the end of the set, they finished as one.

If the first set was late ‘90s Lower East Side funk, the second set was all jungle. After a brief birthday cake interlude, Kimock started in with drum and bass style playing that got the crowd moving immediately. (The sugar rush certainly didn’t hurt!) The quartet leaned into the marching band energy of an untethered ensemble, pivoting into an ambient, layered section reminiscent of The Siket Disc, which felt right on the heels of the recent YEMSG bustout of “Quadrophonic Toppling.” Winderman abandoned the piano for a darker, Bitches’ Brew era Herbie Hancock headspace, utilizing ring-modulator chaos that collided with Compa’s Middle Eastern-inflected runs. The music eventually settled into a Weather Report-style fusion freakout – perhaps a nod to Wayne Krantz, one of Colman’s greatest influences – before shifting one last time into a straight-ahead, jungle-beat finish. The band remained in a state of unified syncopation until the final big splash regroup.

Winderman, Colman, Kimock, and Compa proved that while an LP is a fine snapshot of an artist’s work, the real action happens live and in real-time, for those fortunate enough to witness master musicians lose themselves in the moment and the freewheelery of the unknown.