The Sound Will Tell You, Moran's 3rd Solo piano recording, was made on January 4-6, 2021. Half of the works use an effect dubbed "DRIP", a filter to allow the sound cast a shadow. The Drip gives the note another gravity. These pieces are marked by "tear", "honey" and "shadow. Moran, from Houston, also recalls DJ Screw's ability to give a song a new sluggish gait. Drawing out the drawl and sinking the beat into the mud. The music moves in slower motion.
Many of the titles refer to Toni Morrison, the author Moran read most frequently during quarantine. She evokes sound often and speaks of the pitch black night as "it may as well be a rainbow." - Song of Solomon.
The Sound Will Tell You is being concurrently released with an exhibition of new works on paper at the Luhring Augustine Gallery in Tribeca, New York. Moran's practice of recording his hand motions on the piano manual creates a variation on the "recording". The attack of the finger on the key leaves a mark and accumulates residue.
A believer in "melody", much like his idols Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols, Moran writes pieces that retrace themselves. The songs step into their own footsteps, a choreography of repetition, occasionally disrupting their own dance. Body and Soul remains a piece Moran circles around, this time with a nod to Eddie Kendricks' Intimate Friends.
For Love was recently heard in the film version of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, which Moran scored. His dedication to the melody is what pulls this record into another territory, aiming to eliminate the differences between melody and solo. The narrative drives these works.
How much more terrible was the Night highlights America's current state of pandemonium.
1. Follow the Light 02:38
2. Spoken in Two (Tear) 02:55
3. For Love 03:56
4. My Mother's Handful of Tea 03:35
5. Only the Shadow Knows (Honey) 04:56
6. Body & Soul with Intimate Friends (Shadow) 03:06
7. Dawns after the Dream 02:13
8. Bee Mantra (Honey) 03:22
9. How much more terrible was the Night 03:12
10. The only morning coming (Tear) 02:34
11. Hum then Sing then Speak 05:16
12. Toni Morrison said Black is a Rainbow (Shadow) 04:23
Jason Moran: piano solo
