Steven Lugerner Gravitations Vol. II The
greatest improvisers keep an eye open for stimulating new musical settings. San
Francisco Bay Area woodwind expert Steven Lugerner, a rising star with a bevy
of exceptional albums, has proven adept at creating situations that take jazz's
foremost masters into unexpected realms. His latest album, the digital-only
release Gravitations Vol. II, is a gorgeous duo project that places piano great
Fred Hersch in an entirely new context.
The
recording with Hersch, a key mentor for Lugerner, is just one of several
exceptional projects that the 26-year-old has on tap this summer. He joins
forces with alto sax legend Charles McPherson on a June 5 program produced by
Palo Alto Jazz Alliance at the Mitchell Park Community Center in Palo Alto.
On June 6,
Lugerner presents his new band SLUGish Ensemble at the Center for New Music in
San Francisco, a 10-piece ensemble bristling with brilliant Bay Area
improvisers including trumpeter Darren Johnston, saxophonists Cory Wright and
Patrick Wolff, and drummer Michael Mitchell. SLUGish Ensemble also performs
July 27 at the Stanford Jazz Festival with special guest star Allison Miller in
the drum chair.
"When
I was in New York I got really interested in writing for a larger
ensemble," Lugerner says. "These pieces are very influenced by Maria
Schneider, John Hollenbeck, John Zorn, and composers like Steve Reich, John
Adams, and and Nico Muhly."
Honoring
the storied drummer Tootie Heath is the motivation behind several concerts by
the Richard Sears Sextet, which performs June 11 at the Blue Whale in Los
Angeles and June 12 at Piedmont Piano in Oakland (this band will then record at
Fantasy Studios). Lugerner was part of the ensemble when it premiered Sears's
suite designed to showcase the drum maestro last year, and he'll be
contributing on bass clarinet and alto sax with Patrick Wolff on tenor sax,
Kirk Knuffke on cornet, and Heath himself on drums.
"Richard
wrote this suite specifically with Tootie in mind, and he did an incredible job
writing something that is simultaneously adventurous and that draws from the
tradition," Lugerner says. "There's a lot of seriousness in that
music and a lot of joy, and Tootie embodies that whole ethos."
Lugerner delves into the music of another jazz
legend on The Music of Jackie McLean, an album slated for release in the fall
featuring Jacknife, a hard-hitting West Coast post-bop quintet. Exploring tunes
from McLean's seminal early- and mid-1960s Blue Note albums Jacknife, It's
Time, Let Freedom Ring,and New Soil, the session brings together a formidable
cast of rising talent, including pianist Richard Sears, bassist Garret Lang,
drummer Michael Mitchell, and trumpeter JJ Kirkpatrick.
Lugerner
recorded Gravitations Vol. I in 2013 with guitarist/banjoist Angelo Spagnolo,
and the concept for the project flowed from some of the free improvisation
practices that Lugerner learned from Hersch in 2008 as part of a Carnegie Hall
Foundation workshop (so it's hardly surprising that he sought the pianist out
for an encounter). He recorded Hersch early one morning at his Soho apartment
in the spring of 2013, looking to capture the first music that he played that
day.
"The
idea is to record the first few phrases or gestures that come out
involuntarily, whatever your hands or brain gravitates toward," Lugerner
says. "I'll take eight or maybe ten minute-long snippets, transcribe them,
and then I orchestrate woodwind parts on top of the original layer. Sometimes
I'll do an exact orchestration of what they're doing, and other times I'll
harmonize parts on top."
The
resulting music is unlike anything else in Hersch's extensive discography of
duo encounters. Familiar but strange, Gravitations Vol. II is a beautiful and
intimate conversation which distills something essential about Hersch's music,
turning his building blocks into sturdy but fanciful and self-contained
edifices.
Born (May
20, 1988) in Redwood City and raised in Burlingame, just south of San
Francisco, Steven Lugerner moved to New York in 2006 to attend the New School
for Jazz and Contemporary Music where he graduated with honors four years
later. He moved back to the Bay Area in 2013 to take a position at the Stanford
Jazz Workshop and has maintained a bicoastal presence ever since.
In a
relatively short period of time Lugerner has collaborated with a heavyweight
roster of jazz masters, including pianist Myra Melford, percussionist John
Hollenbeck, tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens, altoist Miguel Zenón, soprano
saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, flutist Jamie Baum, and drummer Matt Wilson. A
skilled and diversified woodwind doubler on saxophones, bass clarinet, Bb clarinet,
oboe, English horn, flute, and alto flute, Lugerner makes music that's
gloriously his own whatever horn he plays, while attracting some of jazz's most
vividly identifiable voices as creative partners.
Steven
Lugerner in Performance:
6/5 Charles
McPherson Quintet w/ Andrew Speight & Steven Lugerner, Mitchell
Park Community Center, Palo Alto (presented by Palo Alto Jazz Alliance)
6/6
SLUGish Ensemble, Center for New Music, San Francisco
6/11
appearing as part of Richard Sears Sextet featuring Tootie Heath, Blue Whale,
Los Angeles
6/12
appearing as part of Richard Sears Sextet featuring Tootie Heath, Piedmont
Piano, Oakland (to be recorded)
7/27
SLUGish Ensemble, Stanford Jazz Festival
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