Joe
Fiedler's newest recording, Sackbut Stomp, featuring Fiedler, Luis Bonilla
& Ryan Keberle - trombones, Marcus Rojas - tuba, and very special guest,
Steven Bernstein on slide trumpet (on Multiphonics Music, October 15, 2013), is
the second recording from Fiedler's critically-acclaimed low-brass aggregate,
Big Sackbut, and the follow up recording to their self-titled debut. Fiedler's
desire to lead a trombone-driven project was sparked in the 1980s after seeing
The World Saxophone Quartet Live.
It was a revelation to him, and eventually
led to the recording of 2012's Big Sackbut. DownBeat Magazine said of the
album, "The group rips, dances and converses . . . the quartet is so tight
that they sound like one big, polyphonic low-brass organ. Each trombonist kills
it." And eMusic.com proclaimed that, "The titular trombonist-composer
manages the too-rare feat of creating art while having a blast . . . Here's
hoping that he and the three 'bones huff, puff and slide their way to another
Fiedler-guided outing in the not-too-distant future." Fiedler has done
exactly that, and more, with the upcoming release of Sackbut Stomp, a recording
of great joy, musicality, depth and revelation.
On
Sackbut Stomp the unique instrumentation is but one part of the experience.
Fiedler is an artist who has been passionately obsessed with music since his
childhood, and is fully committed to his craft as a
trombonist-composer-arranger. He is intent on carrying on in the footsteps of
his heroes (while blazing trails of his own), such as Albert Mangelsdorff, Don
Pullen, Joey Sellers, Bennie Wallace, and his foremost influence on the
trombone, Ray Anderson. This all-in devotion, coupled with an incredibly intimate
knowledge of jazz and many of its branches (you would be hard pressed to meet
someone so erudite about this music), is represented in the nine tunes on
Sackbut Stomp.
The
album opens with the appropriately named "Sackbut Stomp", a tune with
an extended blues form, and a healthy dose of group improvisation (which
features heavily on the band's first record and in their live performances), or
a "collective blow", as Fiedler calls it. Next up is "King of
the Road", which Fiedler explains, "When I asked Steven Bernstein to
be a guest artist on this recording I was very excited that he was into it, and
I wanted to be sure to have just the right vehicles for his unique voice. As a
big fan of Steve's, I have many of his recordings as a bandleader. So in
revisiting some of his older music some ideas started to come clear. One was
that I have always loved how he was able to take popular music and beautifully
deconstruct it, keep it swinging while still putting his personal stamp on it.
Secondly, I love Steve's use of colors and textures through the use of mutes
and extended techniques. With those two things in mind I set out to find a
known tune that would be fun and pliable. Growing up, my Dad had Roger Miller's
greatest hits and those tunes always stuck with me. Steve's interpretation of
the melody, his great solo and his hip 'lead slide trumpet' playing on the
shout chorus lead me to believe that it was the right call."
One of
Fiedler's original concepts for Big Sackbut was to write mostly original music,
but to also cover songs by his favorite jazz composers. To that end, he has
always wanted to play something by the great Bennie Wallace. Fiedler explains,
"It was really just a matter of which one, as I love many of them. I first
discovered Bennie and this tune (from the record, 'Sweeping Through the City')
maybe 25 years ago when I was trying to find any record that had my hero, Ray
Anderson, on it. I thought that '8 Page Bible' would be perfect, and for me it
is really fun to hear each of the trombonists blow unaccompanied prior to each
of their solos." Another of Fiedler's favorite songs by another composer
fave, is "Tin Tin Deo" by Gil Fuller, who the trombonist got deeply
into during his years playing on the Latin scene. "When I was with Bobby
Sanabria's Big Band, he commissioned me to write an arrangement of this tune
for a recording. While much of the chart has its origins in Machito's 'Kenya'
recording, I greatly expanded it to incorporate a brass chorale section, a
trombone soli and a big metric modulation to let it get away from the 'Afro'
groove and swing for a while. When selecting material for Steven Bernstein,
this one was a no-brainer. So many different melodies and moods that are all
right in his wheel-house!"
Other
highlights on Sackbut Stomp include Fiedler's favorite track on the CD,
"Pittsburgh Morning", a loving tribute to his many fond memories of
growing up in "The Steel City", and the wonderful jazz radio
broadcasts that inspired him in his formative years. "While there was no
full time jazz radio in Pittsburgh in the 80's, there was a morning jazz show
on one of the public stations, WYEP. The DJ and host of the show played the
hippest stuff and was always going on about his morning cups of coffee. But
perhaps the best part of the show was his theme music, which was 'No More
Words' by Betty Carter (from an old record on Roulette). That cat opened my
eyes up to so many new artists that I wasn't familiar with, and did it with so
much love and spirit! I have always wanted to write a song for Pittsburgh, and
somehow my thoughts of WYEP and Betty Carter led me to this melody." After
the lush beauty of "Pittsburgh Morning", the band hits like a double
espresso with "Feet and Breathe", which is Fiedler's mantra every
time he picks up the trombone; "are my feet grounded without tension, and
am I taking in the proper amount of air for the upcoming phrase." Fiedler
has long been fascinated about incorporating certain languages used primarily
in the avant-garde into more "traditional" jazz compositions. In this
case he wrote "against the grain" melodies/harmonies played by the
trombonists in the first theme. On another level, "Feet and Breathe"
represent two parts of a mini two-part suite that may seem unrelated but are
quite interconnected.
The last
third of the album is comprised of "The Schlep", a tune inspired by
Fiedler's experience playing with Eddie Palmieri (and a great vehicle for Ryan
Keberle); "The Attic" (also featuring Bernstein), referring to
"the attic in my Mom's house in Pittsburgh. My formative 'listening' days
were spent there. My tastes ranged from J. J. Johnson and anything new wave, to
Anthony Braxton and Prince, or to Count Basie and Rossini. That was the place
where my tastes and views of jazz and creative music in general were formed.
Upon finishing this tune I thought, 'where the hell did this one come from?' I
think that my initial answer was, Mom's attic, but upon more reflection perhaps
it's the Brecker Brothers by way of Tower of Power with a little Kenny Wheeler thrown
in for good measure. Well to me, at least; and concluding the CD, "Solo
for Quartet", in the tradition of another one of Fiedler's heroes, Albert
Mangelsdorff, he often writes music just for solo trombone using multiphonics.
"I always want to continue to develop different styles of music for Big
Sackbut and I felt that this was a good tune to expand into a quasi-legit
piece. Additionally I wanted to have a piece with a lot of counterpoint and
independent lines that would take advantage of the unique personalities of each
player," explained Fiedler.
Few musicians possess the incredibly diverse and vast resume that
trombonist/composer Joe Fiedler boasts. The perennially in-demand artist has
worked with "everyone", from Wycleff Jean, Jennifer Lopez, to Celia
Cruz, Ralph Irizarry, Eddie Palmieri, and from Andrew Hill, Lee Konitz, Maria
Schneider, to Borah Bergman, Anthony Braxton and Cecil Taylor. He is also an
active member of some of the most revered ensembles working today, including
the Miguel Zenon Large Ensemble, Fast 'n Bulbous - The Captain Beefheart
Project, Chris Jonas' The Sun Spits Cherries, the Satoko Fujii Big Band, David
Weiss and Endangered Species, the Jason Lindner Ensemble, The Mingus Band, the
Ed Palermo Big Band, the Charles Tolliver Big Band and many others. Suffice it
to say, it would be a challenge to meet a musician today that hasn't crossed
paths on stage or in studio with Mr. Fiedler.
In
addition to this bustle of activity that comes with being one of the first call
trombonists in the world (his eclectic discography easily exceeds 100
recordings), Fiedler has been making his mark with a string of compelling
recordings under his own name, including his latest, Sackbut Stomp (on his own
Multiphonics Music), Big Sackbut & Sacred Chrome Orb (both on the Yellow
Sound Label), and Joe Fiedler Plays the Music of Albert Mangelsdorff, and The
Crab (both on Clean-Feed). Fiedler is also in the planning stages for a solo
trombone project, and is a regular contributor to The Mingus Big Band.
Fiedler's "day job" is Music Director: Arrangements (serving as
arranger, orchestrator and trombonist) for Sesame Street. Over four seasons he
has written more than 150 arrangements and crafted more than 5000 underscoring
cues.
