Xylyn Hathaway Quintet

Lineup: Xylyn Hathaway, bass; Logan Strosahl, saxophone; James Powers, trombone; Dae Bryant, drums; Tim DuRoche, drums.

Xylyn Hathaway has become a conduit of vulgar-beauty-jazz music that sinks its teeth into the space it fills. They paint canvas into composition and wield an upright bass like a bazooka, exploding hearts open, peeled backwards into a bouquet of manic laughter from the pit of your chest. Xylyn is a cherished figure and friend in the jazz community, born on Earth, one stone’s throw west of the palpitating heart of downtown Portland, Oregon. She plays with cats like George Colligan, like Ron Steen, like anybody making big, nasty music to be hurt and healed in this wet crow city. As a band leader, their musical vision unfolds, sprouting dimly lit behemoth architecture, oozing spirits from the gills as it gasps for its first breath beneath thumps quantized in fractals. She propels a soloist or a broken poet off cliffs into Jupiter’s hurricane eye. Xylyn’s music exudes peace and play, dancing between us, around us, below the violent ocean dismembered by big old stones.