Ari Hoenig burns bright in New York's underground jazz scene, regularly getting shine almost every Monday at Smalls Jazz Club. There you can witness firsthand what many hardcore jazz fans revere: his deft use of polyrhythms, metric modulations, and displacements.
The drummer got a considerably bigger spotlight this year as one of the headliners of the 2017 Bucharest Jazz Festival. From Romania, we talk to the Brooklyn-based drummer about his first album in five years, The Pauper & the Magician, and the many magical ways he can manipulate rhythm; momentarily make time signatures disappear; and superimpose new drum patterns on a set beat out of thin air.