Jesse Peterson Quartet - Man of the Earth (EARS&EYES RECORDS 2018)

In its debut album, Man of the Earth, the Jesse Peterson Quartet springs into jazz, pounces on it. Drums, bass, sax, and piano arrive fully conscious from the first minute, ready to tussle and muse through these eight evocative compositions by Jesse Peterson. The performances are energetic and smart, and the recordings capture a group of musicians caught up in the euphoria of invention, precision, and play. Peterson’s unique brand of midwestern-grown melodic indie jazz does not tread with a light, sophisticate’s step. Despite their subtlety and wit, these songs feel sturdy, hearty, corn-fed. This jazz leaves tracks in the mud. 

The title track, ‘Man of the Earth,’ shows off a tonal and rhythmic diversity that characterizes the album. Raw pentatonic patterns provide a foundation for a colorful, complex melody that ascends and swirls above. An easy swing parries with driving subdivisions. Restraint and subtlety give way to kinetic crashes and splashes. Amid all this movement, the band shifts confidently, unified in improvisational freedom and in written lines. 

The name of the album and title track refer to Peterson’s father, whose capacity for earnest work and play inspired some of the songs and shaped his son’s approach to music. He owned and operated a trucking and landscaping company for most of his life, and left an imprint that can be felt in the hulking joie de vivre of these songs. This rootedness in earth and family tethers the complexity and experimentation of the album to something narrative, grounded. 

Peterson, as a composer and drummer, takes us places. He puts on jazz as a lens and sees America. These songs describe the America he grew up in, rural Minnesota, a realm of space, humble earthbound hymns and motor oil. They also show us his home in New York City, a brusque, impatient world, clogged with humans and clamoring with ambition. Throughout the album, these two locales sometimes appear with distinction, clarity, but at other times they meet, they comment on each other, they clash and step on each other’s toes. 

Songs like ‘Hibbing BMX Life Experience’ and ‘Bucko is Relocating’ also show Peterson’s range of musical influence. He doesn’t shy away from the fun of up-tempo rock, brassy Broadway grandeur, or the gleeful quarter-note drive of mashing keys. These pronounced styles become the object of the band’s commentary, as the players alternately lose themselves in the spirit of each moment, and then turn the themes into opportunities for variation, deconstruction. 

Thus Man of the Earth becomes a series of arrivals and departures, at times landing in a place of familiarity, nostalgia, and warmth, only to lift off in the next moment, soaring into abstraction. ‘The Factors’ begins with a minimalist cycle of bass and drums. Sax and piano sing along, sometimes gracing the established key, at other times resisting, pulling up into an airy bitonality. This opening gives way to a second movement, a rousing Afro-Cuban groove with a cascading melody floating over it. In this section, the sax shifts in and out of structured melody, accenting the formal strength of the song with bursts of improvisation. The song grows and matures and leaves home, but finds its way back in the end. Conceptually and musically, Peterson follows this cycle throughout the album, a cycle that loops and spirals and soars, yet always begins and ends in the same elements, the same clay. 

The album displays the quartet’s stellar musicianship in ‘Have a Winnebago Winter,’ which opens with a shimmering riot of drums. Listeners can delight in Peterson’s technical command of the set, noting the rapid, confident interplay of patterns, tempi, and traditions. But he employs his craft with purpose. Peterson positions his drumming in different roles throughout the album, sometimes playing the rowdy and talkative star, sometimes a supportive role, but in every instance, Peterson’s mind, heart, and hands work together to turn the set into a voice, an expressive tool. A minute into ‘Winnebago Winter,’ the bass steps in from the drum break with a sly, probing line, the piano tumbles in from on high, lands on the bass line to parallel it, fatten it. As soon as the group settles into a groove, Peterson enlivens it, finding rhythmic pockets that are somehow mathematical and soulful, making for a sound that is at once versatile and coherent. This quartet maneuvers boldly, decisively, bringing character to each articulate song. 

Peterson writes and plays with feeling. These melody-driven songs each speak of something human. ‘Fer da Kids’ gives us a grown-up looking back at the pure frivolity of childhood, a rousing revisitation tinged with longing. ‘You Remember Mort’ delivers a poignant eulogy, a gray interior, and a progression that paces back and forth between solace and tension. And in ‘Blessing in Between,’ a wistful passage sets the stage for an epic climb, and we hear quiet introspections become strivings, strainings, a crescendo of earnest emotion. No matter what the feeling, Peterson engages it directly, writing from the gut, never washing off the grit of memory, grief, or glory. 

The Jesse Peterson Quartet makes jazz feel fresh and knowing, fierce and good-natured. Man of the Earth invites audiences to move, to imagine, to listen in on stories and impressions and meditations from an inspired composer and four compelling musical voices worth the airtime. 

Jesse Peterson - drums/compositions

Adam Schneit - sax

Jorn Swart - piano

Andrew Schiller - bass

1. Man of the Earth 03:59

2. The Factors 05:16

3. Bucko is Relocating 08:18

4. Have a Winnebago Winter 06:31

5. Hibbing BMX Life Experience 05:57

6. Fer da Kids 07:32

7. You Remember Mort (He Died Today) 05:41

8. Blessing in Between 05:30

Recorded by Joseph Branciforte and Nolan Thies at The Bunker Studio in New York City 

Mixed by Jesse Peterson 

Mastered by Alan Douches 

Artwork/design by Michael Sallit 

Photos provided by the Petersons

Adam Schneit Band - Light Shines In (FRESH SOUND NEW TALENT 2016)

When considering titles for his debut album, “Light Shines In”, on Fresh Sound New Talent Records, tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Adam Schneit was reminded of the chorus from his favorite Leonard Cohen song, “Anthem”: “Ring the bells that still can ring / Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.” 

“That line resonates with me so strongly,” says Schneit. “It took me a long time to finally record this music. I’ve always been somewhat of a perfectionist, or at least preoccupied with having things just right before I charge forward. And yet I’m most inspired by music and art that’s flawed and raw, that’s immediate and visceral rather than polished and pristine.” “Light Shines In”, an assured introduction to a musician with a unique instrumental and compositional voice, is also a reflection of the joy that comes with risking imperfection to arrive at something vulnerable and honest. It is this guiding impetus that unifies a program of affecting rock melodies, bracing free play, off-kilter vamps, and ethereal ballads. 

Born in Portland, Maine, Schneit completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard University before deciding to pursue music professionally and getting his Masters degree at the New England Conservatory of Music. While at NEC, he sought out teachers with strong, personal aesthetic visions, such as Steve Lacy, George Garzone, Bob Brookmeyer, and Joe Morris. After moving to New York in 2005, he became active in the freelance jazz and singer/songwriter scene, but was initially most interested in developing long-term group projects. He co-led and wrote much of the music for the band Old Time Musketry which, over the course of two critically-acclaimed albums and seven years of performances, put forth its own unclassifiable blend of Americana, folk, jazz, rock, and free improvisation. 

When Old Time Musketry came to an end and presenting his music as a leader became more of a priority, Schneit already had musicians in mind. Kenny Wollesen, long-time drummer in Bill Frisell’s various groups (as well as John Zorn’s and countless jazz and rock settings), is master of a grounded, elastic beat. “There is so much space in Kenny’s playing,” says Schneit. “Whether he’s playing a backbeat or free, there is so much intensity but it still feels so open and supportive.” Eivind Opsvik (Tony Malaby, Dave Binney), whose long-standing relationship with Wollesen is documented on his four “Overseas” albums, is a bassist with a thick, resonant tone. He’s equally adept at anchoring the beat as at responding to and inciting the soloist with spontaneous counterpoint. Guitarist Sean Moran (The Four Bags) steers clear of much of the conventional jazz language often employed on his instrument, favoring singing melodies and rock-like textures. 


The band’s sensitivity speaks to a rapport stretching back several years: Opsvik and Moran have been regular members since 2009 and 2011, respectively, and Wollesen was enlisted in 2014, soon after Schneit started playing in the drummer’s anarchic marching band, the Himalayas. Each player has an unmistakable sound but also huge ears, and the quality of listening and support is evident throughout the album. 

The music on “Light Shines In” reflects Schneit’s deep love for melody in all its manifestations, ranging from pared-down rock tunes to denser “free” excursions. “I’m inspired by musicians like Keith Jarrett, Neil Young, Bill Frisell, and Ornette Coleman, where things can get loud or soft, chaotic or rhapsodic, and at the core there’s always melody. By which I mean something vocal and human, a real sense of song.” 

The selections on the album all develop out of this foundation of song. “A Clearer View” is a Neil Young-inspired folk-rocker, starting relaxed and down-home but building in intensity over the course of nine minutes. “Different Times” spins from its oddly-resolving changes into thorny free improvisation and back again. “Old Time Musketry” features a winding, joyful, somewhat gospel-like tune over rapidly-shifting chords.

The sole clarinet track, “Hope for Something More”, is a brooding rock-ballad with a mantra-like melody. “Light Shines In”, a solemn but brightening rubato meditation, is followed by the raucous, angular madness of “My Secret Hobby.” Closing out the album is “Song for Silence”, a fragile, yearning melody with a darkly insistent hook.

Released December 2, 2016

1. A Clearer View 09:03

2. Different Times 07:03

3. Old Time Musketry 05:24

4. Hope for Something More 08:41

5. Light Shines In 03:59

6. My Secret Hobby 05:49

7. Song for Silence 08:01

Adam Schneit - saxophone, clarinet, songs 

Sean Moran - guitar 

Eivind Opsvik - bass 

Kenny Wollesen - drums 

Recorded at The Bunker, Brooklyn, NY, February 9th, 2016 

Mixed by Eivind Opsvik at Greenwood Underground, Brooklyn, NY, Feb-March 2016 

Mastered by Nate Wood at Kerseboom Mastering 

Photography & Design: Bryan Murray 

Producer: Adam Schneit 

Executive Producer : Jordi Pujol

Adam Schneit Website