Fred Hersch Trio ‘97: @ The Village Vanguard

Bassist Drew Gress and drummer Tom Rainey first recorded with pianist Fred Hersch on a 1992 Chesky album called Dancing In The Dark. It took more than a few years before the trio was invited to play at the Village Vanguard. Now, with the much-belated release of the Fred Hersch Trio ‘97 @ The Village Vanguard, listeners have a chance to hear the beautiful music that this superb ensemble could conjure up. Hersch tells us in a brief liner note that this disc “documents a huge moment in my life as a jazz musician..” The pianist had performed at the club numerous times as a sideman for the likes of Joe Henderson, Art Farmer, and Lee Konitz, but this was his debut as a leader. The three Friday night sets were recorded without a potential release in mind. But after running across the reference CDs in his archives and revisiting the music, Hersch has compiled the best performances for this Palmetto disc. Five songs from the Great American Song Book are joined by two Hersch originals (Evanessence and Swamp Thang) and one by bassist Gress (Andrew John) for the nearly hour-long program. The trio had formed in 1991 and by this point, their intimate rapport was as natural as breathing. Trio ‘97 @ The Village Vanguard is endlessly appealing, and easily recommended.
Palmetto PM 2193; Fred Hersch (p) Drew Gress (b) Tom Rainey (d); NYC, July 18, 1997; Easy to Love/ My Funny Valentine/ Three Little Words/ Evanessence/ Andrew John/ I Wish I Knew/ Swamp Thang/ You Don’t Know What Love Is; 58:19. www.palmetto-records.com

Devin Gray: Dirigo Rataplan II

Jazz improvisation is a curious artform. On the one hand, a musician is expected to have a recognizable and individual voice, yet the same musician is usually part of a band, contributing to the overall group sound. That tension lies at the heart of much improvised music, which brings us directly to Dirigo Rataplan II. This quartet, led by drummer Devin Gray, unites him with three highly skilled improvisers in trumpeter Dave Ballou, tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, and bassist Michael Formanek. Each of them composes and leads at least one ensemble, but when they come together to perform Gray’s striking compositions, their commitment is palpable. Gray’s tunes tend to leave a lot of room for them to move in sometimes surprising directions. There’s plenty of delicious collective improvisation on this disc, with Ballou and Eskelin entangled right at the start of Congruently. They keep it up through the session, tending to come together for brief theme statements before quickly veering off into bouts of good-natured sparring, no doubt enhanced by their previous encounters in bands led by Satoko Fujii and Rabih Abou-Khalil. At the center of the quartet’s sound, the rock-solid Formanek almost sounds like he’s soloing for the whole date, while Gray’s drums dance and frolic while continuously commenting on the proceedings. With fascinating compositions designed as springboards to improvisation, and a quartet of imaginative players to take full advantage of the setting, Dirigo Rataplan II conjures a thoroughly engrossing world of sound. Highly recommended.
Rataplan RR001; Dave Ballou (tp) Ellery Eskelin (ts) Michael Formanek (b) Devin Gray (d); Brooklyn, NY, June 2016; Congruently/ Rollin’ thru town/ Trends of trending/ Texicate/ The Wire/ Quantum Cryptology/ What we learn from cities/ The Feeling of Healing/ Intrepid Travelers/ Micro Dosage; 53:57. devingraymusic.com

Jonathan Finlayson: 3 Times Round

Trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson has been a mainstay in bands led by Steve Coleman since the beginning of this century. He’s also performed with Mary Halvorson, Henry Threadgill and Muhal Richard Abrams. His debut as a leader came in 2012 with Moment And The Message (Pi Recordings). The follow-up, Moving Still (2016, Pi Recordings), featured the same rhythm team of Matthew Mitchell on piano, John Hébert on bass, and Craig Weinrib on drums that appears on his latest opus, 3 Times Round. This stirring sextet date offers a front line of Finlayson with a pair of frequent collaborators, Steve Lehman on alto sax and Brian Settles on tenor and flute. Finlayson wrote all the tunes, a batch of knotty and unpredictable compositions that these first-rate musicians animate with great finesse and brio. Decidedly not easy listening, Finlayson’s music commands your attention with its boldness and intricacy. The band jumps right in on Feints with its complex interlocking parts. Pianist Mitchell takes a bouncy solo to show why he’s in such demand among progressive musicians. Then it’s the turn of the horns. Trading off with brief pungent solos, Finlayson, Lehman, and Settles on tenor engage in a bout of fruitful repartee while the churning rhythm section keeps the tricky groove going. There’s more licks being traded on Grass, with Finlayson’s burnished and thoughtful sound leading the way. Mitchell’s piano solo is a fascinating amalgam of flowing lines and rhythmic surprises, enlivened by the barrage laid down by drummer Weinrib. A Stone, a Pond, a Thought is pensive and brooding. The always impressive Hébert outdoes himself on this tune, with a commanding arco solo at the center of the 9-minute track. One of Finlayson’s best solos comes on the CD’s longest piece, The Moon is New, where his deceptively vulnerable sound rides over the busy rhythm section. Lehman uncorks a powerful solo next, followed by self-contained solos by Settles and Mitchell. Refined Strut is fairly subdued, featuring an exceedingly lovely trumpet solo and a mellow and breathy tenor solo by Settles. Drummer Weinrib plays beautifully on this piece, with a calm and understated ease. He switches to brushes for the melancholy Rope From the Sky, a piece that covers a lot of ground in just over 3 minutes. Mitchell’s penetrating solo is a highlight. Tap-Tap ends the disc. It’s an energetic track with characteristically incisive solos by the horns and pianist Mitchell. As Lehman told an interviewer, “you can’t just dial up your usual bag of tricks” to play Finlayson’s music, which makes it a challenging situation for any musician. Finlayson has surrounded himself with like-minded players who are always ready to respond to what Settles describes as “an expansive perennial-garden landscape ... thoughtfully designed ... with a subtle underlying order.” 3 Times Round is highly recommended and not to be missed.
Pi Recordings PI77; Jonathan Finlayson (tp) Steve Lehman (as) Brian Settles (ts, fl) Matthew Mitchell (p) John Hébert (b) Craig Weinrib (d); Brooklyn, NY, March 5-6, 2018; Feints/ Grass/ A Stone, a Pond, a Thought/ The Moon is New/ Refined Strut/ Rope From the Sky/ Tap-Tap; 53:21. pirecordings.com

Cannonball Adderley: Swingin’ In Seattle: Live at the Penthouse 1966-1967

In the Sixties, disc jockey Jim Wilke had a regular jazz show on Seattle radio station KING-FM, often featuring half-hour remote broadcasts from the city’s Penthouse club. Resonance Records put out a Wes Montgomery CD drawn from Wilke’s archives, and now Zev Feldman, the producer of that set, has teamed up with Cory Weeds to form a new label they call Reel To Real. Drawing once again on Wilke’s tape collection, their first release is Swingin’ In Seattle: Live at the Penthouse 1966-1967, 73 glorious minutes of the Cannonball Adderley quintet with brother Nat Adderley on cornet and a rhythm section of pianist Joe Zawinul, bassist Victor Gaskin, and drummer Roy McCurdy. This unit could swing like mad, and they prove it time and again in this set on tunes like Jimmy Heath’s Big “P”, Cannonball’s own Sticks, and Zawinul’s 74 Miles Away. Long-time fans will recall snippets of Cannonball speaking on some of his early Riverside live recording, and so the producers of Swingin’ In Seattle have wisely decided to include many of Cannonball’s introductions and comments on the songs. Just like the Resonance releases, the package includes a lengthy booklet. There are period photos, notes by Feldman and journalist Bill Kopp, plus interviews with Olga Adderley (Cannonball’s widow), drummer Roy McCurdy, and saxophonist Vincent Herring. While that’s all well and good, it would have been nice to include the names of the composers in the label copy. There’s also the problem of pinning down the actual recording dates. The back cover has one set of dates which are contradicted in the notes. But it’s really the music that counts, and this document of one of the most celebrated jazz groups of the era is a most welcome addition to their stellar discography.
Reel To Real RTRCD001; Nat Adderley (cnt) Cannonball Adderley (as) Joe Zawinul (p) Victor Gaskin (b) Roy McCurdy (d); Seattle, WA, October 6 & 13, 1966 and June 15 & 22, 1967 (probably; the back cover and liner notes do not agree); Jim Wilke Intro/ Big “P”/ Spoken Outro/ Spoken Intro/ The Girl Next Door/ Spoken Intro/ Sticks/ Spoken Outro/ Spoken Intro/ The Morning of the Carnival (Manhã de Carnaval)/ Spoken Outro/ Spoken Intro/ Somewhere/ Jim Wilke Intro/ 74 Miles Away/ Spoken Outro/ Back Home Blues/ Hippodelphia/ Set-closing Outro; 73:03. cellarlive.com

Mark Masters Ensemble: Our Métier

Arranger and composer Mark Masters has been leading bands since the mid-Eighties. With Our Métier, he leads his Mark Masters Ensemble in a vigorous program of his own original compositions plus a pair of brief small group collective improvisations. He’s enlisted some heavyweight guest stars to help him out, including the great Andrew Cyrille on drums, saxophonists Gary Foster, Oliver Lake, and Mark Turner, and trumpeter Tim Hagans. One of Masters’ masterstrokes (pardon the pun) is to invite musicians from very different niches in the jazz world to collaborate and see what develops. Another guest performer, bassist Putter Smith, has been a mainstay of the Southern California scene since the mid-Seventies, and he’s frequently performed alongside Foster, but I would never expect to find him in the same rhythm section as Cyrille. Or to discover saxmen Gary Foster and Mark Turner side by side, even knowing of Turner’s great appreciation of the veteran Foster, expressed in a laudatory note in the booklet. As Masters writes in his notes on the songs, “honest, original voices improvising” is one of the key elements in his preferred way of making music. With such authentic individualists as Lake, Turner and Hagans on board, plus the always impressive Cyrille making his presence felt, a powerful dose of “original voices” is assured. Their stirring solos and the freshness of the musical relationships combine with the challenges of Masters’ multi-faceted and unpredictable tunes and his beautifully balanced ensemble to make Our Métier a uniquely enjoyable musical experience.
Capri; Tim Hagans, Scott Englebright, Les Lovitt (tp) Les Benedict, Ryan Dragon, Dave Woodley (tbn) Stephanie O’Keefe (Fr hn) Gary Foster, Oliver Lake, Kirsten Edkins (as) Mark Turner (ts) Jerry Pinter (ss, ts) Bob Carr (bars, bcl) Ed Czach (p on *) Craig Fundyga (vib on #) Anna Mjöll (vcl) Putter Smith (b) Andrew Cyrille (d); Glendale, CA, April 8-9, 2017; Borne Towards the Stars#/ 51 West 51st Street/ Lift#/ Ingvild’s Dance*/ A Précis of Dialogue/ Dispositions of the Heart*#/ Obituary*#/ Luminescence#/ In Our Time/ Our Métier#; 55:32. caprirecords.com

Alan Pasqua: Soliloquy

Keyboardist Alan Pasqua has one of the most varied résumés in music, having performed with artists ranging from Tony Williams to Sheila Jordan, Bob Dylan to Harold Land. His latest effort is Soliloquy, a solo piano album recorded at home on his own Steinway. The repertoire consists of his favorite standards, some Ellingtonia, and Dylan’s Girl From the North Country. This is a record, he notes, that he’s “wanted to make for a very long time.” The result is a batch of beautiful songs beautifully played with a late-night ambience and the palpable warmth that comes from recording at home with no pressure and no time restraints. Soliloquy is an exquisite excursion into the musical mind of a consummate professional. Thoroughly recommended. Self-produced; Alan Pasqua (p); Los Angeles, CA, summer 2018; Hello Young Lovers/ I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good/ Lotus Blossom/ I See Your Face Before Me/ In a Sentimental Mood/ Embraceable You/ Isn't It Romantic/ Girl From the North Country/ A Time For Love/ There Are Such Things; 52:59. alanpasqua.bandcamp.com

Ernesto Cervini’s Turboprop: Abundance

Abundance, the latest release by Ernesto Cervini’s Turboprop, is a treat from start to finish. Leading from his drumkit, Cervini directs a septet with trombonist William Carn, Tara Davidson on saxes and flute, Joel Frahm on tenor, Adrean Farrugia on piano, and Dan Loomis on bass. Playing together for a number of years, the band brings a well-honed group identity into the studio. Their repertoire includes original compositions by several of the band members, a couple of standards, and a Tadd Dameron tune. Tara Davidson’s spirited The Queen leads things off with a bang. A bright and happy arrangement of Dameron’s Tadd’s Delight follows, with a rollicking solo by Frahm amid the rocking rhythm section. Bassist Loomis and drummer Cervini trade off solos in the second half of the piece in a warm display of mutual respect. The curiously atomized chart of Harold Arlen’s My Shining Hour, concocted by Cervini and Geoff Keezer, offers a new and reharmonized look at a familiar melody. The stuttering rhythms keep the front-line on its toes as the chart covers a lot of territory in just over three minutes. Smile, the Charlie Chaplin chestnut, sympathetically arranged, gives the spotlight to trombonist Carn for a warmly melodic solo, followed by bassist Loomis in a similarly respectful vein. The bassist contributes the jolly-sounding Abundance Overture, a composition that goes through a lot of changes in just under five minutes. Cervini’s accompaniment, which moves from the drum rims to tom-toms and cymbals and back again, is inspired. The horns have a bit of fun with some collective improvising, and pianist Farrugia offers a distilled but potent solo. The pianist’s song on the date is The Ten Thousand Things. Like Smile, this was recorded at an earlier session by the group in 2013. After a slow moving introductory section leads to an unaccompanied piano solo, Farrugia turns up the heat. The septet rises to the challenge with aplomb, with the focus on a fired-up Joel Frahm. Two songs by Cervini end the disc. Gramps has a pretty, drawn-out melody that’s given a sedate treatment. A calm and soothing Davidson on alto is the main voice, cushioned by Carn and Frahm. Prodded by the rhythm section, the piece briefly grows more insistent before dissolving back into silence. A smoothly exploratory Carn and a busy piano solo by Farrugia enliven Song for Cito. There’s  a thriving modern jazz scene in Toronto, and Cervini and friends are right in the thick of it. Abundance is happily recommended.
Anzic ANZ-0063; William Carn (tbn) Tara Davidson (as, ss, fl) Joel Frahm (ts) Adrean Farrugia (p) Dan Loomis (b) Ernesto Cervini (d); Toronto, ON, December 12-13, 2016, exc. *November 5-6, 2013; The Queen/ Tadd’s Delight/ My Shining Hour/ Smile*/ Abundance Overture/ The Ten Thousand Things*/ Gramps/ Song for Cito; 43:14. anzicrecords.com