Saxophonist
and composer Stéphane Spira honed his jazz chops old-school style, at
late-night jams and cutting sessions. Self-taught as a musician, Spira pursued
an engineering degree, did a brief stint as an engineer in Saudi Arabia, then
in the 1990's headed back to his hometown of Paris to pursue music full time.
After 15 years of playing in Paris clubs, woodshedding, and eventually
recording two albums, Spira decided to change everything. Soprano saxophone in
hand, he moved to New York City and started over.
What he
found was inspiration beyond his wildest dreams: a jazz career with a core
group of tremendous musicians, and love with the woman who would become his
wife and the mother to his young son. On New Playground, Spira celebrates the
creative and personal happiness he's discovered since making over his life.
"I had
my first kid at 51," Spira says. "That helps to keep me young. I'm also a young musician, just not in age.
But I so love the music, and I'm truly realizing my dream."
Due out on
September 21, New Playground finds Spira leading an impeccably gifted quartet
featuring longtime bassist Steve Wood, pianist and keyboardist Joshua Richman,
and rising star drummer Jimmy Macbride. The band reflects the rich playground -
and the wealth of talented playmates - that Spira has discovered since arriving
in New York. "It's unique to have such a level of playing everywhere you
look," he says. "Because there are so many great players, the
criteria becomes finding human relationships that can grow. In the end, that
helps the music."
Wood returns
from Spira's previous album, In Between (2014), while Richman has newly joined
the ensemble. The in-demand Macbride, who has worked with legends Herbie
Hancock and Wynton Marsalis as well as being a member of the thriving young NY
jazz scene alongside artists like Nir Felder, Fabian Almazan and Melissa
Aldana, brings a vigorous sense of swing and a bristling energy to the
proceedings.
Recorded as
Spira was still finding his bearings in his newly adopted home, In Between
captured the sense of limbo in which he was living at the time: between
countries, and between one phase of life and another. Much has changed since
then, making the title New Playground equally autobiographical given his
current place in life, still fresh but offering exciting opportunities to enjoy
life's playful side.
Spira
discovered jazz as a teenager and got his first saxophone at the age of 22.
Despite the intellectual and time demands involved in getting an engineering
degree, he never stopped playing his instrument.
After
returning to Paris he regularly attended jam sessions, played in clubs,
woodshedded in the basement, and, at the age of 40, released his first album,
the 2006 First Page. In 2009 came his second recording, a tribute to his late
father, and the move to New York City, jazz mecca of the world.
Even with
that major change, the most transformative development of Spira's life has been
his marriage to classical vocalist Jessica Goldring and the birth of their son,
Léo. For their wedding gift the couple received a piano, and much of New
Playground was composed at the keyboard after Léo was put to bed. "I wrote
most of the tunes at night between two bottles," Spira laughs.
Many of
those tunes show off Spira's gift for lyricism and the winsome way he sings
with his soprano. "I love the soprano so much because it gets back to the
voice," he says. "New York is great medicine for your ego because you
can see such immense and great players. But I've had time now to say this is
who I am. I wanted to expose myself honestly and let my personality kick
in."
Those
late-night composition sessions are most vividly reflected on "Nocturne
(Song For My Son)," which shows off the composer's ability to be
sentimental without succumbing to mawkishness. His wife's maiden name is evoked
on the classically-tinged "Gold Ring Variations," which uses a bit of
Spira's cherished wordplay to wink towards the famous Bach piece. "New
York Windows" was inspired by "Les fenêtres de Moscou (Moscow
Windows)," a traditional Russian song that was a favorite of his father,
whose 2007 passing helped spur Spira's life-changing move. "My father was
really into Russian gypsy music, so by extension he loved Django Reinhardt. I
was really into jazz and by extension of that, I loved Django. So he always
loved when I would play that song with him. I used it as a departure for my
song."
Family is
also evoked in the pulse-pounding opener "Peter's Run," penned for a
cousin who ran the New York Marathon - and who may be inspired to run another
based on the tune's driving, hand-clapped rhythm. "Underground
Ritual" surges with the hectic pace of the NYC subway, but it's a
dedication to Frederic Lebayle, a mouthpiece designer whose basement workshop
became a meeting place for saxophonists who ran his designs through their
paces. "Ravi Coltrane, Mark Turner, even Wayne Shorter - they'd all come
into his basement and play their licks, run through harmonics, go low, check
the sounds," says Spira. "It
was like a ritual."
The only
piece on the album not written by Spira, Wood's "Kaleidoscope"
features a changing melody over a repeated five-bar cycle, shifting perspective
akin to the titular device. The album's closer, "Solid Wood," is a
self-explanatory dedication to the rock-solid bassist.
"Life
brings surprises," Spira says succinctly. "I was a late bloomer, but
I'm embracing this new life. It's become a playground for me in the true sense
of the term."
French-born,
New York-based saxophonist Stéphane Spira grew up with jazz the old-school way:
in late-night jams and cutting sessions. A protégé of longtime Chet Baker
pianist Michel Graillier, Spira's jazz career has taken him from 4 a.m.
basement sessions in the underbelly of Paris, through acclaimed collaborations
with trumpeter Stéphane Belmondo and pianist Giovanni Mirabassi, to the cutting
edge of New York jazz. Trained as an engineer, Stéphane sharpened his chops off
the books, after hours, immersing himself in a hard-edged milieu. Perhaps since
he honed his chops in the depths of the jazz underground, Spira was spared the
awkwardness of growing up in public: Spira's "remarkable maturity"
(Radio France) has not gone unnoticed by the critics. Prior to the 2018 New
Playground, Spira released four critically acclaimed albums as a bandleader:
First Page, Spirabassi (a duo collaboration with pianist Giovanni Mirabassi)
and Round About Jobim, a tribute to the father of bossa nova featuring Lionel
Belmondo's acclaimed Hymne au Soleil ensemble, and 2014's In Between.
