"'Tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation."
The words of Sir John Falstaff, Shakespeare's great tragicomic rogue, grace the
inside cover of Persistent Fancy, the latest release by saxophonist/composer
Kyle Nasser. Granted, Nasser's passionate pursuit of jazz is more easily
defensible than Falstaff's chosen profession of purse-snatching, but The Bard's
use of eloquent language in the mouth of such an incorrigible, gluttonous
rascal has a strong appeal for the saxophonist, who strikes his own musical
balance between the cerebral and the sensual.
Persistent Fancy is
highlighted by a pair of three-part suites that straddle that boundary: the
"Baroque Suite," inspired in particular by Shostakovich's Preludes
and Fugues, foregrounds the elegance of classical composition, while the
"Eros Suite" dwells on the carnal, tracing the stages of desire from
initial attraction through consummation to reflection. As with all of Nasser's
music, however, the intellectual and the emotional coexist vividly in both,
epitomizing the same mix of impulses that makes Shakespearean characters like
Prince Hal so compellingly complex.
"Prince Hal had a very dissolute upbringing, palling
around with Falstaff, this fat, comic philosopher, then has to leave that
behind to become King Henry V," explains Nasser, who explores the prince's
maturation in his piece "The Ascent of Henry Monmouth." The wry
wisdom of Falstaff echoes that of Svidrigailov in Crime and Punishment, whose
words provided the epigraph for Nasser's previous release, Restive Soul.
"I always find that the best insight in literature comes from the most
evil characters, or at least the characters that live outside the
mainstream."
In assembling the ensemble to breathe life into the music of
Persistent Fancy, Nasser surrounded himself with stellar musicians who can
deftly navigate the blend of intricacy and fire that these compositions
require. Guitarist Jeff Miles and keyboardist Dov Manski return from Restive
Soul; drummer Allan Mednard has worked with the likes of Kurt Rosenwinkel and
Melissa Aldana, bassist Nick Jost swerves between acoustic jazz virtuosity and
powerhouse electric playing with heavy metal band Baroness, and Cuban-born alto
saxophonist Roman Filiú is an innovative voice who has performed with Henry
Threadgill, David Murray, and Chucho Valdés.
Much as Shakespeare's young prince changed paths to follow
his life's true calling, Nasser switched gears at a key moment in his own life
- albeit somewhat less dramatically. Where Hal left behind a misspent youth to
rule a kingdom, Nasser changed his focus from Economics and Political
Philosophy, which he studied at Harvard, to pursue his love of jazz after
crossing paths with iconic pianist Hank Jones. He went on to Berklee College of
Music and hasn't looked back since, though he's never wholly turned his back on
his intellectual and literary interests.
Persistent Fancy, in fact, takes its title from an idea
posited by the poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge (best known for
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"), who contrasted the invention of
new concepts (imagination) versus the assembling of pre-existing thoughts or
notions (fancy). Nasser comes down on the side of 20th century critic T.E.
Hulme, who countered that modern art should thrive on fancy as it relates to
familiar experience rather than high-flown fantasies.
"I was thinking about the way that thoughts tend to
recur over and over again," Nasser says. "Even if they're not the
deepest thoughts in the world, they can be insistent and keep coming back so
that you can't shake them. That's not imagination, it's not earth-shattering,
it's fancy - persistent fancy." The title track is built on that sort of
insistent recurrence, with recurring melodic lines over a cyclical ostinato.
Playing from the gut is one way of praising impassioned
musicality, but it became a very literal struggle for Nasser during the writing
of this album. Persistent pain prevented him from playing for a time, until a
physical therapist finally discovered that scar tissue in his abdomen was the
cause; it was during Nasser's recovery that several of the pieces on Peristent
Fancy were composed, including the opening piece, "Split Gut," which
celebrates the recovery of his voice in dialogue with Roman Filiú's alto.
The surging "Arrival" was initially written for a
trio gig in Chile, where Nasser was collaborating with his bandmate in the
collective quartet Beekman, Chilean drummer Rodrigo Recabarren. Miles is given
free rein to shred over the bombastic grooves of Jost and Mednard on
"Sticky Hipster," named in homage to the rock-inclined denizens of
Nasser's Brooklyn neighborhood.
Despite following the "Eros Suite," Nasser's
"3-Way" takes its title from a radio term, not a sexual innuendo. On
the air it refers to a conversation between three people, reflecting the
tripartite melodic voices of the composition. The album's sole non-original
tune is "Arioso," an excerpt from German composer Paul Hindemith's
"Ludus Tonalis." Finally, the ebullient "Coffee and
Cannabis" ends the album on a joyful note, finally giving in to those
minor vices that may not provide a vocation but can make life that much more
enjoyable.
A Massachusetts native and graduate of both Harvard and
Berklee, Kyle Nasser has been described as possessing "superlative
musicianship as a performer, writer and a bandleaderŠardent creativity and
urbane artistic composure" (All About Jazz). Since moving to New York City
in 2010, he has played at some of the city's most prestigious venues -
including the Blue Note, Smalls, Iridium, 55 Bar, and Cornelia St. Cafe - and
has toured the U.S. and South America. Nasser has shared the stage with jazz
luminaries such as Jim Hall, Hank Jones, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Rich Perry,
Ethan Iverson, Michael Formanek, and Ben Monder, among others. In addition to
leading his own group, he also plays with and composes for the international
collective Beekman, whose sound has been described as "a joyful and
continued speculation flowing in almost all facts with surprising ease"
(Jazz, ese ruido). Nasser's 2015 debut, Restive Soul, features his quintet
presenting "a collection of sophisticated and complex modern jazz
originals" (Jazz Weekly). The album's songs weave together sonata forms,
baroque to 20th century counterpoint, and modern rhythms with modern jazz
vocabulary. "The saxophonist's debut is knotty with a contrapuntal weave
of voices, bumpy mixed meters, and alternating rhythmic currents that
nonetheless groove, sometime with a rocking edge" (Boston Globe).
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