In the
small, elite group of performing musicians better known as composers, arrangers
and bandleaders, the trumpeter John Vanore has carved out a uniquely brilliant
niche. Vanore, who was still a teenager when his life’s mission was made clear
after he heard the great Oliver Nelson, is best known for helming Abstract
Truth, an innovative, long-running ensemble combining the flexibility of a
combo with the might of a big band. Over the past four decades, he’s earned the
kind of gushing press rare for any jazz artist—much less one who directs an unconventional
little-big-band. “Vanore’s touch with ensemble texture and color, and his sense
of narrative timing, recall Gil Evans,” wrote Stereophile, before going on to
call Vanore’s Easter Island Suite “a musical portrait of wonder.” JazzTimes has
chosen hosannas like “hauntingly beautiful,” “well crafted,” “stirring
orchestration” and “edgy.”
Now, after
so much acclaim for his signature ensemble, Vanore is releasing Primary Colors,
a compelling collection of seven sonic adventures that he recorded with the
keyboardist and composer Ron Thomas in 1984 and ’85. Captured just outside the
musicians’ native Philadelphia, these duo-logues provide a fascinating snapshot
of both Vanore’s career and improvised music in the midst of an underrated era
when so much about jazz was in flux—the music’s aesthetics, its culture, even
its technology. As a showcase for Vanore the masterful trumpeter—a veteran of
Woody Herman’s hard-touring band, and a devoted pupil of John Coltrane’s
Philly-based mentor, guitarist Dennis Sandole—Primary Colors is at once a
stunning time-capsule piece and a harbinger of more elastic, more compact and
increasingly player-centric Vanore music to come.
Thomas was a
sophisticated user of the (at the time) cutting-edge Yamaha DX7 synth, whose idiosyncratic
sounds are the stuff electronic musicians and hip-hop producers continue to
seek out. Those timbres, like the rest of Primary Colors, are an emblem of a
golden pocket on jazz’s timeline when improvisation, pop, R&B and jazz-rock
coalesced in wild and wonderful ways. “There was a lot going on,” Vanore says
today with a chuckle, looking back on the heady period that bore Primary
Colors. “There were really a lot of things converging.”
For years
he’d been a first-call trumpeter on live shows and studio dates, but those
opportunities were starting to slow down, waylaid by the discotheque and the
increasing computerization of music production. Suddenly Vanore had time and
energy to spare, and he channeled the surplus into Abstract Truth and his snowballing
interest in large-ensemble writing and direction. Galvanized by Nelson’s
vibrant orchestrations, Vanore architected an unusually brass-focused lineup of
horns, plus a rhythm section that achieved fresh colorations by swapping out
piano for guitar.
Thomas,
however, had no problem bringing a bold new palette into Vanore’s fold. A
visionary player with whom the trumpeter had gigged around town, Thomas crafted
lyrical improvisations with an orchestrator’s attention to the structure of his
lines—he was, after all, a direct pupil of Stockhausen as well as a lifelong
disciple of Bill Evans and Miles. Vanore shared similar sensibilities, and the
two friends began joining up to play exploratory duets. The setting was a
rehearsal room at Widener University, Vanore’s alma mater and the institution
where he made his career as an educator. Vanore was gradually outfitting the
room with recording equipment, and Terry Hoffman, the trumpeter’s gifted and
knowledgeable go-to engineer, played producer, refining the music’s textures by
facilitating overdubs and judiciously applying then-state-of-the-art delay and
reverb units. Hoffman “mixed at will,” Vanore writes in his liner notes,
“creating the cinematic sound environment appropriate for the pieces to realize
their emotional impact.” Vanore recovered most of the music when he was
reorganizing his basement in the summer of 2019 and came across some old
cassettes. He completed the extensive necessary audio restoration in his home
studio.
The
sessions’ only real protocol was a willingness to experiment, in the way of
sound, song form and more. “We weren’t approaching this stuff like
head/solos/head,” Vanore recalls. “Our approach was more compositional.”
Spontaneity was also paramount, and while there may be multiple overdubbed
layers at various points, a single-take ethic was honored throughout the
informal sessions. In the end, the reason Primary Colors sounds so
extraordinary—daring in its sonics yet intimate and empathetic in its interplay—is
that it was never supposed to be a commercial release to begin with.
The seven
tracks that make up this eavesdropped gem are distinctive environments with
their own otherworldly charms. Thomas’ “Final Dawn” features Vanore’s
thoughtful, singing flugelhorn lines atop elegiac piano. On the DX7, Thomas
overdubs fleet, watery organ-sounding choruses. He also adds a percussive
element via small cymbals and tiny drumsticks, which Vanore recalls as being
“almost like chopsticks.” Through Hoffman’s close mic placement and a dollop of
reverb, the metal has a crisp, potent presence.
“Lady,” the
Lionel Richie-penned smash, is reinvented as the kind of ethereal tour de force
you might expect to hear on an unsung classic from ECM’s thrilling early years.
Vanore first dug the melody while working a commercial gig. Soaked through with
overdubs, he says, “it became a tapestry of sound with the trumpet, flugelhorn
and piano making interactive comments in and around the melody.” “Yesterdays”
and “A Time for Love” underscore the duo’s imaginative and seemingly telepathic
way with standard repertoire.
“Origins of
Rude” arrives like a thunderbolt of crude funk. Vanore had Thomas play a
beyond-funky 7/4 bassline on Fender Rhodes, which became an analog tape-loop
foundation for one-take multi-tracks. The trumpeter plays blasts and bleats
reflecting the rough-and-tumble phrasing of electric Miles, as Thomas offers
zany stabs of DX7, conjuring up B-movie soundtracks as well as the avant-garde
wing of ’80s fusion and funk. Vanore’s overdubbed snare hits provide an
off-kilter kind of thrust and momentum. The tune’s title reflects its status as
a sketch or seed for “Rude,” a fleshed-out work that would appear on Abstract
Truth’s 2010 album, Curiosity. Even on an album filled with sounds that are so
dated they’ve become strikingly fresh, “Origins of Rude” stands out as
supremely evocative. When Tarantino needs score for a bar scene in a cyberpunk
blaxploitation flick, this delightfully weird cut should be it. Vanore and
Thomas find their way back to more elegant fare with the former’s “Return,” a
gorgeous conversation between flugelhorn and Rhodes, and a creative take on
“Secret Love.” With Thomas’ quirky DX7 timbres and swinging cymbals, the latter
track approaches the energy and muscle of a combo at full mid-to-uptempo
tilt.
Primary
Colors also provides Vanore with an opportunity to counter the very good
predicament he’s created for himself. After so many extolled sessions in which
his writing and arranging have defined his identity, and his playing has been
tastefully submerged in his ensemble’s hues, it’s a pleasure to hear him just
open up and blow again. His fluid virtuosity will remind listeners of his
lifelong devotion to Miles, Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer and other greats. His
playing also highlights his post-collegiate months on the road with Woody
Herman, and his extensive studies under Philadelphia guitarist Dennis Sandole,
a mentor to John Coltrane. Vanore is an “intriguing trumpeter [who] pushes
expressive possibilities,” DownBeat wrote in one article; in another, the jazz
bible praised Vanore’s strength as a player and his “pristine melodic sense.”
Ultimately,
Primary Colors points a way forward. “I want my next project to be more
oriented to improvisational playing,” Vanore says, “rather than subordinating
that side of myself.”
