An improviser with a gorgeously rich, expressive sound, the trombonist, composer, producer and educator Nick Finzer has long been recognized as an expert musical storyteller. But with his new sextet album, Cast of Characters, available February 28th, 2020 through his label Outside in Music, he’s crafted his most profound narrative yet, an exploration of the formative figures we meet throughout our lives and how their impact changes over time. “Each of us responds and develops on our journey with the influence of the people we meet,” he says. “We follow, we depart, we react and we grow in myriad ways based on the experiences we encounter.”
Cast of Characters is much more than a tribute project or an homage to musical mentors; rather, it’s a probe into the nature of influence, containing a strong message of self-empowerment. As the title of the album’s final track puts it, “We’re more than the sum of our influences.”
To hear Finzer’s sentiments in action, you couldn’t do better than the brilliant rising stars of his longtime working band: multireedist Lucas Pino, guitarist Alex Wintz, pianist Glenn Zaleski, bassist Dave Baron and drummer Jimmy Macbride. These are musicians who reflect both rugged individualism and a reverence for jazz’s time-honored principles.
Utilizing the telepathic rapport his group has developed over the past eight years, Finzer is an Ellingtonian composer in philosophy, constructing parts to suit the specific gifts of his players, or placing his soloists into the sorts of demanding situations he knows will yield radiant results. “I wanted to feature everyone doing the things I know they’re really great at,” he says.
Finzer’s music also draws on influences from heroes like Maria Schneider and Bob Brookmeyer, composition-first progressives whose innovations remain accessible via breathtaking melody and harmony and often propulsive rhythms. On Cast of Characters, Finzer evinces their big-picture ideas and good taste—no solos for their own sake—yet still manages to dig deep into the language of great small-group postbop.
The sense of trust among the members, the elasticity that allows one improvisation to dovetail seamlessly with another, will put listeners in mind of benchmarks like Miles’ Second Great Quintet. Finzer’s effortless hookup with Pino, one of his closest friends and collaborators, can evoke the trombone-and-sax frontline chemistry of classic LPs featuring Finzer’s lodestars J.J. Johnson/Stan Getz and Curtis Fuller/Benny Golson.
Returning to the album’s story, Finzer explains how the crucial lead-off track, “A Sorcerer (is a myth),” reflects the creative heroes we encounter who seem at first to be otherworldly, larger than life. “But we find out that maybe what we thought was magic was really not magic at all,” he says. “It’s about dedication, hard work, seeking out mentors and the sheer determination to make your vision a reality.
“The whole musical journey of this album presents a collection of experiences based on the people who shape who we are. But ultimately we are the ones with agency to create our path.”
That Finzer is exploring concepts of both self-reliance and veneration shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who has followed his busy career. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School, he has counted among his trombone mentors Steve Turre and Wycliffe Gordon, and is currently the first Assistant Professor of Jazz Trombone at the University of North Texas, a landmark program in the history of jazz education. He’s earned a raft of honors, including two ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards, and has performed, toured, and/or recorded with a pack of lauded ensembles, among them Anat Cohen’s Tentet, Bob Stewart’s Double Quartet, the Dafnis Prieto Big Band, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and the Gil Evans Project led by Ryan Truesdell, the GRAMMY-winning composer/arranger who produced Cast of Characters.
It is through Outside in Music, Finzer’s media company and record label, that he best defines himself as a 21st-century jazz musician. “We really want to focus on developing releases for artists in a present-day model that includes visual elements, whether it be video or social media or all of the above,” he says, before pointing out that Outside in Music allows musicians to retain their hard-earned publishing rights. This full-service production organization also facilitates administrative help and affordable album promotion campaigns. Finzer’s own online presence is a lesson in ingenuity, from his virtual studio and other online teaching platforms to his blogging and a steady stream of new music and performance videos. Some of Outside in Music’s most critically celebrated releases, like saxophonist Roxy Coss’ Quintet and Airmen of Note pianist Chris Ziemba’s Manhattan Lullaby, feature Finzer as producer, another role in which he espouses an artist-first attitude.
These initiatives are ways for Finzer to bridge the gap between musician and listener. Cast of Characters, Finzer’s fifth release overall, is yet another. “The characters represent the archetypes of people we encounter throughout our lives,” he says. “I want the listener to project their own experiences onto this storyline, creating their own unique narrative with the music.”
In the end, the listener will also absorb and reflect on the cast of characters that is Finzer himself: a searching player with a trademark timbre; a creative educator given to using emerging technology; a bandleader with an ability to choose and elevate great talent; and a generous entrepreneur dedicated to his artists’ best interests. To say it more directly, he’s a quintessential jazz artist for our time.
http://www.nickfinzermusic.com
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