Featuring trumpeter Josh Reed, alto saxophonist Aaron Wolf,
guitarist Justin Rock, and bassist Tyler Harlow, Never Weather is more than the
sum of its considerable players. Heady and intricate but never over-thought or
busy, Vado’s music reflects the collective personality forged by musicians
trained in the art of careful, responsive listening. “I don’t want a book,”
says Vado, 28. “There’s a difference between a band and a book. I want to play
with these guys and go deep into this music.”
The album opens with the insistent, rebounding theme “Never
Catch Up,” a kinetic, headlong blues form that turns into a vehicle for Reed’s
expansive, conversational trumpet. “Mask” is a mysterious ballad, a
rising-and-falling soundscape that summons the spirit of Paul Motian. The
band’s gift for melodic invention is on full display with “There Is No Secret,”
a rolling theme by Rock that features some particularly graceful rhythm section
interplay and the composer’s sly guitar work.
The album’s centerpiece is the evocative title track, which
wends through a variety of thoughtful moods as it builds slowly to a
beautifully calibrated guitar passage. While not through-composed, the piece is
less a launching pad for solos than a kinetically detailed portrait of a vexing
emotional state. A recently coined word describing the pleasure of being in a
special place and realizing your presence damages the location, “Blissonance”
is an almost programmatic work that maps treacherous inner terrain.
Part of what makes Never Weather’s performances so
enthralling is the calm decision with which the group flows from passage to
passage, no matter the tempo. Solos often serve as commentary on the passing
scene, rather than as digressions. With “Medium” Vado constructed the narrative
after the fact, editing and layering improvisations played independently by Rock
and Wolf to create an ethereal dialogue.
But most of the action takes place in real time. No piece better captures the
group’s poise and attention to detail than “Always Setting,” a spacious,
attenuated melody connected by a mobile bass line. It’s an intricate chamber
jazz piece that gradually gains gravity without density.
Vado’s sequencing adds to the album’s overarching feel of
tension and release, as five brief tracks punctuate his full compositions.
Sometimes it’s just a deep breath before a plunge, like the mid-conversation
trumpet fanfare of “No Grasp.” And sometimes a brief track contains a world
unto itself, like the lapidary closing version of Thelonious Monk’s rarely
played “Introspection,” a piece referenced earlier in hard-to-identify fragments.
“Some of the short tracks function as a buffer between two
intense tunes,” Vado says. “The second day of recording I got about 8-10
minutes of improvised material from each player and I wanted to use those
little bits. We also recorded ‘Introspection’ at a bunch of different tempos.
When you arrive at the piece at the end of the album I want it to feel like
you’ve heard it before.”
Blissonance is the latest dispatch from an artist who has
quickly moved to the front ranks of the Bay Area scene. While gigging steadily
as a drummer he’s gained as much attention as a vibraphonist, winning 1st place
in the 2014 Jazz Search West competition on the instrument. In 2017, he was
chosen for the Buddy Montgomery Jazz Legacy Award through the California Jazz
Conservatory, where he earned his undergraduate degree the same year. He’s an
essential component in some of the region’s most acclaimed bands, playing vibes
in drummer Alan Hall’s Ratatet and trumpeter Erik Jekabson’s String-tet, and
drums in Jekabson’s Electric Squeezebox Orchestra.
In addition to Never Weather, Vado wears his drum hat in
Beyond Words: Jazz and Poetry, a project he co-leads with poet Amos White. He
plays vibes and marimba in his group The Table Trio with bass master Jeff
Denson and drummer Hamir Atwal. Over the past five years he’s also performed
with makland Drummer/Composer Dillon Vado Unleashes Exquisite
Brain Storms With Blissonance, the Debut Album by His Quintet Never Weather.
Growing up in San Jose, Vado was surrounded by music. He
started playing drums at eight, studying with a family friend while playing in
school band programs throughout middle and high school. He played snare drum
with the Santa Clara Vanguard and studied music full time at West Valley
College, where he turned his attention to the vibraphone. Transferring to the
California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, he went on to earn his Bachelor’s
degree in 2017.
While he considers himself blessed with a thick network of
creatively ambitious collaborators, Vado isn’t given to seeing divine messages
in his music. He notes however that a sign from above greeted the first Never
Weather formation. Playing outdoors with Rock and Harlow at Harlow’s church in
2018 “it was one of those magic gigs where everything lined up musically,” Vado
recalls. “We were playing ‘Round Midnight,’ and as Tyler bows the last two
notes two shooting stars went by right behind the audience.”
A different form of divine intervention led to him expanding
the ensemble in the form of a voice mail message from pianist and jazz guru Art
Lande. “He said that Josh Reed was moving to town, that he’s a great that you
have to play with him. We did an Electric Squeezebox Orchestra gig and he
ripped it up.” Calling Wolf, an old friend from San Jose, came in a moment of
inspiration. They’d been out of touch for a while, when Vado reached out to him
and the timing was perfect. The saxophonist was eager for a challenging new
situation.
“I picked every member really carefully,” he says. “No one
really knew each other. Aaron and Josh have tons of mutual friends and hit it
off. Aaron did his master’s at the University of Nevada, Reno and Josh just
took over Ralph Alessi’s gig there.”
A snapshot of an evolving ensemble, Blissonance is the work
of restless intelligence and bountiful heart. Vado wasn’t looking to make an
album when he got the players together “but the group dynamic came together
quickly and I realized that I needed to document this,” he says. The cover art,
a shot by award-winning National Geographic photographer Tom Schifanella, is
icing on the cake. Taken with image, Vado contacted him and quickly reached
generous terms to use the photo. “A lot of stuff lined up for this album,” he
says. “I’m really proud of the sound of the record and the tunes.”
No comments:
Post a Comment