On the heels
of a busy year of sideman work with kris Bowers, Cory Henry, and principally
José James, with whom he recorded the critically acclaimed While You Were
Sleeping (Blue Note), emerging guitarist Brad Allen Williams announces the
release of his debut LP Lamar.
In a deceptively
bold departure from current vogue, Williams and bandmates Pat Bianchi (Hammond
organ) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) largely eschew overt high concept or
purposeful displays of technical or harmonic virtuosity in this set. "This
album is exclusively about creating and capturing a feeling, and this is
reflected not just in the choice of material and musicians, but also in the way
I produced the album, and the recording techniques we chose."
Indeed, the
all-analog nature of Lamar stands out as unique. "The vinyl release of
this will have never touched a computer at all. It was recorded with the three
of us in one great-sounding room together using the best analog tape machines
and a great analog engineer. The decision to opt for this process was a musical
one. From my work as a producer, I've become convinced that most often the
humanity lies in the little hiccups; the little mistakes. Too often
contemporary recording techniques allow us to go in and sanitize things to
satisfy our ego-- our desire to airbrush the blemishes out to present the best
possible version of ourselves. It's human nature to want to do that, but the
problem ism the listeners respond to, and relate to, the tiny flaws that reveal
our humanity. Tiny things that seem egregious to the musicians themselves are
only audible to the audience as a subconscious sort of warmth and honesty.
That's the stuff I wanted to protect.
The analog
recording and mix process is just a way to enforce that. It makes you ask
yourself 'is this really getting in the way of the music?' 99% of the time it's
not-- in fact, it's better than that; it's human, it's real, and it's
evocative. It makes you less likely to sacrifice the moment for the sake of
presenting... not a performance exactly, but sort of a highly-retouched
showcase of instrumental skill. I'm bored of that. I wanted to trust the moment
and create recordings of performances."
The album's
palette may seem a bit of a departure to those who follow Williams's sideman
work (Ann Powers of NPR compared his playing on While You Were Sleeping to both
Jimi Hendrix and The Edge), but the direction on Lamar is supremely honest.
"This group was born out of years of this trio playing together in various
configurations. Those familiar with Tyshawn's more visible work, or with my
more visible work, might be a little surprised to hear us this way, but I think
these are our roots, all of us. I feel proud to have captured that on a
gorgeous-sounding, high-fidelity analog record, and with such high-level
musicianship from my collaborators."
Lamar is
slated for a September 4, 2015 release.
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