Featuring Preminger and his quartet – with trumpeter Jason
Palmer, bassist Kim Cass & drummer Ian Froman – in searching originals and
reimagined classics by Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Sam Cooke & Bruce
Hornsby
“He designs a different kind of sound for each note, an
individual destiny and story.” — Ben Ratliff, The New York Times on Noah
Preminger
As a musical protest at ominous political developments in
America, jazz saxophonist Noah Preminger presents his sixth album – Meditations
on Freedom – on Inauguration Day: January 20, 2017 (for digital release via Dry
Bridge Records, with CD on Feb. 3). It’s the third album featuring the tenor
player’s current quartet, with Jason Palmer (trumpet), Kim Cass (double-bass)
and Ian Froman (drums). Following two albums inspired by Delta blues, this new
recording finds Preminger and company reimagining – in intense, emotive
instrumental versions – classic politically charged songs by Bob Dylan (“Only a
Pawn in Their Game”), Bruce Hornsby (“The Way It Is”), Sam Cooke (“A Change Is
Gonna Come”) and George Harrison (“Give Me Love, Give Me Peace on Earth”). The
saxophonist’s deeply felt original compositions are titled “The 99 Percent,”
“Women’s March,” “Mother Earth,” “Broken Treaties” and “We Have a Dream,”
reflecting pressure points in contemporary society. Meditations on Freedom was
recorded – live on the studio floor with no edits – by engineer Jimmy Katz, as
with the two previous albums, Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground and
Pivot: Live at the 55 Bar. Not available on any streaming sites, Preminger’s
most recent recordings are exclusively offered for purchase, whether as digital
download or on CD, at noahpreminger.com.
Praising his “creativity and passion,” DownBeat called the
30-year-old Preminger “an old soul,” while the UK’s Jazzwise magazine declared
that the saxophonist “oozes integrity, authority and gravitas.” In other words,
Preminger has something to say and the means to say it. About Meditations on
Freedom, he explains: “I hope the titles of the original tunes – and the
encoded messages in the covers – can serve as a conversation starter for
listeners and ultimately raise awareness of some subjects I care about, whether
it’s women’s rights or climate change or the well-being of Native Americans. I
realize that the key thing I can hope to do with music – particularly
instrumental jazz, with no words – is to heighten emotions. That said, some of
the most beautiful, meaningful creations in the history of jazz have been
poetic statements of protest, like John Coltrane’s ‘Alabama’ or Sonny Rollins’
‘Freedom Suite’ and so many more great examples. I would never put myself in
that category, but I’m not alone among jazz musicians today who wonder why it
is that we do this. Ultimately it’s important to care about something larger
than yourself and that’s what I am trying to convey with this music."
“Artists should always try to really matter, and that
includes jazz musicians – we should strive to be relevant to the wider
conversations of our time,” Preminger continues. “I started writing the music
for this album on Election Day and came into the session a few weeks later with
just sketches for the tunes. I wanted Jason, Kim and Ian to react to the music
with immediacy – and with the hard feelings from the election fresh in our
minds. I come at the issues of the day from a progressive place, as do the guys
in the band. This group is made up of open-hearted, forward-minded people, and
that’s ideal for conveying emotion in a strong way, whether the music is the
deepest blues or about spiritual protest. The recording process was honest,
unadulterated. And our recording engineer, Jimmy Katz, is integral to that
process. He and I see eye to eye when it comes to intensity in music.”
To Katz, a renowned photographer as well as a recording
engineer, the content of Meditations on Freedom matched the method of capturing
it, just as with the previous studio album of blues interpretations, Dark Was
the Night, Cold Was the Ground. “Noah likes to record live with everybody right
next to each other just like on the bandstand, with no booths or headphones –
so there’s a lot of subtle communication among the band,” he explains. “And
we’re presenting full, unedited takes, no edits or fixes. It’s indeed as honest
as it can be, so that the true emotion and intensity of the music comes through
to a listener as if the band were right there in front of you, like with a
performance in a club.”
Preminger’s previous albums Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the
Ground and Pivot: Live at the 55 Bar earned wide acclaim for their emotional
intensity and individualist engagement with the blues. Of Dark Was the Night,
Cold Was the Ground, the Boston Globe said: “Tenor saxophonist Preminger – a
master with standards and ballads, as well as an adventurous composer and
bandleader – continued the exploration of the blues that began with last year’s
Pivot: Live at the 55 Bar, this time with a collection of early Delta bluesmen,
in original, imaginative arrangements…. Preminger lets a little Ornette into
his sound to join Coltrane and Rollins. One of the most emotionally satisfying
discs of the year.” All About Jazz, reviewing Pivot – recorded in 2015 at the
55 Bar, a gritty Greenwich Village nightspot – extolled the saxophonist’s
record-making virtues at length: “In an age when accomplished young jazz
musicians are prone to making recordings that are simply too cautious, too
precious, obviously ‘dressed to impress,’ or too complicated to digest in one
sitting, Pivot: Live at The 55 Bar is a welcome blast of gritty, fearless,
sweaty, and intelligent hard-core jazz.” Meditations on Freedom is cut from
much the same musical cloth, albeit with the aforementioned political thoughts
to the fore.
About the members of his quartet, Preminger says: “Jason has
amazing technique, along with a beautiful tone and a rare sense of harmony and
rhythmic freedom. He’s the complete improviser – a badass dude, as well as a
sweetheart of a guy. Kim Cass and I went to the New England Conservatory
together. He has this warm, crisp sound. He’s a great texturalist, but you can
also hear each note he plays – uncommon among bass players. And Ian Froman has
this incredible energy, driving everything. This quartet is devoted to a
certain ideal of playing – swinging hard but with harmonic freedom, plus a
blues phrasing in our minds. As I said, this band is all about conveying spirit
and emotion with immediacy and intensity. The long jazz tradition is inside us
even as we’re working very much in the present, with the issues of today on our
minds in every sense.”
Noah Preminger has performed on stages from Boston and New
York to Europe and Australia, playing with a wide range of jazz greats
including Dave Liebman, Dave Holland, Fred Hersch, Dave Douglas, Victor Lewis,
John and Bucky Pizzarelli, Billy Drummond, George Cables, Roscoe Mitchell, Dr.
Eddie Henderson, Cecil McBee, John McNeil and Frank Kimbrough. As The Boston
Globe says: “He plays with not just chops and composure, but a distinct voice:
His approach privileges mood and reflectiveness, favoring weaving lines that
can be complex but are also concise, without a trace of over-playing or
bravado.” The Boston Phoenix declared:
“Preminger’s sound is beholden to no one. That makes him continually unpredictable
and continually satisfying.”
A native of Canton, Connecticut, Preminger has released six
critically acclaimed albums. His 2008
debut Dry Bridge Road was named Debut of the Year in the Village Voice Critics
Poll, along with making Top 10 Albums of the Year lists in JazzTimes, Stereophile
and The Nation. In 2011 Palmetto Records
released Preminger’s next album Before the Rain, an essay in atmospheric
romance that blends virtues both modern and old school. Reviewing that album,
All About Jazz said: “Sensitivity and an ear for aural sophistication are the
hallmarks of tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger.”
Preminger’s third album, Haymaker (Palmetto, 2013), features the
saxophonist in mostly original material (plus a Dave Matthews cover and a tune
from Annie for good measure). In The New York Times, Ben Ratliff said: “Mr.
Preminger designs a different kind of sound for each note, an individual
destiny and story,” while Nate Chinen chimed in, too, lauding his “darkly
shaded… warmly expressive” tone and his “fluency, prudence and control.” The
Boston Globe called Preminger’s music “impressive, challenging and beautiful.”
In autumn 2016, Preminger followed his fiery, blues-fueled
quartet discs Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground and Pivot: Live at the 55
Bar by showing his more intimate, romantic side again with a collection of
ballads, Some Other Time, released exclusively as a vinyl LP by Newvelle
Records. He recorded this with a dream band featuring Monder, bassist John
Patitucci and drummer Billy Hart. All About Jazz, reviewing Some Other Time,
said: “With this all-star band in tow, Preminger does what he does best: He
tells a compelling story without frills – and he does it better than he has
ever done before.”
