Hailed by
DownBeat Magazine for her "remarkable artistic facility" and by The
New York Times for her "remarkable balance of fluidity and restless
creativity," New York-based flutist/composer and 2014 Guggenheim Fellow
Jamie Baum is proud to announce the release of her sixth CD as a leader,
Bridges, featuring The Jamie Baum Septet+. The highly anticipated follow-up to
her 2013 recording In This Life, Bridges offers yet another recording of
incredible depth, beauty, spirituality, undiluted zeal and is the culmination
of Baum's search for common links between some of the world's great religious
music traditions. While conducting research for her Guggenheim Fellowship
Award, Baum explains, "I found there to be very deep connections going
back centuries, between certain types of Jewish music (my earliest musical
influences), and Muslim/Arabic and Hindu/South Asian music." Exploring
these musical connections, and composing new music inspired by her findings,
became the focus of Bridges.
Baum's
advanced harmonic sensibility and sonic imagination, beautifully brought to
life by the stellar members of her long-running ensemble, proves yet again the
capacity of modern jazz to absorb and transform music of diverse traditions,
without sacrificing the improvisatory element at the core of jazz's identity.
In her album notes Baum cites Wikipedia's definition of the word
"bridge," one that seems to sum up her artistic mission here: "a
structure built to span physical obstacles without closing the way underneath."
At the same time, Baum's musical wanderings highlight something even deeper:
our shared humanity, and the common threads that run throughout our history.
With great
respect for these varied traditions and their vast languages, Baum's goal was
not to play or compose exactly in these styles, but to have her travels and
playing experiences inspire new ways of writing and improvising. The diverse
musicians who make up the Jamie Baum Septet+ are all first-call artists on the
jazz scene, many of them accomplished leaders in their own right. Their
presence gives Baum limitless compositional freedom and inspiration:
"Having specific players to write for is a bandleader/composer's dream and
offers an incredible opportunity for experimentation and growth," she says.
We hear this borne out in the lyrical melodies, intricate contrapuntal passages
and complex rhythmic ideas at the heart of Bridges, and in the textural warmth
and surprise of Sam Sadigursky's alto sax and bass clarinet, Brad Shepik's
guitar, Amir ElSaffar's trumpet and voice, John Escreet's dazzlingly virtuosic
piano and of course Baum's compelling improvisations on flute and alto flute
throughout the album.
Baum's
fascination with world sacred music traditions stemmed from her love of South
Asian music and in particular for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistan's late
Qawwali vocal master. Her previous album In This Life was inspired by Khan's
legacy, because she "found in him what I have found in those musicians who
have touched me, like Coltrane, Miles and Pavarotti...a truly gifted, deeply
spiritual and soulful artist," Baum writes in her album notes. Expanding
her focus from Qawwali outward to other forms of religious music, Baum arrived
at the focus of Bridges.
Khan's
influence is also felt on "Joyful Lament," derived from a melody of
Khan's called "Lament," Baum explains. This piece was arranged with
Shepik's guitar in mind, and "his solo certainly exceeds anything I could
have imagined," Baum enthuses.
In addition
to her study of Khan, Baum's travels to India and especially Jazzmandu, the
Kathmandu Jazz Festival, in 2003 and again in 2009, widened her musical
horizons immeasurably. The three-movement "Honoring Nepal: The Shiva
Suite," a centerpiece of Bridges, represents Baum's wish to give back to a
community that has given her so much. The piece was commissioned by the Rubin
Museum of Himalayan Art in New York. "It was difficult to watch the pain
and destruction the 2015 earthquake caused to the beautiful people and historic
sites in Nepal, including musicians I knew and places I'd been," Baum
writes. "I knew I wanted to highlight and pay tribute in some way to this
event and found inspiration in a painting of Shiva ... a pan-Hindu deity
revered widely by Hindus in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Shiva is the 'destroyer
of evil and the transformer' within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity that
includes Brahma and Vishnu. Shiva is the Supreme Being who creates, protects
and transforms the universe. Completely contradictory aspects of life have been
built into the personality of Shiva.... A particular 'thank you' to my rhythm
section [Escreet, bassist Zack Lober and drummer Jeff Hirshfield] for their
drive, sensitivity and expertise in navigating and highlighting the changing
colors, dynamics and intensity, giving so much meaning to the arc and intent of
this suite!"
The Nepali
influence emerges again on "Mantra," arranged by Baum with Nepali
musician Navin Chettri, who plays tanpura and sings on the track. The tune is
based on Mahamrityunjaya Mantra "meant for healing, rejuvenation and
nurturance," Baum writes. "According to Shiva Purana when you have
fear of any unknown event this chant helps you to overcome the fear. The Shiva
Purana is the highest science of elevating human nature to the very peak of
consciousness, expressed in the form of very beautiful stories."
"From
the Well" opens the album with the sound of a scale "common to Maqam,
Jewish and South Asian music," writes Baum. "Song Without
Words," a tribute to Baum's late father, highlights the composer's Jewish
influence - in particular the Kol Nidre prayer so central to the holiday of Yom
Kippur. "There Are No Words," with its relaxed straight-eighth feel
and beautiful chamber-like interplay within the ensemble, revisits the theme of
loss as well. And the closing track, "Ucross Me," was written during
Baum's residency at the UCross Artist Colony in Clearmont, Wyoming in March
2015. It's a piece "about crossing boundaries and connecting
influences," Baum writes, encapsulating the theme of Bridges as a whole.
In addition
to her Guggenheim Fellowship (an honor she shared the same year with Steve
Coleman and Elliott Sharp), Baum was awarded the 2017 New Music USA Project
Grant and selected as a 2014-15 Norman Stevens Fellow during her MacDowell
Colony residency. Baum's exemplary career has been built on superlative
performances in the studio and on stages around the world, alongside a long
list of renowned jazz artists including Randy Brecker, Mick Goodrick, Tom
Harrell, Dave Douglas, Fred Hersch, Uri Caine, Ralph Alessi, David Binney,
Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith and many others. She has placed in the
DownBeat Critics' Polls annually since 1998 and has been nominated by the Jazz
Journalists Association as "Flutist of the Year" eight times; the Jamie
Baum Septet+ was nominated in 2014 as "Best Midsize Ensemble of the
Year" in the same category as the Wayne Shorter Quartet and Steve
Coleman's Five Elements. She has received support from the National Endowment
for the Arts, International Jazz Composers Alliance, Meet the Composer, Chamber
Music America and the American Music Center. Her playing credits include tours
as a State Dept./Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador, in 1999 to South America and
in 2002 to India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Thailand and Bangladesh. Baum has served
on the faculty of the jazz department at Manhattan School of Music since 2007
and on the adjunct faculty roster at the New School University since 2004.
Altus Flutes/KHS America has sponsored her innovative clinic "A Fear-Free
Approach to Improvisation for the Classically Trained Musician"™ at
colleges, conservatories, festivals, flute clubs and "music and art"
schools worldwide since 1993.
Other Upcoming Tour Dates, With Jamie Baum & Short Stories:
Jamie Baum & Short Stories: Jamie Baum-flutes, Andy Milne-piano,
Andrew Rathbun-sax, Joe Martin-bass, Jeff Hirshfield-drums
April 13 - University of Wisconsin-Madison, concert & workshops
April 14 - The Glen, Glenview, IL, afternoon concert
April 14 - Constellation, Chicago, IL, evening concert
April 15 - Chicago Flute Club, afternoon concert & workshop
April 15 - The Jazz Estate, Milwaukee, WI, evening concert
April 16 - Western Michigan University School of Music, Kalamazoo, MI concert & workshops
