Toronto-born, New York City-based guitarist Alex Goodman has the gift of synesthesia, his mind keenly associating various sounds with particular colors. With the vivid double album Impressions in Blue and Red – to be released on CD and digitally via Outside In Music on March 13, 2020 – he explores this uncommon facility in depth. Goodman fronts two distinct quartets, each especially attuned to its material: The “blue” disc sets the leader alongside Ben Van Gelder (alto saxophone), Martin Nevin (double-bass) and Jimmy Macbride (drums); the “red” disc features the guitarist with Alex LoRe (alto sax), Rick Rosato (double-bass) and Mark Ferber (drums).
In addition to 15 evocative originals by Goodman, the album includes interpretations of Herbie Hancock’s “Toys” and the slow movement from a Baroque sonata by Johann Rosenmüller. Capping each disc is Goodman playing an impromptu solo version of a standard: “I’ll Never Be the Same” (Malneck/Signorelli & Kahn) on the “blue” disc and “If I Loved You” (Rodgers & Hammerstein) on the “red.” Impressions in Blue and Red is Goodman’s seventh album as a leader or co-leader, and his productivity in the studio has also included appearances on records by such notable peers as Remy Le Boeuf and Manuel Valera, as well as Mareike Wiening’s much-praised new Greenleaf release, Metropolis Paradise. That’s not to mention the guitarist’s performances as a sideman around New York with the likes of the Grammy-nominated Terraza Big Band, Lucas Pino Nonet, Roxy Coss Quintet and Mimi Jones. According to New York City Jazz Record, Goodman is a musician of “dazzlingly improvisational dexterity and engagingly smart composition.”
Reflecting on color and its associative powers for him, Goodman spent much time reading and in museums, investigating the way visual artists – from the Renaissance era to Van Gogh and Picasso – have used color and its shades to expressive ends, eliciting a range of emotions in a viewer. On the album package, he quotes such figures as Goethe (who characterizes blue as “a stimulating negation… a kind of contradiction between excitement and repose”) and Wassily Kandinsky (who describes red as “ringing inwardly with determined intensity – it glows in itself”), as well as the philosopher/psychologist and aesthetician John Dewey, who said: “If all meaning could be adequately expressed by words, then the arts of music and painting would not exist. There are values and meanings that can be expressed only by immediately visible and audible qualities, and to ask what they mean in the sense of something that can be put into words is to deny their distinctive existence.”
Goodman says: “What I like about that John Dewey quote is that it sums up how difficult it can be to capture in words the way music or painting – and their colors – can make you feel. I know it’s difficult for me. Music goes beyond language, certainly, and the way I associate color with music isn’t really something that I can explain – it’s based in mood, in feel. And that intuitive feel is the catalyst for the way I composed the music for Impressions in Blue and Red. The same goes for the interpretive material on the album. On the ‘red’ disc, for instance, the Rosenmüller piece’s Baroque harmony feels like a darker red to me, while Herbie Hancock’s ‘Toys,’ from his Speak Like a Child LP, implies a brighter tone.”
Goodman’s coloristic associations extended to his choice of musicians for the album. “The players that I chose for each of the bands on the record was also an intuitive thing, but a strong one,” he says. “I associated the sound and personality of each musician with either blue or red.” For eight of the tracks on Impressions in Blue and Red, there are extended improvised intros, two by Goodman and one for each of his bandmates in turn. “Those intros were something that I incorporated as a way for each musician to reveal their expressive voices more fully, but I also think they heighten the flow of the album.” As a conceptual double-album, Impressions in Blue and Red stands out as Goodman’s most ambitious recording to date. “I conceived the two discs of Impressions in Blue and Red to be coherently of a piece both internally and in relation to each other,” he says. “Although each half has dominant associations with the corresponding colors, the two are meant to complement each other through not only their differences but also, at points, their similarities.”
Born in 1987 and raised in Toronto, Goodman has resided since 2012 in New York City, where he earned a Master’s degree in jazz performance from the Manhattan School of Music. In his time on the New York scene, he has played at all the city’s top jazz clubs, including the Jazz Standard, Smalls and Jazz Gallery, as well as at such venues as Lincoln Center and National Sawdust. The guitarist has also performed at Massey Hall in Toronto and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as at such festivals as Winter Jazz Fest in New York, the Montreux Jazz Festival and Montreal International Jazz Festival and further afield in China, Ukraine and Bulgaria. Goodman’s quintet LP Bridges, released in 2011, was nominated for a Juno Award, Canada’s top recording honor, as the year’s best contemporary jazz album. In 2014, he won both First Prize and the Public’s Choice Award at the Montreux Jazz Festival International Guitar Competition.
In addition to his seven albums as leader or co-leader, Goodman is featured on recordings with such artists as John Patitucci, Dick Oatts, Joel Frahm, and Rich Perry. In addition to having performed with musicians like Charles Lloyd, Eric Harland and Ari Hoenig, the guitarist plays regularly in ensembles led by Manuel Valera, Lucas Pino, Martina DaSilva, Roxy Coss and Remy Le Boeuf, among others. Goodman has won an ASCAP Herb Alpert Jazz Composer Award, and he has composed and recorded a book of solo guitar etudes, along with writing scores for jazz and chamber groups, orchestra, big band and string quintet.
Music exists in movement and change, but before any part of it can be pinned down for analysis, it has often moved and taken on a new face. The transformation is often driven by culture as forward-thinking people avoid the proverbial paths in search of revolution. Even though our pioneers prophesized that the revolution would not be televised, the message has permeated. It’s spreading like wildfire and leaders are defined by those that speak first: Jazz Is Dead.
The pluralism behind the mutiny is stark, but the reality is trapped in the eyes of us that fleeted the scene years ago. With Jazz Is Dead, a new musical denomination is born, reversing the damage done to the genre. Yes, jazz speaks to all, but the message was no longer being recorded with reverence to the processes of the past; the dissonance of our movement is serving as the undertow for change. As the current becomes stronger, it’s moving in the opposite direction of that on the surface. Jazz, and the presentation of our culture has a new face: Jazz Is Dead.
This movement expresses no simple associative information. In fact, most people would contend that its blasphemous nature epitomizes the disconnect between young and old, but it’s actually the opposite. For years, Jazz Is Dead concerts have epitomized a demographic connection as the average age is widespread. Nevertheless, it’s expected because people are viscerally attracted to the ethos behind musical revolution; especially those that embrace art and heritage fiercely and with pride. This is aural transmission and the message is boldly understood. Our musical heroes are touring and recording on new music for Jazz Is Dead. This synergy couldn’t have come at a better time. Jazz icons are connecting with new audiences, something most thought impossible; thousands of fans are traveling for Jazz Is Dead concerts, domestically and internationally. The mood is often palpable as fans are seen crying out in awe of what is being created for a forgotten language: Jazz Is Dead.
Music is the universal language and we are the interpreter of sound, a message that has been lost in transcription. Under Jazz Is Dead, younger artists are elaborating upon conversations started decades ago; jazz icons are utilizing vintage equipment to create new masters with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad; the same equipment that recorded their coveted catalogs. The vitality embedded in the new masters epitomizes our quest for new life in music: Jazz Is Dead.
The addition of harmonics to the fundamental tone is what makes any voice or instrument sound good; the insurgence of spirit and vitality to a dead language revitalizes it’s meaning for the future. Any disturbance of regularities acts as tension: tensions to the dimension of jazz. Any syncopation against innocuous rhythms changes the minds and heartbeats of all. These are metronome markings that make some uncomfortable but beats that keep us going. With impeccable concert programming, breathtaking recordings and unflinching perspective, we can feel the pulse. The power of sound is captivating, and the movement needs no further exegesis: Jazz Is Dead.
“What is Jazz in 2020? I can answer that this way: jazz artists have not only been an inspiration that has shaped my development as a musician, but their music is deeply rooted into the foundation of the Hip-Hop culture,” says Ali Shaheed Muhammad. “We have risen because their head nodding beats, lush chord progressions, soul ripping melodies and bellowing bass-lines have given us a musical back beat to poetically flow on until the break of dawn. To me, it’s all freedom music and Jazz Is Dead is motivating a movement.”
The inaugural release of Jazz Is Dead is a futuristic nod to the past: a dream come true for two producers that started their careers DJing and sampling some of the greatest jazz icons. “It’s surreal to be in the studio with cats ranging from Marcos Valle to Roy Ayers. The stories, the music and the experience are something Jazz Is Dead wants to share with the world,” states Adrian Younge. With 7 albums slated to release this year, the compilation provides a sneak peek into the full-length albums coming soon.
Jazz singer Clairdee has admired Lena Horne since she was four years old. Her mother and father instilled in her their admiration for Horne’s intelligence, dignity, talent, and willingness to fight for what’s right – qualities they wanted to see in all of their eight children. Clairdee pays homage to Horne on her newest project, A Love Letter To Lena, a spirited and inspiring album that integrates inventive arrangements of songs by Billy Strayhorn and contemporary composers with Clairdee’s compelling storytelling.
A mainstay on the San Francisco jazz scene, Clairdee has been performing for over 25 years in concert halls, festivals and nightclubs around the country and around the world. In addition to leading her world-class touring band, she has performed with some of America’s most notable jazz masters. Clairdee’s three previous CDs as a leader all received critical acclaim and helped cement her reputation as one of the top singers on the scene today. Clairdee began thinking seriously about putting together a very special project to honor Horne back in 2009.
“The 2016 election helped me decide how I wanted to approach the Lena project. I didn’t want it to be merely a tribute album of her greatest hits. My mother passed in 2007, and I wanted the CD to reflect my parents’ hopes for their children through the lens of Lena’s efforts for civil rights and equality. I also wanted to include a few songs that people may not be so familiar with. This album is not only my way of saying thank you to Lena for how she touched the lives of me and my family, it is a way for me to honor my parents’ legacy and those of the millions of women and men that fought for civil rights. The lessons of their lives are resoundingly relevant right now. It is up to us to keep up the work. This is my 21st century call to acknowledgement and action.”
Bassel & The Supernaturals are proud to announce the release of their third studio production, Smoke & Mirrors (LP), due out April 17, 2020. The Chicago based group tells the story of Bassel Almadani's experience as a first generation Syrian-American using soulful melodies, funk inspired grooves, and captivating lyrics regarding love, loss, and the war in Syria. The significance of April 17 also holds another meaning for Bassel as it marks Syrian Independence Day. In the midst of a revolution that has left over 12,000,000 civilians in need of humanitarian relief, the timing of the band’s release combined with Bassel’s global advocacy efforts to support the sustainability of immigrants & refugees reinforce a message of resilience and hope for their eventual independence.
Bassel & The Supernaturals broke out with their 2017 debut album Elements, which earned them critical praise from Noisey, Huffington Post, Associated Press, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Now This, PRI The World, Paste, and many others. The album also led to their involvement in the nationally-acclaimed SXSW 2017 showcase 'ContraBanned: #MusicUnites' featuring artists from the diaspora of countries targeted by the travel ban. The momentum for the band continued by inking a digital distribution deal with Six Degrees Records, one of the most prominent imprints for international music. The band has also been touring heavily, with over 300 performances since 2016 on stages including SXSW, The John F. Kennedy Center, Summerfest, and Millennium Park. They have also supported many internationally touring artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Brother Ali, Aesop Rock, Emancipator, The Dandy Warhols, and Sinkane. The group works closely with organizations on events and residencies that raise awareness and promote the sustainability of immigrants and refugees . This caught the attention of ArcArtists, who specializes in booking multi-faceted events with arts presenters across the world.
Life on the road is not always what it seems. Bassel explains, “Smoke & Mirrors is inspired by the false glamour that surrounds touring artists. We’ve played over 300 shows across North America since 2016 — from packed theaters to clubs where the soundcheck had more fans than the 4-hour set that followed. We’ve made friends with countless pets, couches, and floors. We’ve also lost close friends and family along the way. Music brought us together, and creates infinite meaning in our lives — but it doesn’t always cover rent.” He adds, “As social and cultural leaders, artists are expected to demonstrate strength and persistence in the wake of the challenges associated with working in the entertainment industry. Battles with mental and physical health tend to fall to the wayside along the way, using “the grind” and other coping mechanisms to push through the darkness.”
The nine tracks on the album engineered by GRAMMY-nominated Jeff Breakey and produced by the band’s guitarist Brandon Hunt strike a fine balance between up-tempo, energized funk and downtempo, melodically rich soul, while keeping it all cohesive. The 12” vinyl record reflects this contrast between side A to side B. On side A, the up-tempo of “Calculated Love” kicks off the album as a groove-packed anthem celebrating the raw and sometimes ordinary version of love that is typically left out of television and film. “Stepping Back In Time,” the second single released from the album is an energized protest track that was featured on Spotify’s All Funked Up playlist, driving over 200,000 streams since its debut. “Aleppo” is the third single that dropped, an uplifting disco & funk inspired track celebrating the heritage of the oldest continuously civilized city on the Earth. Bassel sings about his family’s city in Arabic for the first time, and the lyrics were prepared with his father’s help during a phone conversation that can be heard subtly in the mix at its beginning. Traditional “tarab” style vocals follow to close out the track courtesy of Arab-American vocalist Ashukur. The title track “Smoke” dismantles the myth of glamour often surrounding touring artists. The music video will be released on March 6, 2020.
Side B dives in with “Skipping Heartbeats,” showcasing the soulful R&B styles of the band. This song looks at the frontman’s journey into marriage and his persistence in “weathering the storm” through cultural differences and life changing tragedies. The tempest in “Skipping Heartbeats” flows into a full immersion into the water on “Relay,” where the singer relives his adolescent experience as a competitive swimmer. “Black Water” acts as a powerful follow up – a cinematic, dark ballad based on a dream where Bassel visits Aleppo and confronts the infamous Queiq River behind his grandmother’s home. Smoke & Mirrors closes with “Mistakes,” an open admission of self-deprecation and substance use as a coping mechanism through anxiety and depression.
What makes this release so special to Bassel & The Supernaturals is its honesty. Bassel details, “the approach on this record is very direct - from screaming ‘fuck your wall’ to opening up about substance use acting as a crutch for many of us. We’ve seen so many friends and family members impacted by drug abuse and mental illness, and it’s a taboo subject for most of us. Especially as one who identifies himself as Muslim and Arab-American, it’s something I’ve skated around in the past. I’ve learned to embrace who I am and my shortcomings, and I’ll do whatever I can to create safe spaces for others to do the same.” He concludes, “We explored a lot of territory on this album, yet it feels like our most authentic recording to date.”
Prelúdio is the third album Now-Again Records will issue from the thrilling, young Brasilian guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento. Produced by Mario Caldato, Jr. and Luther Russell and engineered and mixed by Caldato and Jason Hiller, this album features do Nascimento’s longtime drummer Ricardo “Tiki” Pasillas. It will be released in June 2020
It is the first album of solely do Nascimento’s own compositions and, like his previous albums Dança dos Tempos and Tempo dos Mestres, follows folkloric Brasilian music, Brasilian jazz, bossa-nova and samba as experienced through the mind and able fingers of an expansive musician, combing the heady ‘60s and ‘70s experimentalism of Hermeto Pascoal and Baden Powell with the childlike elegance of music played and passed down by native Brasilians for generations.
Do Nascimento was born into a musical family, from lineage that stretches back to his great-grand-father Ladario Teixeira, a blind saxophonist who contributed to the re-creation of the instrument by adding more keys to the older incarnation of the instrument in the early 20th century. He was born in Rio de Janeiro and grew up there and in Sao Paulo, where he found inspiration in his uncle, the late Lúcio Nascimento, bassist and composer in Leny Andrade’s band Bom de Três.
While he came from a musical pedigree, he’s largely self-taught, largely in the service of an overarching mission to showcase the folkloric music of his home country as he continue to develop possibilities for language of the guitar itself. His studies ramped up after he moved to Los Angeles in 2001. His first champion was Aloe Blacc, who worked with do Nascimento over the years, including his work on his debut album Shine Through for Stones Throw Records. His collaborators now include Madlib, multi-instrumentalist Sam Gandel, Innovative Leisure chanteuse Claude Fontaine and legendary Brasilian percussionist, bandleader, songwriter and catalyst Airto Moreira.
Moreiera states that Nascimento is “Brazilian but (his mind is) from a place in Brazil that is not common.” Fortunately, we still have some musicians who like to play music and who like to touch the instrument and who like that energy! You see, because that’s the most important thing in music. The energy. That’s why I love to play live. And that’s why I’m playing with Fabiano.”
The first-ever music video for Miles Davis’ “Boplicity” has been released today by Blue Note/UMe. The new video was created by animator/director Thomas Jarrett and produced by Dreambear. Today’s “Boplicity” video debut follows the September 27, 2019 release of the first-ever music video for Davis’ “Moon Dreams.” Both tracks are featured on the acclaimed Miles Davis collection, The Complete Birth of the Cool, released June 7, 2019 by Blue Note/UMe.
Watch the music video for Miles Davis’ “Boplicity”: https://lnk.to/MilesDavisYouTube
Watch the music video for Miles Davis’ “Moon Dreams”: https://lnk.to/MoonDreams
Available in 2LP vinyl, CD, and digital formats, The Complete Birth of the Cool chronicles the brief yet monumental importance of the Miles Davis Nonet. Honoring the 70th anniversary of the initial Birth of the Cool sessions, the deep-dive collection presents together all the music created by this collective, including the twelve sides they recorded in 1949/’50 and the ensemble’s only extant live recordings, recorded at the Royal Roost. The Complete Birth of the Cool has drawn widespread praise; Pitchfork awarded it a rare perfect 10 review score, calling it “exquisite and essential.”
GRID, the experimental trio of Matt Nelson (Battle Trance; Elder Ones) on saxophone, Tim Dahl (Child Abuse; Lydia Lunch Retrovirus) on bass, and Nick Podgurski (New Firmament; Feast of the Epiphany) on drums, have returned to NNA Tapes for the release of their colossal sophomore album, Decomposing Force.
Recorded live in one room with no overdubs and mixed to 1/2 inch tape, GRID builds off of their earth-rattling self-titled debut. Decomposing Force relies on the composite sound of Nelson, Dahl, and Podgurski interacting and reacting to each individual as well as their combined output—the continual flowing-in of individual and agglomeration serves to add dimension to the blackness and possibility of GRID’s musical ecosystem. With Dahl’s bass-amp angled directly into the microphone Nelson uses for his saxophone, the improvisational sounds of the entire band are fed through Nelson’s pedals and monitor to create a continuously interactive and variable feedback loop that comes to define the visceral immensity of GRID’s soundscapes. This combines with a mutual willingness to evenly shoulder the weight of composition. There is no showcasing of any single player in this amorphous system. The impact of what is created shall be carried by all.
Remaining beyond strict categorization, GRID’s crushing dissonance is an amalgamation of each member’s background in free-jazz and improvisational music, as well as Doom-Metal, Noise, and Ambient influences. The resistance towards classification and familiarity leaves listeners in an environment negotiable only by feel. Musically synthesizing and re-synthesizing in each moment, GRID’s cyclical transmission of sound and energy continually develops expressive, hyperactive, protean textures that brutally and masterfully navigate through the dense, heavy atmosphere of Decomposing Force with vigorous dynamism.
“Brutal Kings” is a short, claustrophobic passageway of bristles and thorns—each instrument and each note are distinctly and singularly piercing. The cacophonous “Nythynge” violently builds and releases tension as the band moves through passages of imposing, jagged musical discourse. The playing loosens and the tempo slows to an enveloping trudge on the thick, sludgy “The Weight of Literacy.” Then “Cold Seep” closes the album in a chilled, unsettling ambiance more expansive than anything that precedes it, leaving the impression that you’ve only explored but one tiny corner of GRID’s world.
Built on the tenets of weight, difficulty, challenge, collaboration, and adaptability, GRID constructs and confronts the oppressive dark—not with transcendent opposition but with an embrace, diving deeper in as a way through. Decomposing Force is sonic catharsis of the highest and harshest caliber.
Sony Masterworks has announced the latest addition to Pasquale Grasso’s digital showcase series, Solo Masterpieces. The series – which includes the 2019 releases Solo Standards, Vol. 1, Solo Ballads, Vol. 1, Solo Monk and Solo Holiday – all emphasize the guitar virtuoso as he displays his intensive studies of the guitar masters, both bebop and classical. Solo Masterpieces represents the first full length member of the digital series; as a compilation it acts as both a retrospective of the previous albums and also an insight to a handful of previously-unreleased tunes from the upcoming 2020 EP releases. Additional 2020 releases include Grasso exploring the works of Duke Ellington, Bud Powell, and a celebration of the centennial of Charlie Parker.
With Solo Masterpieces, Grasso has gathered music from each of his first solo guitar EPs and melded them. The result is a masterful collection that allows audiences to revel in Grasso’s previous work whilst simultaneously creating an air of excitement for the music yet to be released. The series, which has received critical acclaim thus far, marks a turning point into the new decade and Solo Masterpieces is the encapsulation of the majesty within the music.
Many serious guitar heads have been hip to Grasso for a while now and are aware of his jaw-dropping online performance videos and his early career triumphs. In 2015, he won the Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition in New York City, taking home a $5,000 prize and performing with guitar legend Pat Martino’s organ trio. His Sony Masterworks series showcases his sweeping abilities in the most intimate setting possible. “Playing solo guitar is a very intimate experience for me, forcing me to find my own way of improvising on my favorite songs while directly facing the challenges that the guitar presents,” said Grasso.
The series acts as a study in the world of infinite possibilities held within a single instrument. “The key is always to try to find what works on your instrument, which is why studying classical guitar was so influential on how I hear music,” Grasso explains. “When playing classical guitar, it’s like you’re a little orchestra by yourself – you can sound like violin, cello, brass, etc. And technically, it has allowed me to develop original ways of playing my left and right hands independently while also trying to represent the bass and rhythm, with one note leading to the next."
“The fact is, growing up, other than the great Charlie Christian, I never really listened much to guitarists. It was usually pianists. In particular, when playing solo guitar, my initial inspiration came when I was seven years old, listening to the greats Art Tatum, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk. What always amazed me was that although they were playing alone, I felt I could hear the entire band with them.”
If it takes a village to raise a child, as the proverb says, then it certainly takes at least that much to nurture a big band. Pianist and bandleader Orrin Evans has long used “The Village” to refer not only to his family-like cohort of fellow musicians in the Captain Black Big Band, but also to the extended family of fans, supporters and inspirations that have carried the ensemble to a Grammy nomination and its status as one of the most thrilling and revered ensembles in modern jazz.
The Village truly came together to create The Intangible Between, the fourth release by the Captain Black Big Band. Due out May 1 via Smoke Sessions Records, the album was created in the celebratory, communal environment that Evans excels in conjuring. While the recording took place in New York’s hallowed Sear Sound, the atmosphere became transformed from a recording studio into a backyard barbecue.
Evans invited a host of collaborators, stocked the place with food, and threw a party that imbued the music with a vibrant sense of warmth and comfort – while still exalting in the band’s trademark tightrope-walking vigor. In the true spirit of the music, Evans entered the studio with a carefully devised blueprint, down to spreadsheets listing the musicians planned for any given tune – and then left room for spontaneity to take over when it would.
“I’ve always wanted to do a project like this,” Evans says. “Where I ask all my friends to get together, there’s food in the room, and everybody just comes on in and records. There was definitely a plan, but there was also the element of just getting together and playing. That’s what this record is about to me.”
That approach leads to a wealth of unexpected and alchemical moments, ranging from Sean Jones’ exquisite flugelhorn solo on Todd Bashore’s arrangement of the standard “A Time For Love” to the hurly-burly of four bassists (including Evans’ Tarbaby triomate Eric Revis, making his Captain Black debut) and two drummers crowding into Josh Lawrence’s sharp-shouldered arrangement of Thelonious Monk’s “Off Minor.”
Featuring both taut, keenly focused ensemble playing and raucous, spirited soloing, The Intangible Between reflects the ever-growing chemistry of the core ensemble while celebrating Evans’ open-door policy toward collaborators new and old. The rotating cast of players, while maintaining the more compact scale introduced on the band’s last album, the Grammy-nominated Presence, also features first-time members alongside veterans that joined the ranks in its earliest days and special guests whose collaborations with Evans stretch back over many years and diverse groups. The recording also marks Evans’ first substantial contribution to the band’s book as an arranger, a duty previously delegated largely to his chief sidemen or derived spontaneously by the ensemble.
“Our first two records featured more of my compositions but arranged by people in the band,” Evans recalls. “The third record highlighted music by David Gibson, Troy Roberts, John Raymond and Josh Lawrence; but this is the first record where I’ve really arranged... We’ve been together 10 years, but this is really the first time [the band has] sat down and said, ‘Ok, these are Orrin’s arrangements, and it’s a different school.’”
The title, according to Evans, refers to an elusive decision point, that sense of stepping off a ledge into the unknown that comes with taking risks and setting a new course. With the overdue success he’s achieved in recent years – topping the “Rising Star” category for pianists in the DownBeat critics poll, garnering his first New York Times feature, the awards and praise garlanding his Captain Black albums, the increased focus that accompanied joining The Bad Plus – has come both opportunities and disappointments.
“This record is just about going for it, taking those projects you’ve been dreaming about and just making them happen,” he says. “The industry constantly tells you to wait, but for how long? Why not just do it now?”
In part, that impetus was fueled by Evan’s career trajectory, but he was also compelled by the sobering loss of two of his peers: trumpeter Roy Hargrove and drummer Lawrence “Lo” Leathers, both of whom are paid tribute on The Intangible Between. “There are things that I wished I had said to both of them,” Evans reflects. “Nothing major, just the little things that you think you’ll be able to say the next time you see someone. But you just don’t know. You really have to deal with the intangible, the space between whether you’re going to do something or not.”
Leathers receives a tender farewell from the full band on Evans’ own “I’m So Glad I Got To Know You,” written in the immediate aftermath of the drummer’s shocking and unexpected death. The band’s version of “Into Dawn,” arranged by trombonist David Gibson, is both a brilliant rendition of a gorgeous Hargrove composition and a typical piece of Orrin Evans audaciousness.
Gibson, Lawrence, Bashore and trombonist Stafford Hunter have all been key lieutenants in the big band from its early days, supplying arrangements or, in Evans’ words, “being all-around partners in crimes and filling in the blanks whenever there are any.”
Gibson attributes the band’s growth and success to “the paternal spirit that inspired its birth. Orrin has created an environment that encourages all to take risks in pursuit of spontaneous and authentic musical conversations. He cajoles, inspires, and supports the group from behind the piano or in the dressing room. The company of musicians he's invited to the party is comprised of those willing to participate in a grand trust exercise that I find to be very uncommon in a big band setting… Every musician is committed to supporting the pursuit of honest moments of music; our truth.”
The source of the term The Intangible Between is “Love Poem,” a short piece that Evans commissioned from John “Doc” Holiday, a retired teacher and mentor that the pianist met in a local Philadelphia watering hole. On Evans’ arrangement of Andrew Hill’s “Tough Love,” The Village’s recitation of that piece is paired with Evans’ own reading of “Yo! Bum Rushing the Door,” a poem by his brother Todd, aka Son of Black. Along with his original pieces “That Too” and “I’m So Glad I Got To Know You” and a version of “This Little Light of Mine” originally arranged for the WDR Big Band in Germany.
From trumpeter Sean Jones, with whom Evans has played for well over a decade, to bassist Dylan Reis, a young bass protégé, to bandmates making strides in the jazz scene after being nurtured by Evans early in their career in Philly and beyond – drummers Anwar Marshall and Mark Whitfield Jr., saxophonists Immanuel Wilkins, Troy Roberts and Caleb Wheeler Curtis, and bassist Luques Curtis, among others – The Village speaks with a loud, unified and infectious voice throughout The Intangible Between.
“It really matters when you know you have a tight-knit circle, and that you can rely on your circle for whatever you need,” Evans says. “The Village is a unit of people that you can trust and that love you. It’s an open door to the possibilities of knowing that you’re part of something for the greater good.”
Pianist and composer Falkner Evans convenes a brilliant all-star band to breathe vivid life into his compositions on Marbles.
There’s a victorious sense of “winner takes all” implied in the phrase “all the marbles.” That may not be what pianist and composer Falkner Evans had in mind when he christened his captivating new album Marbles, but the notion fits nonetheless. With this intriguing and spirited set, Evans has managed to assemble an all-star band that still works together with the camaraderie and chemistry of a road-tested unit; his writing for the three-horn frontline balances the flexibility of a small group with the harmonic richness of a big band; his brilliant original compositions offer the surprises of the new paired with the familiarity that comes from such indelible melodies.
Due out April 17, 2020 on Consolidated Artists Productions (CAP), Marbles carries forward the compositional evolution that Evans last displayed on his 2011 release The Point of the Moon. Where the pianist’s first three releases featured his trio, The Point of the Moon widened his scope to include trumpet and saxophone. Marbles expands the palette even further; returning are drummer Matt Wilson (a constant throughout Evans’ discography), bassist Belden Bullock (who joined the trio on 2007’s Arc) and trumpeter Ron Horton, whose experience writing arrangements for Andrew Hill helped color the music for Evans’ band. New to the ensemble are saxophonists Michael Blake and Ted Nash, with vibraphonist Steve Nelson as a special guest on three tunes.
“I wanted to bring together the best musicians that I could think of, but I wanted them to sound like a band,” Evans stresses. “All of these guys are so in-demand that working around their schedules was a challenge, but I didn’t want this to sound like we were all just thrown together. I wanted the music to feel like it was second nature.”
It’s a testament to Evans’ gifts as a composer and bandleader that he was able to achieve that goal. Just take a listen to the album’s closing piece, a brief rendition of Duke Ellington’s “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be,” which is the album’s sole non-original composition. More a snapshot than a full-fledged performance of the piece, the joyful number puts the band’s playfulness on full display, while a quick quip form Nelson, a Wilson rimshot, and a gale of collective laughter show off how quickly the band jibed, despite blending members who have been friends for decades with those meeting for the first time in the studio.
“I love these guys a lot,” Evans says. “We’ve all become really good friends. I’m so pleased that everybody was able to do this. It was an experience.”
The listening experience is equally warm and generous, well making up for the nine-year wait between releases. In the interim Evans has kept busy with a variety of projects, more often than not working in solo or duo situations in the clubs near his Greenwich Village home. But in his mind’s ear he kept hearing something larger, richer, more complex.
“I was just hearing all of these harmonies,” he says. “It’s interesting: as great as it can be, two horns sounds like two horns. With three horns you can do so much more with the orchestration. That was the basic inspiration for this album.”
The unique blend of the intimate and the orchestral provided by the instrumentation seems a natural outgrowth of Evans’ singular voice on the piano. Throughout Marbles, the bandleader displays an elegant yet dynamic touch, rich with evocative, alluring harmonies that entice listeners with sonic mysteries to explore. Each of Evans’ solos speaks eloquently in the distinctive language of his deftly tailored compositions, unfolding with the grace and economy of a compelling storyteller.
Navigating the simmering rhythms of the title track, Blake uncoils a tense, probing solo that builds with a pressure-cooker intensity without ever quite boiling over. That sensation is carried forward into Evans’ taut turn, which spins dazzling filigree from minimal material with the craftsmanship of a master weaver, all the while parrying Wilson’s rollicking jabs and barbs, held aloft with a juggler’s gravity-defying skills.
The album opens with the alluring sway of “Pina,” dedicated to the esteemed German choreographer Pina Bausch and inspired by filmmaker Wim Wenders’ remarkable 3D documentary of the same name. Evans’ composition is something of an imaginary offering to the late dancer, in whose intricate footsteps the pianist, Bullock and Nash (on flute) seem to nimbly follow on their solos.
From simple, mild beginnings to increasing urbanity and complexity, the gentle but firm swing of “Civilization” echoes the arc of societal evolution. The introspective “Sing Alone” is ushered in by a dazzling, crystalline solo introduction by the leader, while the shifting tempos of “Global News” reflects the hectic unpredictability of the news cycle. Nelson comes to fore on the sun-dappled “Hidden Gem,” his vibes rippling like concentric waves on still water.
The turbulent angularity of “This From That” occupies a middle ground between Mingus and Monk, contrasted with the gleeful spirit of “Mbegu.” Something about the piece reminded its composer of Henry Mancini’s classic “Baby Elephant Walk,” which suggested its title – the name of a pachyderm that Evans and his wife sponsor. “Dear West Village” is a love letter to Evans’ neighborhood of more than two decades and its still-thriving straightahead scene, a place where the tune itself would fit right in.
Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Falkner Evans is a New York-based jazz pianist with an eclectic musical background. A third cousin to iconic author William Faulkner, Evans grew up on classic 60s rock and R&B before getting hooked on jazz in high school, then garnered his first professional experience playing with famed western swing band Asleep At The Wheel for four years. He moved to New York City in 1985 and quickly became involved in the busy scene, recruiting Cecil McBee and Matt Wilson for his leader debut, Level Playing Field. Two more trio dates followed before Evans expanded his horizons in 2011 for the quintet outing The Point of the Moon.
Though he’s still only 18 years old, multi-instrumentalist Matthew Whitaker has come a long way to get where he is today, overcoming adversity and dedicating countless hours to honing his craft. With his declarative label debut Now Hear This, Whitaker announced himself as a major new voice on jazz piano, organ, and a wide range of keyboard instruments.
Now Hear This teams Whitaker with a stellar all-star band featuring guitarist Dave Stryker, bassist Yunior Terry, drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., and percussionist Sammy Figueroa. Keyboard great Marc Cary and flutist Gabrielle Garo also make special guest appearances. The album was overseen by GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Brian Bacchus, who has worked closely with the likes of Gregory Porter, Norah Jones, Randy Weston and Sullivan Fortner, among others.
But it’s Whitaker that commands the spotlight, evidencing a bold and confident sense of swing and a wide-ranging palette that spans straight-ahead jazz and hard bop to R&B and Latin influences. Supplementing his virtuoso piano skills with soulful Hammond organ and coloristic synthesizers, Whitaker leaves any “prodigy” stigma far behind on this stunner of an album.
Whitaker’s distinctive voice would be captivating under any circumstances, but the obstacles that he’s had to overcome in his young life make Now Hear This all the more breathtaking. He was born three months premature in 2001, weighing less than two pounds and able to fit in the palm of his father’s hand. The newborn was given less than a 50% chance of surviving; the oxygen that he was given by doctors allowed him to live but cost him his sight.
Blindness proved no obstacle to playing music, however, and Whitaker displayed preternatural talents from the first moment he touched a keyboard. As a blind African-American piano prodigy, comparisons to Stevie Wonder were inevitable. Meaningfully, Wonder himself gave the younger keyboard wizard his imprimatur when he invited Whitaker to open for him during his induction into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame. In 2016 Whitaker returned to that legendary stage, this time performing Wonder’s classic “I Wish” for FOX TV’s revival of Showtime at the Apollo.
But Whitaker never set out to be a Stevie Wonder clone, and while the soul icon is a definite influence Whitaker can rattle off a long list of indelible influences that leans heavily towards jazz giants like McCoy Tyner, Barry Harris, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. His gifts have been recognized by a number of jazz luminaries who have provided crucial mentorship, including Cary, Christian McBride, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Regina Carter, Jon Batiste, Roy Ayers and Jason Moran, among others.
His musical path was set at the age of seven when his father dialed into a jazz station on the car radio one day. “Ever since then it’s been my favorite genre of music to play and listen to,” Whitaker says with obvious enthusiasm. “Unlike other styles of music where you play what’s on a sheet of paper or play just like a recording, with jazz you have the ability to be free with the music and improvise. You can really do you.”
Now Hear This is a perfect summation of Whitaker’s evolution to date. He’s enjoyed a remarkable career already, receiving the Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award and the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award among other honors. His promise has only begun to be fulfilled, as he prepares to wrap up his first year at Juilliard, where he made history as the first blind undergraduate student to join Juilliard's Jazz Study program.
Inventive trumpeter and composer Jason Palmer unveils a remarkable new suite inspired by the history-making 1990 art theft at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Sometime during the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, a pair of thieves entered Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum disguised as police officers, exiting 81 minutes later with 13 works of art by some of the greatest painters of all time. Three decades later, the frames that once held those artworks still hang empty. The still unsolved heist remains the biggest art theft in the history of the world.
Trumpeter and composer Jason Palmer has been fascinated by this remarkable mystery since he moved to Boston in 1997 to study at New England Conservatory. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the theft, and in part to shine a renewed spotlight on the crime in the hopes of unearthing some clue to the artworks’ whereabouts, Palmer composed his brilliant new suite dedicated to the missing pieces.
Palmer’s dozen compositions, one for each piece stolen (a pair of related Degas sketches are combined in one homage), ignite masterful performances by the composer’s outstanding ensemble, featuring influential saxophonist Mark Turner along with rapidly rising star Joel Ross on vibraphone, drummer Kendrick Scott and bassist Edward Perez.
The album was recorded last May during a unique performance in the breathtaking Harold S. Vanderbilt Penthouse of the InterContinental New York Barclay, generously donated by the hotel for this occasion. On March 18, 2020, the results of that magical night will be released as The Concert: 12 Musings for Isabella, thanks to the groundbreaking non-profit Giant Step Arts led by noted photographer and recording engineer Jimmy Katz. Katz founded Giant Step Arts to create such once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for artists, freeing them from the usual demands of record label and sales chart expectations.
The Concert marks Palmer’s second outing via Giant Step Arts. His highly-acclaimed Rhyme and Reason was the inaugural release for Katz’s fledgling organization. “I’m really fortunate to work with Jimmy,” Palmer says. “It’s the first time I’ve released music myself, so I’m learning so much about how that works, and I’ve sold a lot more records than I ever thought I would.”
The audacious heist at the Gardner Museum, which included works valued at more than $500 million by artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Manet, and Degas, is a captivating story on its own. But in the disappearance of this priceless art, Palmer discovered a metaphor for the lack of respect for art and creativity in the modern world. “I found a congruence between the idea of these specific works being physically lost and art in general not being appreciated in society,” he explained. “I think there’s some kind of celestial relationship between making music inspired by works that are lost in hopes of having the art that I produce not be so lost on society.”
Palmer’s compositions take myriad approaches to translating the missing works into music. Working from images of the stolen art, he drew inspiration for some of the pieces from the content of the source material. “Christ in a Storm on the Sea of Galilee,” for instance, responds to Rembrandt’s painting of a tempest-tossed voyage with a rollicking, turbulent 15/8 groove. The same artist’s shadow-shrouded “A Lady and Gentleman in Black” spurred him to concoct a raucously funky melody using only the black keys of the piano.
Others inspired a more abstract approach, such as “An Ancient Chinese Gu,” taken from a bronze vessel used to drink wine during rituals in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The gu’s flaring, trumpet-like mouth evoked a clarion horn melody, inflected by a melody inspired by Chinese folk traditions in reference to the object’s provenance.
Growth is a slippery slope for musicians. Once you’ve become established for a sound and style, the expectation to adhere to what put you where you are looms overhead at every writing session, rehearsal and show. Purists for Meters-style funk would probably scoff at a band suddenly rolling out Yamaha DX-7s and double neck guitars, no matter how stank the groove. But then there’s the musician’s inner itch for exploration, experimentation and expansion that keeps the process that much more exciting at a time where most of us won’t reach higher tax brackets through music. The incentive to keep going is growth. But perhaps the most difficult feat is straddling the line - to grow and build upon a trademark sound while managing to not alienate a core audience. Bay Area funk quartet, The M-Tet, manage to pull off the ever elusive option C on their sophomore long-player, Total NonStop Action.
Lead single “Gotta Be With You” kicks off the affair, and after an opening drum break from Michael Reed - who was gracious enough to let me use his vintage Ludwig set on a recent gig I played with Ben Pirani’s band and The M-Tet in Oakland - it’s evident that The M-Tet has already expanded upon the late ‘60s-era Booker T/Meters influence of their debut LP. The melodies are more polished and the production more elaborate, but without losing the grease. “You Should See The Other Guy,” my personal favorite track on the album, incorporates a mean, driving shuffle, while Joe Baer Magnant’s driving guitar tone and Gary Pitman’s hair-raising chords evoke some of the grittier early ‘70s blues-rock in only a hair above two minutes. Speaking of blues, “That Old Hammond Organ” introduces a slinky 12/8 groove ripe for a soul soliloquy with Pitman conducting the sermon. “What’s Left To Give” gives us sweetness with groove, while “Pinch Hitter” brings the horns - in particular the big baritone sax - to the party for a hip-shaking nod to the world of Dyke & The Blazers and a look at the band’s wide range of soul influences.
Fans of The M-Tet’s debut (2017’s Long Play) need not fret over the more varied terrain, though. They cover the reliable bread and butter funk with syncopated, Hammond and guitar-driven nuggets like “Katrin’s Deli” and let Reed flex on the kit with the nasty second single, “Ray Ban, Pt. 2” - ripe with beautifully nerve-pinching guitar Sound F/X recorded live to tape. But “VAMP, Oakland” manages to merge ol’ reliable with something new: The M-Tet’s trademark quartet funk with layers of percussion, courtesy of Jungle Fire/Sure Fire Soul Ensemble’s own Steve Haney.
Regardless of the variations in style, groove and mojo, the driving force of the rhythm section is the glue that gives the virtuosity of Magnant and Pitman a nice canvas to throw down. Bassist Chris Lujan drives the bus, tastefully flexing when it fits but never intruding on the groove, while Reed’s right foot and left hand have a discussion that greasily (is that a word?) stitches it all together.
Overall, Total NonStop Action is just that - a relentless ride through funk and soul that ebbs and flows though different influences, but never slows down. And an example of staying true to an overall aesthetic without being a facsimile.
When future generations listen back to the sounds of this still young millennium, what music will remain to define the era? Master improvisers Bobby Previte, Jamie Saft and Nels Cline make their bid for immortality with Music From the Early 21st Century, their venturesome new album on RareNoiseRecords.
While hardly representative of the hits streaming through the Bluetooth ether these days, Music From the Early 21st Century is nonetheless aptly titled, colliding its threads of musical history leading up to the very moment of its explosive creation. The album, captured live during a brief tour of the Northeastern U.S. in early 2019, is essentially a freely improvised organ trio set. But filtered through the lens of these three encyclopedically eclectic masters, it morphs continually from one prismatic hybrid of styles to another throughout its ten carefully curated pieces.
"Fundamentally, it's based around the classic organ trio formation - drums, Hammond organ and guitar," Saft explains. "But it just blows up the language to so many different universes. We can draw from any direction. There are so many different genres and sonic spaces interacting even within a single tune, which is very much a function of the mastery of Bobby Previte and Nels Cline. The album title to me really speaks to the breadth of the music."
The cover image speaks to the concept behind the music: known as the Hubble Legacy Field, the breathtaking photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope captures the earliest image yet of our universe, revealing nascent galaxies at a moment just a little more than half a billion years after the Big Bang. The awe-inspiring notion of witnessing the birth of everything we know, still evident in our modern reality, echoes the musical evolutions that ripple through the trio's creations.
The track titles are a bit more toungue-in-cheek; just like the music itself, each word or phrase is one, from "Totes" to "Occession" to "Parkour" to "Machine Learning," that would be utter nonsense to a 20th century reader. Previte chuckles at the thought. "I've been thinking about this, especially as I get older: who knows what the meaning of what one does becomes later? I thought this title would put the music in a context that makes sense, because it's incontrovertible that this is music from the early 21st century. That allows the music to have no baggage except the time period in which it was made. I also thought after the fact that it would be hilarious if, a hundred years from now, someone googles - or whatever the equivalent of Google will be then - 'music from the early 21st century,' and this record comes up."
Somewhat surprisingly, given not only the profound chemistry evinced on these spontaneous compositions but the parallel paths they've travelled for decades, Music From the Early 21st Century marks the first time that Cline has played with Saft and his first time working with Previte in an improvisatory context. While Saft and Previte share a decades-long relationship, Cline and Previte had only recently joined forces for the first time in two of the drummer's projects: "Terminals," a set of concertos in which they played separately as soloists with Sō Percussion; and "Rhapsody," a stunning song cycle on which Cline atypically played acoustic guitar.
"I really wanted to improvise with Nels for a change, to really just play," Previte says. "What he brought to this trio is pretty humbling and impressive. A lot of guitar players are masters of electronics, so they're great sonic players but can't really play a blues. Then of course there are many players that are the opposite, who really understand harmony and form. Nels is that rare animal knows how to do all those things, and because he has such a deep understanding of all the building blocks that go into music, he can bring that into his electronics. I'm flabbergasted at what he played on this record."
While on the tour, a brief jaunt through Upstate New York and Central Pennsylvania last spring, the triomates bonded over their shared passions for a wide swathe of music, which often manifested in a listening game of "Stump Nels" that would then lead to cover songs in that night's concert. None of those songs, which included classic rock favorites like The Zombies' "She's Not There" and Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter," are included on the album, but the influence of that common ground bleeds into the music they crafted on the spot.
"We definitely have a lot of shared influences and obsessions," Cline says. "Bobby's idea of incredible fun was to play me these songs that he was obsessed with, and in a way I think that became a template for where the trio could go. At the risk of sounding irreverent or ironic, which is not my intention, this is kind of a jam band. That's become a term that no longer adequately defines what I mean, but that's essentially what we're doing."
If that's the case, then Music From the Early 21st Century is jamming of a supremely high order. From the monolithic howl of "Photobomb," opening the album by diving directly into the deep end, to the closing Krautrock pulse of "Flash Mob," the improvisations conjured by the trio never for a moment lose focus, vitality or urgency. In part that's due to the expert curation of Previte, who unearthed the standout moments from hours of recordings, and to the brilliant live recording and mastering of Saft and longtime collaborator Vin Cin of New York's Electric Plant studio; but at its core, it's due to the inventive spirit of these three uncanny virtuosos.
Track to track, it soon becomes clear that there's no limit to the terrain that this band can explore. "Paywall" bridges hard rock and dub, while Saft's brisk walking bassline on "Parkour" spurs Cline to channel his best Sonny Sharrock skronk. "The Extreme Present" offers a mutant take on 60s soul, while "Totes" immerses the listener in a psychedelic haze. "Occession" is 14 minutes of grinding, spiraling noise abstraction, "The New Weird" ten minutes of hypnotic spiritual jazz. The cyborg churn of "Machine Learning" is followed by the transcendent ecstasy of "Woke."
"This band was an accident," shrugs Previte with a laugh. "Which is sometimes the best way to make a band. I like to play compositions too, but the music one writes has to be better than the music one can improvise, and if you've improvised for many years that music can be spontaneous and exciting and deep. It can visit countries that one could never write down in one's wildest imagination. Once the three of us got together it was obvious that this band discovered a territory that has not been well explored."
While modesty prevents Saft from touting his own abilities, his comments on his partners can easily be extended to include the visionary keyboardist, who here spotlights his exploratory skills on Hammond organ, Minimoog and Fender Rhodes. "Both of these musicians have the absolute broadest language to draw from when they improvise, but neither one of them ever puts things there for some agenda. There is no agenda; there's trust, mutual friendship, respect and love, so you're hearing the conversation that we're having about those things. It's just a joy to play with those guys."
Robin McKelle has released her new album Alterations. Vocalist Robin McKelle delves into the catalogue of some of the most celebrated women of song, interpreting these masterworks through the lens of the jazz idiom. On Alterations, McKelle follows in a long tradition of female song interpreters, lending her sultry vocal stylings to classics by a diverse list of female innovators including Dolly Parton, Sade, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Janis Joplin, Carol King, Billie Holiday, Joni Mitchell, and Lana Del Ray. McKelle is joined on this release by a group of consummate musicians including co-producer, pianist and arranger Shedrick Mitchell, acoustic and electric bassist Richie Goods, drummer Charles Haynes, guitarist Nir Felder. In addition, esteemed saxophonist Keith Loftis is featured on McKelle's sole original composition on this release, "Head High"; and renowned trumpeter Marquis Hill is featured on Lana Del Rey's "Born to Die". The first single from Alterations, McKelle's rendition of Sade's "No Ordinary Love", will be released in late January. Alterations will be released on Doxie Records and distributed and marketed by the Orchard.
In the making of the album, most of McKelle's vocal tracks used on this final recording were takes she sang live with the band. On the recording process, McKelle notes "The energy and connection with the musicians was so powerful. They lifted me up and made it feel effortless. I've never felt so confident in the studio." The energy and connection of the album overall is palpable; stunning interplay is displayed throughout each track. Shedrick Mitchell was responsible for translating McKelle's visions for each of these tracks into arrangements for this prodigious grouping of musicians to perform. McKelle notes "Mitchell really understood my vision and did a fabulous job helping to make the arrangements come alive. We fused jazz, soul, r&b, blues and rock all while keeping a continuity in the music."
The album begins with McKelle's re-imagining of Winehouse's "Back to Black". A gentle latin rhythm drives this track forward; Mckelle's voice soars over Mitchell's masterful accompaniment. The album continues with McKelle's soulful take on Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", the band uses this song as a vehicle to explore the reflective lyrics with a wonderful, moody reharmonization. Guitarist Nir Felder takes a stellar solo over these changes. The album proceeds with McKelle's original composition "Head High", the artist's tribute to the female singers and writers who came before her. "It's about the power that the female singer has. To move people with her lyric and song. To be fearless. To touch people's emotions. To make change" notes McKelle. Consummate saxophonist Keith Loftis is featured on this track.
McKelle's delivers a spirited, bluesy rendition of Dolly Parton's classic "Jolene", a celebration of the lyrics in a decidedly different context than the original 1974 release by Parton which earned her a GRAMMY® for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. "No Ordinary Love" is McKelle's rendition of Sade's classic R&B composition. McKelle's fiery latin-tinged arrangement of this song emphasizes the ensemble's fantastic sense of dynamics and interplay. McKelle's voice ignites the track and is met with an impassioned solo from Felder. The album ends with a duo performance of Carole King's classic "You've Got a Friend". McKelle and Mitchell converse over King's lyrics, delivering the song's tenderness with her signature warmth and strength.
The songs on Alterations are diverse in tone and mood. The desperation of Del Ray's "Born to Die"; The exuberance of Parton's "Jolene". McKelle transitions seamlessly between the emotions of every song. And makes each one her own. To McKelle, alteration is all. As the artist notes "when you create change, you create space for something to shift in the world and in yourself. As an artist. And as a human. And that is a change for the good."
Aruán Ortiz has long dreamt of making an album that would evoke “a cascade of rhythms going over me, almost dragging me to fall.” This feeling of being overtaken by rhythm is one he knows well, having spent his first 23 years in Cuba. Born in 1973, Ortiz grew up in a working-class family in the city of Santiago de Cuba in the island’s southeastern province, Oriente – the cradle of Afro-Cuban music and a veritable “vortex of rhythm,” as he recalls. To walk to school each morning was to hear “a global symphony”: the blare of radios, the sounds of musicians practicing and people talking and laughing at loud volumes in their apartments, whose windows were always open to the street.
Ortiz captures the symphony of everyday life in Oriente on his arresting new album, Inside Rhythmic Falls. It draws richly upon the changüí, a style of guitar-and-drum music created by slaves in the sugar cane refineries of the early 19th century, fusing the Spanish canción with Bantu percussion; and the tumba francesa, a genre introduced by slaves from Haiti. But rather than copy these styles in some literal sense, Ortiz deconstructs, reconfigures, and distills them: inconspicuous and yet ever present, they supply the music with its deeper frequencies, its spectral force. The luminous surface of Ortiz’s playing conceals a teeming density of references and allusions, or, in his words, “hidden voices.”
Afro-Cuban music was always marked by such voices - hidden, as Ortiz points out, for reasons of existential necessity: slaves were forced to “express their identity through, and underneath, the master’s cultural aesthetic.” The enigmatic air of Ortiz’s art, the way it suggests the repressed, the clandestine and the fugitive, owes something to his Afro-Cuban heritage. But it also reflects his passion for artistic modernism, his commitment to “abstracting” (a favorite word of his) the vernacular and transforming it into a new expressive language. In this he is an heir not only of European composers like Bartok, Stravinsky and Ligeti, whom he studied at a conservatory in Tarragona, but of Cuban composer-pianists of the 19th and 20th century, such as Manuel Saumell and Ignacio Cervantes, both students of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, and Ernesto Lecuona, a protégé of Ravel. And he is very much in the line of composer-pianists such as Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, and his teacher and AACM founder Muhal Richard Abrams, pioneers of the African-American jazz avant-garde.
But why limit ourselves to musical references? Ortiz certainly doesn’t, and his understanding of his work has also been profoundly shaped by study of Nicolás Guillén, an Afro-Cuban practitioner of poesía negra; the novelist Alejo Carpentier, one of the leading figures of the Latin American boom and the author of a major monograph on Cuban music; and, above all, the outstanding painter Wilfredo Lam, an artist of black and Chinese origins who created a uniquely Cuban version of Cubism. Indeed, Ortiz’s superb 2017 solo album Cuban Cubism – the most immediate precursor, he points out, to the sound-world of Inside Rhythmic Falls – can be heard as a tribute to Lam’s influence.
In his classic 1953 novel The Lost Steps, Carpentier writes of a Latin American composer plagued by a creative impasse in New York who travels to a remote village in a South American jungle. There, “far from concert halls, manifestoes, the unspeakable boredom of art polemics,” he experiences the “marvelous real,” the magical nature of Latin American reality, and finds himself “inventing music with an ease that astounded…To the relentless sound of the rain, I wrote with feverish impatience, as though driven by an inner demon.” Ortiz wrote the music on Inside Rhythmic Falls in New York, but he did extensive research on Cuban Haitian rhythms and Afro-Cuban religion, and made a number of trips back home, traveling to villages in the woods and attending performances by local dancers, percussionists and singers. This album is very much, to borrow Aimé Césaire's phrase, “the notebook of a return to the native land.”
“I think of myself as a storyteller,” Ortiz says, “and each of the album’s ten tracks tells a story about Oriente province.” The first, “Lucero Mundo,” is a poem addressed to a Elegguá, a god in Santeria, hailing the arrival of the Bantus from the Kingdom of Congo. Marléne Ramírez-Cancio recites the poem with fierce authority. She is then echoed, at canonic intervals, by Ortiz, in a softer, mellifluous voice, and the spoken word/singer artist Emeline Michel, who repeat her incantation with rhythmic accompaniment from the drummer Andrew Cyrille and the percussionist Mauricio Herrera. “It’s an offering to my ancestors, using the words as rhythm to create this sense of something circular, a vortex.” The austerity of “Lucero Mundo,” hypnotic in its circulatory, calls to mind Carpentier’s hero in The Lost Steps, who is “striving for a musical expression that should come from the unadorned word, from the word prior to the music.”
Words matter to Ortiz, whose titles are indicative of his desire to honor his native province. The slow, meditative piece “Cantos y ñáñigos,” for example, refers to members of a men’s fraternity known as the Abakuá, an Afro-Cuban secret society; another track elegizes “Argeliers’ disciple,” a somewhat cryptic allusion to the anthropologist Argeliers Léon’s protégé Danilo Orozco, a specialist on the music of Oriente, whose lectures Ortiz attended.
It doesn’t hurt to know the background of these titles, but it’s not a requirement: the music speaks for itself, plunging us deep inside the rhythmic interplay of Ortiz, Cyrille and Herrera. Cyrille, who at 80 years of age is enjoying a late-career renaissance, spent a decade as the drummer in Cecil Taylor’s great “unit,” and his enthralling call-and-response with Ortiz often recalls his celebrated collaborations with Taylor. “I wanted his freshness, his in-the-moment energy,” Ortiz says. “He has this incredible range of dynamics, and an ability to anticipate exactly what part of the piano I’m gravitating to. Because he knows where you’re moving, he knows how to move in the drums at the same time.” Ortiz, who is part-Haitian on his father’s side, also suspected that Cyrille’s Haitian roots would help them to “merge our knowledge and our styles.”
To get a sense of just how right Ortiz and Cyrille sound together, listen to the album’s boppish fourth track, “Golden Voice” (the title alludes to the nickname of the great changüí singer Carlos Borromeo Planche, known as Cambrón). Ortiz begins in the upper register of the piano, and Cyrille in the lower register of the toms. By the end, they’ve switched places, turning the entire piece upside-down. This delightful inversion grew out of the serendipity, and synergy, of improvisation, not from any plan.
As Cecil Taylor said, “Rhythm is life…the space of time danced through,” and inside rhythmic falls everyone is possessed by the dance, both leading and following. On “Marímbula's Mood,” Herrera plucks a slightly ominous beat on the marímbula (a musical box used in changüí), and Ortiz accompanies him with spare, slinky commentary. “Sacred Codes” (the second part of the title track) features a percussion orchestra of sorts, with Ortiz covering the strings of the piano with musical paper and turning the surface of the instrument into a drum.
“The experience of the marvelous presupposes a certain faith,” Carpentier wrote. “Those who do not believe in saints cannot cure themselves with saintly miracles.” But when music is this glorious, it has the power not just to conjure spirits but to inspire belief and help us experience the marvelous. Or, as Carpentier also put it, the marvelous real.
http://www.aruan-ortiz.com
