Featuring an all-star multi-generational cast with flutist
Nicole Mitchell, clarinetist Marty Ehrlich, trombonist Michael Dessen, pianist
Joshua White, drummer Jim Black,
and newcomer David Morales Boroff on violin.
Mark Dresser makes music in a vast variety of settings and
contexts, but the dauntingly prolific bassist always seeks to create space for
the unpredictable play between form and freedom. On his new album Sedimental
You, slated for release on Clean Feed on November 10, 2016, he's assembled an
astonishingly creative cast that embraces the intuitive and emotionally charged
nature of his improvisational imperative. Riveting, playful and often
revelatory, his compositions emerge out of a shifting matrix of specific
musical personalities and the often dismaying swirl of current events.
Working with a supremely gifted septet, Dresser brings
together emerging talent and revered veterans from East and West Coast scenes.
In many ways, Sedimental You builds directly on orchestrational concepts he's
been exploring in smaller ensembles, and relationships he's honed via telematic
connections (which enable musicians in different locations to perform live in
real time via high speed/high bandwidth links.)
None of the music is programmatic, but the porous nature of
the compositions means that the world's joys and woes seep in. Mocking
denunciations and ache-filled reveries flow into open-hearted evocations of
beloved colleagues, both departed and still very much with us. Dresser notes
that he always writes with specific musicians in mind, "and I really had
Marty's clarinet sound in my ear. I've had lots of groups with Michael Dessen,
who's a virtuoso trombonist and an invaluable collaborator in my groups and
telematic projects. And Jim Black is a force of nature, who I worked with most
often in New York and on Japanese tours as the rhythm section for Satoko
Fujii."
Dresser started working with Nicole Mitchell after she
joined the faculty up the road at UC Irvine, a relationship expanded by
collaboration via telematics. He's played several high profile concerts in her
ensembles, and she's become an important part of his West Coast quintet.
"She's a wonderfully open collaborator, a great soloist, with superb
musicianship and a buoyant musical spirit." Dresser says.
San Diego pianist Joshua White is a rapidly rising star
who's toured internationally with Rudresh Mahanthappa's Bird Calls project.
With a potent array of influences at his fingertips, from gospel and spirituals
to free improvisation, he quickly fell in with Dresser after the bassist moved
to town and discovered "an amazing talent with incredible ears and
intuition," Dresser says. "He's a fearless improviser whose musical
instincts I completely trust."
The album's wild card is violinist David Morales Boroff, the
youngest player on the project. In a serendipitous connection, he's the son of
esteemed folk guitarist Phil Boroff, who happened to give Dresser's mother
guitar lessons back in the 1970s. "David's got a freaky ear," Dresser
says. "I'd give him one of my tunes and he'd be at the piano reharmonizing
it. He has a beautiful violin sound and a soulful lyricism that belies his age
"
The album opens with "Hobby Lobby Horse," a tricky
tune built from bass line up with a derisive hitch in the groove. The title
track slyly refers to the 1932 Tommy Dorsey hit "I'm Getting Sentimental
Over You." Drawing on the cadences of the original, he recalibrated the
harmony to evoke its sound and mood. The heart of the album is "Will Well
(For Roswell Rudd)," a startlingly tender piece that Dresser conceived
with the trombone legend (and frequent collaborator) in mind. He first played
the tune in a trio with White and drummer Kjell Nordeson, but this extended
version brings out everyone's sumptuous lyricism, particularly when Mitchell's
throaty alto flute winds around Ehrlich's woody bass clarinet. "It's an
incantation of sorts for Roswell," Dresser says.
Dresser's strikingly beautiful tribute "I Can Smell You
Listening (for the late Alexandra Montano)" evokes the boundless spirit of
the extraordinary mezzo-soprano who contributed memorably on the 2005
Dresser/Denman Maroney album Time Changes (Cryptogramophone). An extended
melodic line that rises and falls, fades and reappears, the tune features some
of Ehrlich's most ravishing clarinet work. He offers a different kind of lament
with "Newtown Char," a piece he created in response to the
unfathomable massacres in Connecticut and Charleston, SC. Structurally and
emotionally, it's the album's centerpiece, a plaintive unfurling melody keyed
to the thick, woody sound of Ehrlich's bass clarinet. The album closes with the
brief, elegiac theme "Two Handfuls of Peace (for Daniel Jackson)," a
celebration of the revered San Diego tenor saxophonist who died in 2014 at 77.
Amidst a steady flow of recent albums, Sedimental You stands
out as Dresser's most ambitious work as a bandleader. April saw the release of
The Moscow Improvisations by Jones Jones, a volatile collective trio with
Russian percussionist Vladimir Tarasov and ROVA saxophonist Larry Ochs. And in
March the talent laden SLM Ensemble released Source (Liminal Music), a large
group project co-led and conducted by Sarah Weaver featuring masters such as
vocalist Jen Shyu, flutist Robert Dick, percussionist Gerry Hemmingway, and
saxophonists Jane Ira Bloom and Marty Ehrlich.
Born in Los Angeles, Dresser has been a creative force since
he first started gaining attention in the early '70s with Stanley Crouch's
Black Music Infinity, a free jazz ensemble that included Bobby Bradford, Arthur
Blythe, James Newton, and David Murray. He earned a BA and MA from UC San Diego
studying contrabass with Bertram Turetzky. While on a Fulbright in Italy
studying with maestro Franco Petracchi, Dresser was recruited by Anthony
Braxton for his celebrated quartet with Gerry Hemingway and pianist Marilyn
Crispell. Dresser made the move to New York in 1986 and spent a decade touring
and recording with the reed visionary. A ubiquitous force on the Downtown
scene, he worked widely with masters such as Ray Anderson, Tim Berne, Anthony
Davis, and John Zorn.
A prolific composer and recording artist, Dresser developed
many pieces for the Arcado String Trio, and Tambastics, while receiving
numerous commissions and recording his original scores for several classic
silent films, including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Since returning to
Southern California in 2004 to join the UCSD music faculty he's maintained
creative relationships with many of his New York associates, though the move
west coincided with his renewed focus on solo bass performance and telematic research.
Recommitted to working with larger groups, he's once again the catalyst for a
roiling creative community, work that earned him a prestigious Doris Duke
Impact Award in 2015. More than impactful, Sedimental You is music to recharge
your ears, agitate your soul, and open your mind.
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