Teaming Grdina with the limitless pianist Matt Mitchell and
the playfully experimental drummer Jim Black, Gordon Grdina’s Nomad Trio
refuses to set down stylistic roots throughout its debut album Nomad, due out
January 10, 2020 via Skirl Records
A musician’s life is an inherently nomadic one, which can
make things difficult when trying to get three of modern jazz’s most in-demand
artists into one room at the same time. Vancouver-based guitarist and oud
player Gordon Grdina had wanted to bring together pianist Matt Mitchell and
drummer Jim Black for several years before their busy schedules allowed them to
finally join forces. The results turned out to be well worth the wait, as
Nomad, the debut from Gordon Grdina’s Nomad Trio, is a thrilling high-wire act
of complex interplay and sparks-flying electricity.
Nomad, due out January 10, 2020 via Skirl Records, will be
released shortly before Resist, a politically-charged album by the Gordon
Grdina Septet on saxophonist Jon Irabagon’s Irabagast label. The Nomad Trio
music was penned by Grdina with these musicians and their vast array of
experiences in mind – an idea that the composer found incredibly liberating.
“Knowing what Matt and Jim can do, the possibilities were wide open,” he says.
“I could be as imaginative as I wanted to be, which was really exciting.”
The name of the trio definitely reflects the members’
travel-heavy lifestyles, but in the case of Grdina, Mitchell and Black it also
points to the wandering tastes and wide-ranging inspirations of all three
musicians. Grdina’s music explores uncommon convergences between adventurous
jazz and improvisation, indie rock and classical Arabic music. His diverse
projects bridge the divides between contemporary chamber music and avant-garde
experimentation, combining unique artists and instrumentations to craft singular
sonic landscapes in projects like Square Peg (with Mat Maneri, Christian
Lillinger and Shahzad Ismaily), The Marrow (with Mark Helias, Hank Roberts and
Hamin Honari) and his Quartet with Oscar Noriega, Russ Lossing, and Satoshi
Takeishi.
Mitchell’s boundary-free playing roams between the acoustic
and the electronic, the intricately composed and the extemporaneously
improvised, meshing with the soulful strains of the Dave Douglas Quintet, the
expansive labyrinths of Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, and the metal-jazz fusion of Dan
Weiss’ Starebaby alike. Black’s forward-thinking approach to the drums came to
prominence in the ground-breaking quartet Human Feel before joining Berne’s
influential quintet Bloodcount, and has since forged a unique path splicing jazz
with rock, electronica and Balkan influences through bands like AlasNoAxis and
Pachora.
In Mitchell’s case, Grdina praises the pianist’s keen focus,
saying, “There’s always an intensity to Matt’s playing that I love. He’s
somebody that really pushes the music and is one hundred percent committed to
it.” As for Black, whose playing has been an influence on both of his
triomates, Grdina says, “Jim is able to take these off-kilter rhythms and make
them sound cohesive. No matter how adventurous I was in my writing, he made it
all groove, so that even the most complicated music feels good, like it all has
a backbeat.”
That combination of the joyful and the cerebral is vividly
on display out of the gate, as opener “Wildfire” captures the beauty and
violence of animals in their natural habitat. Like many of Grdina’s
compositions, its title comes from the site of its inception: “Wildfire” was
composed while he was an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and
Creativity in Alberta, Canada, an institution renowned as much for its natural
splendor as for the brilliant music it has spawned. “You’re writing music in a
cabin while deer stroll right up to your window, You’re literally in the wild”
Grdina recalls. “That beauty is part of it, but the song also has this fire and
intensity to it.”
Opening with a knotty solo statement from the bandleader,
“Nomad” offers a mission statement for the trio, its gnarled melodic line
embodying the restlessness and search for a foothold suggested by the name.
Mitchell’s churning solo joins with the tumultuous rumble of Black’s drums to
conjure a sense of unsteadiness that bleeds into Grdina’s assertive, serrated
turn. “Ride Home,” written while Grdina was wrapping up an exhausting tour with
a rock band, feels laden with the edgy weariness and tense anticipation of a
long-overdue return,
The haunting “Benbow” recalls a stay in a historic northern
California hotel, its age present in both alluring and unsettling ways that
reminded Grdina of the ill-fated Overlook Hotel from The Shining – albeit in
the much more inviting summer months. The album takes a turn for the autumnal
on “Thanksgiving,” written during the holiday but also in gratitude for the
opportunity to play with such stellar musicians. Mitchell’s shimmering introduction
to “Lady Choral” reflects the music’s origins in a dream – one in which Grdina
humorously struggled to pronounce the name of fusion guitarist Larry Coryell.
The slip of the tongue produced this stunning, chorale-like piece that is the
album’s sole showcase for Grdina’s virtuosic oud playing.
“It feels like all of us are constantly moving, both
literally and musically,” Grdina sums up. “Everybody’s always touring like mad,
and musically it feels like we have to find our roots wherever we happen to be.
It’s a fascinating challenge to stay
grounded while doing things you’ve never done before and moving in new
directions toward places you’ve never been.”
Gordon Grdina is a JUNO Award winning oud player/guitarist
whose career has spanned continents, decades and constant genre exploration
throughout avant-garde jazz, free form improvisation, contemporary indie rock
and classical Arabic music. His singular approach to the instruments has earned
him recognition from the highest ranks of the jazz/improv world. Grdina has
studied, composed, performed and collaborated with a wide array of
field-leading artists including Colin Stetson, Gary Peacock, Paul Motion, Jerry
Granelli, Mats Gustafsson, Dan Mangan, Mark Feldman, Eyvind Kang, Matt Mitchell
and Jim Black.
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