Violinist/ and composer Sam Bardfeld is fearlessly unique and
expressive. He is the product of an NYC upbringing in the 70s and early 80s,
which was, he says, "both a dysfunctional and fantastic place to grow up,
specific in time and place but also typical of the violence and regeneration
inherent to America and some of the strange beauty it produces. Music was
everywhere for a curious kid (Central Park rumba circles, 3 A.M. recording at
CBGBs, Don Cherry at Soundscape when the cops raided, Zorn squealing
mouthpieces at the Kitchen, high as a kite for Ravi Shankar at Carnegie Hall.)
The decrepit splendor left an inescapable imprint on my young self."
Bardfeld has been influenced by many high-profile musical
associations and experiences, including being a member of The Jazz Passengers
and a frequent collaborator of Bruce Springsteen (a veteran of three recordings
and two tours). Bardfeld's playing is featured in Roy Nathanson's Sotto Voce
and Joel Harrison's String Choir, and he has toured or recorded with jazz
groups like Michael Attias' Sextet, Butler/Bernstein and the Hot 9, Steven
Bernstein's MTO, Anthony Braxton's Trillium Orchestra, Vince Giordano and The
Nighthawks, the String Trio of NY, and Royal Hartigan's Blood Drum Spirit. Outside the jazz world he has toured or
recorded with Calexico, John Cale, Debbie Harry, The Red Clay Ramblers, and
Johnny Pacheco, etc. He has also worked with Elvis Costello, John Zorn, Kris
Davis, Willie Colon and Hank Roberts among many others. Bardfeld is also the
author of the book Latin Violin (Hal Leonard, 2002) on the Afro-Cuban violin
tradition.
Bardfeld's previous recordings, Taxidermy (CIMP, 1999) and
Periodic Trespasses (FreshSounds, 2006) have both earned acclaim, including a
four-star rating in DownBeat Magazine, raves in JazzTimes, Jazziz and four
stars in All Music Guide for both recordings. Bardfeld has taken his groups to
festivals and clubs throughout Europe including Banlieues Bleues Jazz Festival
(Paris), Sud-Tirol Jazz Festival (Italy) and Porgy and Bess (Vienna). After a
long hiatus of twelve years since his last release, Bardfeld and Brooklyn Jazz
Underground Records proudly announce the release of his new recording, The
Great Enthusiasms (BJUR 064), featuring pianist Kris Davis and drummer Michael
Sarin. Available September 29, 2017.
The trio's music falls somewhere in the overlapping vectors
of inside ('harmony-based'),outside ('free') and downtown jazz. Bardfeld has
created his own jazz violin language that lies in between the straight-ahead
violinists and the free-jazzers. The Penguin Guide To Jazz (5th ed.) states,
"Bardfeld has devised a language which takes in classical models, jazz
harmony and pure sound". His playing swings hard and integrates
abstraction and expressiveness. One can hear references to a wide range of
musicians that stretch from Stuff Smith, Lee Konitz, and Eric Dolphy, to
'post-jazz' contemporaries like Mary Halvorson. Kris Davis is a perfect foil
and it's a little bit of a revelation to hear her brilliance and creativity in
all the varied contexts Bardfeld creates. Michael Sarin (Dave Douglas, Thomas
Chapin, etc) brings his tremendous gifts for orchestration, musical wit,
sympathetic dialogue and overall intelligence. The unusual instrumentation,
with no bass, creates extra harmonic and textural space and adds intimacy to
Bardfeld's unique compositions.
Much of Bardfeld's favorite American music is eccentric and
forward while grounded in the vernacular. "Maybe it's not a total accident
that my three most important employer-mentors are all great musician-poets of
weird America and all with significant local roots: Bruce Springsteen, Roy
Nathanson (Jazz Passengers), and Anthony Braxton. Bruce is (among other things)
a poet of the noir side of the city - the ne'er-do-wells and hookers and guys
looking for a piece of the action. Roy's stories, musical and literate, are
infused both by Dolphy and a New York urbanity that is universal in its
eccentricity and vulnerability. The time I spent performing and recording
(soloing on an 'avant hoedown') in Braxton's 'Trillium J' Opera was also a
profound education in the lengths to which a complex, idiosyncratic personal
language can be developed and yet represent a uniquely American story,"
explains Bardfeld in the album's liner notes.
More on the music on The Great Enthusiasms: The song titles
of Bardfeld's compositions are all derived from Richard Nixon quotes --
principally from his resignation speech, in which Nixon quotes Teddy Roosevelt.
"Fails While Daring Greatly" is a bluesy chamber-jazz piece from
outer space. Bardfeld's solo is a whimsical post-bop jaunt and Davis' a
muscular free jazz statement. Sarin adds his characteristic humor, sympathy and
coloristic genius to the whole endeavor. "Resignation Rag" combines a
modified second-line groove with a futuristic violin melody that, with its
swoops, pops and wide intervals, evokes Stuff Smith and Dolphy. Bardfeld's and
Davis' interplay sounds telekinetic. Davis' solo statement and duet with Sarin
evoke a freewheeling Monk. "Winner Image" starts out with a slow
building and virtuosic violin solo by Bardfeld weaving in and out of harmony.
Davis creeps in with an off-kilter ostinato leading to a head with Tim
Berne-like tension. The rendition of the classic Springsteen/Patti Smith tune,
"Because the Night," skews the intervals of the original piano vamp,
making it a weirder sort of night. The cohesion of the verse turns into a free
chant-like chorus summoning nocturnal passions. "The Great
Enthusiasms" is an Andrew Hill-like post-bop swing tune with a touch of
folksiness. Davis' solo brings out the bi-tonality of the writing while
Bardfeld moves from harmony into a short free duet with the pianist. The Band's
"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)," is a playful re-imagining, with
Davis covering the proto-synth bass part in her lowest range and splotchy
chords in her highest. Bardfeld solos mightily over the verse changes and Davis
ends the song with an eloquent solo statement that re-connects with the song's
subject matter, the hardships of a depression-era sharecropper. "The 37th
Time I Have Spoken" starts with Bardfeld strumming ethereal chords on the
violin as Davis and Sarin engage in quiet dialogue. A mix of meditation and
mayhem ensues and the piece closes as it started with ethereal dialogue and
strumming.
The Great Enthusiasms is Bardfeld's 'weird America' record.
A reflection on American music in all of its glorious eccentricities, and
simultaneously an affirmation that artists must rise up and create and perform,
especially in the face of abject political dissoluteness in the Trump era.
Bardfeld elaborated, "Nixon's resignation speech was my first memory of
being part of a collective political body...Though Dick was a paranoid, hateful
crook, there's intelligence and complexity in him that one cannot imagine
existing inside our current president. During this current dark stain in our
country's history, let's continue to make weird, joyous art."
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