Tyshawn Sorey Trio + 1: The Off-Off Broadway Guide To Synergism

  “Synergism” is defined as “the interaction of discrete agencies, agents, or conditions such that the total effect is greater than the sum of the individual effects.” You could hardly find a better musical illustration of the concept than The Off-Off Broadway Guide To Synergism, an expansive 3-CD project by the Tyshawn Sorey Trio + 1. Sorey’s Mesmerism was a gem of relaxed trio interaction. From that trio session, pianist Aaron Diehl is back on piano, Russell Hall replaces Matt Brewer on bass, and the “plus one” is alto saxophonist Greg Osby. The live format gives the band plenty of room to stretch out, and they take maximum advantage of the environment to deliver extended meditations on a remarkably wide variety of tunes. The band is burning from the start, with their 17 minute exploration of Night and Day. Diehl, perhaps best known for working with vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, performs with plenty of grit and a boundless imagination. Hall is a steady and responsive bassist in the ensembles and an impressive soloist. Sorey’s superb drumming “lifts the bandstand,” as Monk used to say. His fills and perfectly timed accents are continually feeding and directing the energy of his bandmates, with nary a drum solo in sight. Osby is in peak form, playing with fiery fluidity and grace. He contributes one original composition to the proceedings, Please Stand By. It was first heard on his Channel Three album (Blue Note, 2005), and touched on twice in the three sets. The balance of the repertoire is drawn from jazz composers as varied as Billy Strayhorn (Chelsea Bridge), Fats Waller (Jitterbug Waltz), Ornette Coleman (Mob Job, also played twice), Miles Davis (Solar), McCoy Tyner (Contemplation), and Andrew Hill (Ashes). Each disc also features at least a couple of long-familiar standards, touchstones for their collective improvisations. This includes Out of Nowhere, It Could Happen to You, and Three Little Words. The trio on Mesmerism liked to sneak up on melodies. This quartet operates in the same way, merely glancing at the melodies and using the underlying structure and harmony to build their impressive improvisations. An additional strategy, suited to the live performance situation. is the linkage of tunes into a flowing sequence of musical events. According to Sorey, there was hardly any discussion before they hit the stage. “All I suggested” says the drummer “was a starting point and an ending point, and wherever we went, we went.” The success of that approach depends on a deep well of songs and jazz compositions that they share, amply demonstrated here. From the occasional exclamations of encouragement and surprise we can hear coming from the bandstand, it’s readily apparent that the musicians are having a great time playing together. And of course, the enthusiastic audience contributes to the creative atmosphere. The home listener might be applauding the band as well; it’s that good. Definitely recommended. 

Pi Recordings PI96; Greg Osby (as) Aaron Diehl (p) Russell Hall (b) Tyshawn Sorey (d); NYC, March 3-6, 2022; Disc 1 (76:29): Night and Day/ Please Stand By/ Chelsea Bridge/ Three Little Words/ Mob Job/ Ask Me Now. Disc 2 (75:50): Out of Nowhere/ Ashes/ Please Stand By/ Three Little Words/ Jitterbug Waltz/ Mob Job/ It Could Happen to You. Disc 3 (74:17): I Remember You/ We’ll Be Together Again/ Contemplation/ Out of Nowhere/ Solar/ Ask Me Now. pirecordings.com 

Miles Okazaki: The Sky Below

Guitarist Miles Okazaki enlists keyboardist Matt Mitchell plus two of his long-time bandmates in Steve Coleman’s Five Elements, electric bassist Anthony Tidd and drummer Sean Rickman, for the distinctly absorbing The Sky Below. This new collection of original songs is derived somewhat mysteriously from the tunes on his 2016 release Trickster (Pi Recordings), coupled with the influence of the guitarist’s deep dive into the music of Thelonious Monk that resulted in a much-praised collection of solo versions of Monk’s complete works. As Okazaki explains it, “If Trickster was the introduction to the characters, the songs on this album are their children, bearing their features but finding their own way.” While there’s plenty of available information about how this thoughtful composer got from one set of compositions to the next, or details about the “virtual instruments” he designed via software, or his own musings about the myths and characters behind the songs, none of that would matter if this wasn’t beautifully realized music that thrills from the get-go. The rhythmic lock that Tidd and Rickman provide keeps things popping all the way through. Okazaki, using an array of effects and computer-generated sounds, and Mitchell, switching off between acoustic and electric pianos plus a synthesizer, trade solos in brisk and ever-surprising interactions. From the jittery wake up call of the cannily arranged Rise and Shine through the quietly intense Seven Sisters, the uptempo electronics of Monstropolous, the deliciously laid back feeling of The Castaway and on to the mostly peaceful lullaby To Dream Again that closes the set, there’s a genuine depth to the writing and playing that will surely keep listeners enthralled for a long time. Absolutely recommended.
Pi Recordings PI84; Miles Okazaki (g, elec) Matt Mitchell (p, Rhodes el p, Prophet-6 synth) Anthony Tidd (el b) Sean Rickman (d); Astoria, NY, June 13-14 & June 29, 2019; Rise and Shine/ Dog Star/ Anthemoessa/ Seven Sisters/ Monstropolous/ The Castaway/ The Lighthouse/ To Dream Again; 40:31. pirecordings.com

Tyshawn Sorey & Marilyn Crispell: The Adornment Of Time

Tyshawn Sorey & Marilyn Crispell approach one another warily and respectfully on their perfectly poised duo release The Adornment Of Time. As Sorey writes, this 65 minute performance at The Kitchen in New York “represents the culmination of the several journeys” that the pair have made together since their first encounter at the Creative Music Studio in 2014. Pianist Crispell is well regarded among creative musicians for, in Sorey’s words, “her mindful decision making, intense listening, and the profound clarity” of her creative responses. For his part, Sorey has been attracting a lot of attention for his composing as well as his exquisite percussion work. There’s a spacious luminosity to this extended improvisation. As you would expect, the pair explores a broad range of instrumental colors and tempos. Particularly fine passages include Crispell’s rhapsodic interlude at around the 18-minute mark, the pair’s delicate call and response around 23 minutes into the piece after a minute or so of silence, the invigorating appearance of tuned bells at the half-way point, a deliciously intense passage in the second half of the piece, some creaky sounds from inside the piano, and the magnificent rave-up that brings things to a close. Absolutely recommended. And is there a better title for creative improvisation than The Adornment Of Time?
Pi Recordings PI83; Marilyn Crispell (p) Tyshawn Sorey (d, perc); NYC, October 21, 2018; The Adornment of Time; 64:57. pirecordings.com

Matt Mitchell: Phalanx Ambassadors

Keyboardist Matt Mitchell is one of the busiest musicians in New York, working with such ornery conceptualists as Tim Berne, Henry Threadgill, Dave Douglas, Steve Coleman, and John Hollenbeck, among others. Phalanx Ambassadors, just his fourth release as a leader since 2013's Fiction, a duo set with percussionist Ches Smith, is the first documentation of this eponymous quintet. Mitchell is joined by Miles Okazaki on guitar, Patricia Brennan on vibes and marimba, Kim Cass on bass, and Kate Gentile on drums for passionate performances of Mitchell’s fascinatingly intricate compositions. Okazaki, also a mainstay of Coleman’s groups, characterizes Mitchell’s compositions as an “endlessly branching decision tree ...” The composer himself declares his pieces here as “the most challenging music I’ve ever written for a band ...” Mitchell, equally adept on piano and all manner of electronic keyboards, sticks mostly to the acoustic variety for this session, which had a lengthy gestation of composing and rehearsals until the ensemble was ready to document the compositions in a studio. The band slams into stretch goal to open the show, with Gentile’s busy drums leading the way. Bassist Cass takes a complex and propulsive solo next, followed by a brisk turn by Mitchell. After barely two minutes, you’re either thoroughly captivated by the dense goings-on, or you’re ready to stop and turn to something more easily apprehended. Put me firmly in the captivated camp, since as soon as I made my way through this 45-minute project for the first time, I was more than ready to take it from the top all over again to try and attend to more of the details that fly by. Terse melodies, unexpected harmonic twists, surprise dissonances, and forceful polyrhythms combine with the unerring commitment of the players to make Mitchell’s difficult music utterly absorbing as it unfolds. (Makes for great headphone listening, by the way, for the opportunity to concentrate and hear more detail.) Mitchell notes one of his recurrent goals “in creating music such as this: to try and make something that will continually and variably make sense, even as it sometimes doesn’t until it does.” Let that percolate in your brain for a spell, then turn your attention to Phalanx Ambassadors for a healthy dose of idiosyncratic and beautifully realized performances that fulfill that goal admirably. Highly recommended.
Pi Recordings PI81; Matt Mitchell (p; Prophet 6 synth on *) Miles Okazaki (el g) Patricia Brennan (vib, marimba) Kim Cass (b) Kate Gentile (d); Rhinebeck, NY, December 13-14; stretch goal/ taut pry/ zoom romp/ phasic haze ramps/ ssgg/ be irreparable*/ mind aortal cicatrix; 45:41. pirecordings.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