Sam Bardfeld Trio | "Refuge"

Violinist and composer Sam Bardfeld proudly announces the release of his new trio album, Refuge, the follow up to the critically-acclaimed The Great Enthusiasms, his second for Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records, and his fourth as a bandleader. On Refuge, available March 24, 2023, Bardfeld once again called upon the eclectic, multifaceted propulsion of drummer Michael Sarin, and welcomes into the fold, the virtuosic and creative pianist Jacob Sacks. 

A refuge is a haven, not an escape. It’s a space to exercise one’s idiosyncrasies. This album serves that purpose for Bardfeld, Sarin and Sacks. It also serves as further expression of Bardfeld’s penchant for the tradition of “weird” iconoclasm in American music. It is no accident that critics place Bardfeld in this tradition of Monk, Ives, and Stuff Smith. As Bardfeld states, “It is one of humanity’s great cultural feats. The joy, the darkness, and the eccentricity of American culture are our birthrights, our refuge.” 

The music on Refuge follows a similar line to its predecessor, The Great Enthsusiams. It is at once lyrical, quirky, forward-looking, and deeply rooted in tradition. Bardfeld’s playing swings hard and integrates abstraction and expressiveness. One can hear references to a wide range of musicians stretching from Stuff Smith, Lee Konitz, and Eric Dolphy to 'post-jazz' contemporaries like Mary Halvorson. Sacks is an excellent harmonic partner and his piano virtuosity and off-kilter sense of humor fit perfectly into Bardfeld’s world. Sarin 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. 

In addition to five new Bardfeld compositions, the trio covers two songs that fit the theme - Andrew Hill’s ‘Refuge’ and Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Atlantic City.’ Bardfeld explains, “Andrew Hill has been called ‘one of the great overlooked geniuses of jazz’ because of his commitment to a singular, unconventional voice - a personal language that, like that of his hero Monk, is angular, lyrical, and harmonically unique. ‘Refuge’ is the opening track of his magnum opus, Point of Departure (1964). The song ‘Atlantic City’ is a personal favorite among Springsteen’s recordings (from his 1982 Nebraska album). It is a vision of hope and refuge in a noir world. As the chorus states, ‘everything dies, baby, that’s a fact, but maybe everything that dies someday comes back.’ Bardfeld had the pleasure of recording and performing this song on tour with Springsteen and it stuck with him. 

Both Bardfeld’s playing and writing for this trio are unique and Sacks and Sarin inhabit his musical universe beautifully. Sam is a teller of musical stories that are odd, poignant, lyrical, and in the American tradition. He says, “As there is community in the expression of shared joy, there is community in weird, personal, iconoclastic stories and voices. With America’s recent flirtation with autocracy, these stories are more salient now than ever.” 

Bardfeld holds a unique niche in the jazz violin world with his fluency in inside, outside, and downtown worlds. He is a rarity in being both an accomplished jazz violinist and a true artist with a unique improvisational and compositional voice. Outside of his own trio, Bardfeld is a member of The Jazz Passengers and a semi-frequent collaborator of Bruce Springsteen's (a veteran of three recordings and two tours). He has worked as a sideman for a long list of jazz, pop, folk and experimental acts including Anthony Braxton, Henry Butler, Kris Davis, John Zorn, Ingrid Laubrock, Tomeka Reid, Steven Bernstein, Roy Nathanson, Hank Roberts, Vince Giordano, Elvis Costello, Calexico, Debbie Harry, John Cale, Savion Glover, The Red Clay Ramblers, Nancy Sinatra, Willie Colón, Johnny Pacheco, and Dar Williams, among others. Sam is also the author of Latin Violin, considered the seminal text on the Afro-Cuban violin tradition. Bardfeld has taken his groups to festivals and clubs throughout Europe including Banlieues Bleues (Paris), Sud-Tirol Jazz Festival (Italy) and Porgy and Bess (Vienna). 

On top of the release of Refuge on March 25, 2023, new collaborative/sideman projects this year include being asked by MacArthur Grant recipient Tomeka Reid to participate in a new string quartet dedicated to performing the music of Julius Hemphill. The Hemphill Stringtet debuted in 2022 with appearances at the Berlin Jazz Festival, and the Frequency Festival in Chicago. Bardfeld has also joined a new collaborative trio with jazz legend, drummer Barry Altschul and bassist Joe Fonda.