Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, Bill Stewart | "Perpetual Pendulum" | Available March 25 via Smoke Sessions Records

Organist Larry Goldings, Guitarist Peter Bernstein

and Drummer Bill Stewart Release New Album, Celebrating More Than Three Decades as a Trio

 

Perpetual Pendulum Due Out

March 25, 2022 via Smoke Sessions Records

Album Marks Homecoming for the Trio,

Born at Smoke Jazz Club Predecessor Augie’s

Perpetual motion has been dismissed as an impossibility by scientists, but perhaps they should check in with organist Larry Goldings, guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Bill Stewart. The trio has been creating vigorously swinging music together for more than 30 years and show no signs of slowing down. That’s not quite an eternity – though in jazz terms, it might as well be.

 

The longevity of the musical hook-up between Goldings, Bernstein and Stewart was the inspiration behind Bernstein’s “Perpetual Pendulum,” one of the scintillating new tunes on Perpetual Pendulum, the trio’s new album together. Due out March 25, 2022 from Smoke Sessions Records, the date combines the bandmates’ originals with fresh takes on jazz classics by what is surely the longest-lasting organ trio in modern jazz.

 

“Thirty-plus years is definitely a milestone,” Bernstein says. “Especially when you consider it in light of jazz history; it’s trippy to think about, but that's equivalent to keeping a band together from 1940 to 1970. If you think about how short a time so many of our musical heroes were even active, let alone have a group together – I mean, the classic Coltrane quartet was only together for about four years. So it is pretty significant.”

 

Perpetual Pendulum was recorded last July at New York’s Sear Sound, a studio with which the trio shares a storied history dating back to their second outing together, 1992’s Light Blue. The session marked the 30th anniversary of the release of their debut, Goldings’ 1991 album The Intimacy of the Blues.

 

But their history stretches back even earlier. Goldings and Bernstein had met while still in high school, when both attended the Eastman School of Music’s summer jazz program. The guitarist met Stewart two years later when both were enrolled at William Paterson University, and the drummer and organist hooked up for the first time at a New School session. When Goldings and Bernstein established their spot on the weekly Augie’s calendar, they tried a few drummers before clicking with Stewart and establishing a collective voice that’s endured through three extremely busy solo careers and Goldings’ move to the west coast.

 

“We all really dig each other, and that's probably the most important thing,” Goldings says in an attempt to explain the trio’s indefinable chemistry. There’s a lot of crossover in what we like to play and listen to, and our individual visions of jazz tend to align. It’s hard to say, because we never really discuss it; we just try to make good records. We came up together.”

 

The origin of their trio makes the release of Perpetual Pendulum on Smoke Sessions particularly significant. Smoke Jazz & Supper Club, the label’s parent venue, was opened on the former site of Augie’s Jazz Bar, where Goldings, Bernstein and Stewart established their rapport on a regular Thursday night gig beginning in 1989.

 

“It was a dive,” Goldings remembers. “It was a hole in the wall. Our weekly night there was the reason why I started playing the organ: the kinds of little places where we could get gigs frequently didn't have pianos. At Augies, we literally passed the basket to get paid… But between there and the Village Gate, we amassed a local fan base. So, it is significant that we’re releasing this album with Smoke. That room is hallowed… grease.”

 

Perhaps that grease was part of the magic, as it can still be heard in the trio’s gut-level playing on the title track, Perpetual Pendulum – check out the stick-to-the-ribs groove on “Prelude,” Golding’s bluesification of George Gershwin’s Prelude #2. Or the slick venom they bring to Stewart’s self-explanatory political hit piece, “FU Donald.”

 

Stewart originally recorded the latter tune on his 2018 album Band Menu, with a trio featuring Walter Smith III and Larry Grenadier. He knew it would make a perfect fit with his lifelong collaborators, however. “I don't think I've ever actually written anything specifically for this trio, to be honest,” Stewart admits. “I just know the way Pete and Larry play, so I just bring things in and see what works.”

 

Bernstein concurs. “I know whatever I write, these guys can play it. Harmonically, Larry will be totally inside whatever I might be hearing, and Bill makes every band sound like a band. I don't have to worry about writing with these guys in mind. They've informed my whole sound, so they’re always a reference point in whatever I write.”

 

The guitarist contributed two pieces to the album. The trio reprises his “Little Green Men,” which they originally recorded on Light Blue, in a ferociously swinging version. The aforementioned “Perpetual Pendulum” is a new piece, taken at a smoldering lope that prompts slow-burn solos from both the composer and Goldings. The organist’s “Let’s Get Lots” is a tune as witty and playful as the wordplay in its title. Stewart’s second composition is “Lurkers,” a quietly forceful piece highlighted by the avalanching intensity of Goldings’ solo.

 

Both John Lewis’ “Django” and Wayne Shorter’s “United” have been longtime staples of the trio’s live sets. Originally recorded by Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1961, “United” is driven by a forceful propulsion that eventually erupts into a taut bout of trading between Stewart and his bandmates. A trademark of the Modern Jazz Quartet, “Django” opens with an elegant solo turn by Bernstein, perhaps keeping the tune’s namesake, Django Reinhardt, in his mind’s eye. Goldings enters with lush, blossoming chords before effortlessly pivoting into a swaggering swing.

 

Despite the trio’s mutual love of classic standards, “Come Rain or Come Shine” is one perennial that they’d never tackled onstage. An impromptu warm-up led to its welcome inclusion on the album, a bright moment that showcases the old friends’ warm, easy camaraderie. Gary Bartz’s “Libra” is another new addition to the repertoire, ignited by Stewart’s steamroller rhythms and featuring absolutely blistering solos by all three. Duke Ellington’s “Reflections in D” is the polar opposite – airy, elegant and tender, floating on the waves of Stewart’s shimmering brushwork.

 

If it’s challenging to imagine a band with the kind of longevity that Goldings, Bernstein and Stewart share, it’s even more rare to find one maintaining this brilliant level of musicianship and chemistry. Its value isn’t lost on the trio, as Bernstein concludes.

 

“I think we all share a pure feeling of gratitude,” he says. “With these cats, I feel pressured to play my best because they’ve heard everything I can do. At the same time, I feel comfortable trying anything with them because I know whatever I do, they're going to hold it together. We’ve all grown through our individual experiences, but we always come back to this. And it's only getting better.”

Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, Bill Stewart · Perpetual Pendulum

Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: March 25, 2022

For more information on other Smoke Sessions Records releases, please visit:

SmokeSessionsRecords.com | Facebook 

Nicholas Payton | "Smoke Sessions (Remixed)" | Available March 8 via Smoke Sessions Records

Innovative Trumpeter, Keyboardist and Composer

Nicholas Payton Transforms the Music from Latest

All-Acoustic Trio Album on New Remix EP

 

Smoke Sessions (Remixed) Due Out March 8, 2022

via Smoke Sessions Records

EP Features Genre-Blending Remixes by

Karriem Riggins and Tomoki Sanders

and Special Guest Isaiah Sharkey

Though it’s never simple (or advisable) to pin Nicholas Payton down to a particular genre or style, the renowned trumpeter/keyboardist/composer’s two recent releases for Smoke Sessions Records have found him in relatively traditional acoustic trio mode. He was accompanied by the powerhouse rhythm section of bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington on 2019’s live Relaxin’ With Nick, then with the generation spanning trio of drummer Karriem Riggins and legendary bassist Ron Carter on 2021’s acclaimed Smoke Sessions.

But Payton, it turns out, had more transformative intentions in mind for the latter session. On his new EP Smoke Sessions (Remixed), due out March 8 via Smoke Sessions Records, he turns the raw material of four of the album’s tracks over to Riggins and the rising star multi-instrumentalist producer Tomoki Sanders to create remixed versions of the tunes refracted through the lens of the hip hop generation.

This post-modern hybrid approach to what others may view as disparate genres is central to much of Payton’s discography, so it certainly makes sense that he would hear the potential for such electronic reimagining in the music he recorded with Carter and Riggins. “Many of my projects have a remix component built into them already,” he explains. “I felt giving those types of production treatments to an all-live acoustic session would speak more to the times in which we live. It gives the folks a bit of both worlds.”

Riggins, the drummer for the original Smoke Sessions album, puts on his producer hat for three of the four tracks on the remix EP. It’s a role he’s as comfortable playing as the one he essays behind the drumkit – he’s done production work for many of hip hop’s most creative artists, including Common, The Roots, Erykah Badu and Kanye West.

“Production and mixing [are] a significant part of Karriem’s body of work,” Payton says. “I hired him as the drummer on the session with this in mind.”

For his part, Riggins refers to Payton as, “one of those geniuses… He set the bar high and it’s always super inspirational being around him and playing music with him."

The original “Levin’s Lope” already brought inspiration full circle, taking a Ron Carter-inspired bassline from Payton’s “Cyborg Swing” and giving it to the man himself; the oft-sampled Carter now provides robust inspiration for a new Riggins beat and swirling melody. Payton’s Rhodes playing on “Gold Dust Black Magic,” which also featured guitarist Isaiah Sharkey, ripples out into a cosmic dub beat in Riggins’ hands, while guest saxophonist George Coleman’s sultry tenor sound is shrouded in stark, airy new atmospherics until a bold, funky new beat hammers into place.

The EP’s final track is another case of ricocheting inspiration. The young, uncategorizable multi-instrumentalist Tomoki Sanders, who Payton calls, “one of my favorite up and coming musician/producers,” provided a beat that helped inspire the original version of “Hangin’ In and Jivin’;” his remix amplifies and reconstructs the muscular groove at the heart of the tune.

While he insists that, “it’s never my intent to decide what anyone gets from my music,” Payton does hope that Smoke Sessions (Remixed) helps cement in listener’s minds his notion that all music co-exists in a continuum, and that genre classifications are inherently limiting. It’s an argument that on these four tracks he makes through the most enticing and infectious of means.

“I hope it highlights there’s not such a disparity between more traditional styles and current ones,” he says. “It’s all just music.”

Watch the EPK for Nicholas Payton's Smoke Sessions

"Smoke Sessions" was produced by Nicholas Payton and Paul Stache,

and recorded live in New York at Sear Sound's Studio C on a Sear-Avalon

custom console at 96KHz/24bit and mixed to 1/2" analog tape.

Available in audiophile HD format.

Nicholas Payton · Smoke Sessions (Remixed)

Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: March 8, 2022

For more information on other Smoke Sessions Records releases, please visit:

SmokeSessionsRecords.com | Facebook

Harold Mabern - Mabern Plays Coltrane (December 2021 Smoke Sessions Records)

MABERN PLAYS COLTRANE, a vibrant live recording of Harold Mabern performing the music of John Coltrane with an all-star sextet including Eric Alexander, Vincent Herring, Steve Davis, John Webber, and Joe Farnsworth.

Mabern held a special reverence for John Coltrane. “He was very influential in my life and my playing, too,” Mabern once said. “After being around him and seeing what a great human being he was – man, I wish the whole world could have known John Coltrane.”

MABERN PLAYS COLTRANE is culled from the final three-nights of a three-week residency at Smoke’s annual year ending John Coltrane Festival that started in 2017 ended with these performances that Mabern and the band played in January 2018. The resulting recordings also produced two earlier albums: THE IRON MAN, which shined a spotlight on Mabern the performer and interpreter and offered a glimpse into a typical evening’s performance and MABERN PLAYS MABERN, which commemorated Mabern’s gifts as a composer and followed his untimely death at age 83 on September 17, 2019. Mabern Plays Coltrane is the album that was originally planned for those live recording sessions. Mabern had always played a key role in the festival since its inaugural edition in 2011. From the initial weeklong fest through its later three- and four-week incarnations, Mabern was the headliner for much of the annual run, an indication of both his appreciation for Coltrane as a forbear and mentor as well as his own vital role at Smoke.

“Playing John Coltrane's music with Harold was like tapping into the source,” says Farnsworth. “He was like the vortex, and it all flowed through him. It was intense. Having Harold on the stage, given how much he loved John Coltrane, it elevated the spirit of the music tenfold.” 

1. Dahomey Dance 07:13

2. Blue Train 10:42

3. Impressions 09:41

4. Dear Lord 05:36

5. My Favorite Things 11:47

6. Naima 09:09

7. Straight Street 10:51

Harold Mabern - piano

Vincent Herring - alto saxophone

Eric Alexander - tenor saxophone

Steve Davis - trombone

John Webber - bass

Joe Farnsworth - drums

Recorded Live January 5, 6 & 7, 2018 at SMOKE, NYC

Produced by Paul Stache & Damon Smith

Recorded by Paul Stache with Owen Mulholland & Jeff Citron

Mixed & Mastered by Chris Allen

Photography by Jimmy & Dena Katz

Design by Damon Smith & Paul Stache

All compositions by John Coltrane

except “My Favorite Things” by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II

“Dear Lord” was previously included on The Iron Man: Live at Smoke

Eric Alexander appears courtesy of HighNote Records

Executive Producers: Paul Stache & Molly Johnson

PRE ORDER

Nicholas Payton | "Smoke Sessions" | Available October 29, 2021 via Smoke Sessions Records

Multi-Instrumentalist and Composer Nicholas Payton

Realizes Long-Cherished Dream to Record with

Iconic Bassist Ron Carter on Stunning New Album

Album Features Longtime Collaborator

Karriem Riggins and Special Guest Appearance

by Legendary Saxophonist George Coleman

 

Smoke Sessions, Due Out October 29, 2021

via Smoke Sessions Records,

Plus Four-Song Remix EP Forthcoming

For a young Nicholas Payton, Miles Davis’ 1966 album ‘Four’ & More, captured live two years earlier at Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall, provided a template for what music could – and should – be. Now long established as one of the most renowned musicians and composers on the scene, Payton has convened two of the legendary musicians who played with Davis on that album, bassist Ron Carter and special guest saxophonist George Coleman, to craft some exemplary sounds of his own.

With Smoke Sessions, set for release on October 29, 2021 via the label of the same name, Payton finally realizes his long-cherished dream of leading a session with Ron Carter on bass. To reignite the chemistry of the album he’d fallen in love with decades before, he also invited George Coleman to contribute to a pair of tunes. (A third contributor to ‘Four’ & More, pianist Herbie Hancock, is represented by the composition “Toys,” but Payton fills the keyboard chair on the date as well as playing trumpet). Rounding out the quartet is the esteemed drummer Karriem Riggins, a longtime collaborator of Payton’s who helps ensure that the music bridges generations as well as styles.

“Miles Davis' ‘Four’ & More was the album that really inspired me to take up music seriously,” Payton explains. “Ever since then, Ron Carter has been an idol and a favorite musician of mine. As long as I’ve been leading bands I’ve patterned my choice of bassists by the metric of how much Ron they have in their playing. When I’ve looked for pianists in my band over the years, it's often predicated on how much Herbie they have in their sound. So this album is really a dream come true for me.”

Far from a tribute or a look back, however, Smoke Sessions is a wholly contemporary new album that vibrantly captures Payton’s open-eared blend of swing, funk, soul and hip-hop influences with Riggins’ expansive fluidity behind the kit and Carter’s renowned, rock solid majesty on the bass. Payton seizes the opportunity to engage with that recognizable voice in multiple forms, taking both the Miles and Herbie roles as trumpeter, pianist and keyboardist via the multi-instrumentalism that has become a thrilling trademark of his approach.

While Payton has crossed paths with Carter on a number of occasions over the years, he’d never been able to persuade the famously exacting bassist to appear on one of his own dates before now. “He finally started giving me the time of day,” Payton says with a laugh. “Once I had his interest I hurried up and locked it in before he changed his mind.”

Whatever the delay, Carter spoke highly of the bandleader in the wake of recording Smoke Sessions. “I was quite pleased and had fun playing with him as a piano player as well as a trumpet player,” the bassist said. “Listen to him play trumpet. He’s listening to my response to what he does — if the trumpet players of today want to try to put him in a place, he should be up there because he listens to what the bass player contributes to his solo.”

The album opens in high-spirited fashion, with the elastic groove of Payton’s aptly named “Hangin’ and a Jivin’” before Coleman makes his first of two appearances on the sultry “Big George.” “I feel like George didn't get as much credit as he deserved for being a part of Miles's experimentations in alternate changes and chord progressions,” Payton says. “That's why the songs on the album with George tend to be basically four-bar vamps – those four-bar turnarounds and what they would do with them were so influential in changing the landscape of how musicians play chord changes. It was important to me to get into that stuff that they did back in the 60s. George being there was like the cherry on top.”

Those concepts are explicitly referenced in the title of “Turn-a-Ron,” Coleman’s second guest spot, which gives the two masters plenty of space to interact with one another. The bassist is also paid homage on “Levin’s Lope,” which references his middle name while repurposing the bassline of “Cyborg Swing,” from Payton’s Quarantined with Nick album. “The sound of how I hear bass in an ensemble comes basically from Ron Carter and Ray Brown, so a lot of the music that I write is tailor made for what Ron does. I didn't have to make any alterations to accommodate him because I write with his sound in mind anyway.”

The two-part “Lullaby for a Lamppost,” dedicated to New Orleans music legend Danny Barker, takes its structure from a New Orleans funeral procession – slow and dirge-like at first, then celebratory as the body is laid to rest. “Danny Barker gave me my first regular gig at this club on Bourbon Street in New Orleans called the Famous Door,” Payton recalls. “The tune is my homage to him, to his mentorship and the dedication he had to educating the youth in New Orleans.”

“Q for Quincy Jones,” originally recorded on Payton’s 2015 Letters album, pays tribute to another wide-ranging musical icon whose production skills, Payton remarks, “have been part of the fabric of the sound of music in the 20th century from Dinah Washington to George Benson to Michael Jackson.” The composer adapted “Gold Dust Black Magic” from his orchestral work of the same name, premiered earlier this year by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.

The remaining two pieces are drawn from the songbooks of two of Payton’s most formative keyboard influences: Hancock’s aforementioned “Toys,” originally recorded on 1968’s Speak Like a Child with Carter on bass; and Keith Jarrett’s achingly beautiful “No Lonely Nights.”

The recording of Smoke Sessions, Payton concludes, was “like a pinch-myself moment… I used to pretend I was playing with [these musicians] when I was a child, and now it’s happening. I literally felt like I was walking on air. To have someone I've listened to on record and admired from afar actually be a part of something that I created was just beyond my wildest imagination. I remained in a dream state for a couple of months afterwards.”

"Smoke Sessions" was produced by Paul Stache and Nicholas Payton,

and recorded live in New York at Sear Sound's Studio C on a Sear-Avalon

custom console at 96KHz/24bit and mixed to 1/2" analog tape.

Available in audiophile HD format.

Nicholas Payton · Smoke Sessions

Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: October 29, 2021

For more information on other Smoke Sessions Records releases, please visit:

SmokeSessionsRecords.com | Facebook | Instagram

Joe Farnsworth | "City of Sounds" | Available October 1 via Smoke Sessions Records

Drummer Joe Farnsworth Celebrates the Fortitude of

New York City’s Jazz Community with

Second Release for Smoke Sessions Records

Due Out October 1, City of Sounds Features

Kenny Barron and Peter Washington

Prior to the events of 2020, it may have been easy to take New York City’s thriving and diverse music scene for granted. But when clubs went dark and an unsettling silence descended on the metropolis, it served as a stark reminder of just how vitally important it is to keep the music alive. Drummer Joe Farnsworth determined to do just that, and remained a stalwart jazz warrior throughout the pandemic. His celebratory new album, City of Sounds, is both a testament to his efforts and a heartfelt tribute to the musical melting pot he’s called home for more than three decades.

Due out October 1 via Smoke Sessions Records, City of Sounds was captured onstage at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club with a superb trio featuring legendary pianist Kenny Barron and bass titan Peter Washington. The three are reunited from Farnsworth’s Smoke Sessions debut, Time To Swing, which also included Wynton Marsalis in the line-up. Here Farnsworth sticks to the core trio, a format in which he’s thrived throughout his storied career – including collaborations with McCoy Tyner, Cedar Walton, Harold Mabern, Hank Jones, David Hazeltine and ELEW, among many others.

“I've learned so much from this city,” Farnsworth declares. “Then the city got rocked, so I wanted to try to give back. One of the ways I could do that was by staying here and playing whenever and however I could to keep the sounds alive.”

The performance represented by City of Sounds is just one example of that effort. A thrilling live concert from Farnsworth’s birthday week in February 2021, it bears the traces of the strange period we’re just now emerging from, with musicians in masks and separated by plastic barriers, playing to an empty club for an audience of virtual listeners streaming the music live at home.

Not that any of those inconveniences are reflected in the music. The trio plays with as much vigor, wit and muscularity as if the place was packed throughout a rollicking set that spans the stylistic spectrum. That’s one of – if not the main – reasons that Farnsworth remains so dedicated to his adopted hometown, and one that he was proud to see survive the travails of a turbulent period.

“I went on a Black Lives Matter march from Inwood through Harlem that ended up at a park on the West Side Highway,” he recalls. “As we marched, people were flying the flags of the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, and you’d hear salsa music playing from their windows. Then you went through Harlem and heard funk and soul and rap music. Everyone was cheering for the same thing, but there were all these different sounds. You can't get that anywhere else in the world.”

If that trek can be summed up in a single tune, it’s here in Barron’s “Bud-like,” a tribute to bebop pioneer Bud Powell that also bears a slight Latin tinge. Farnsworth continues the Latin feel with his sultry original “Ojos Cariñosos.” Translated as “brown eyes,” the tune is dedicated to a Dominican friend and was inspired by his collaborations with percussionist/bandleader Bobby Sanabria and lessons learned from Miguel “Mike” Amadeo, the Puerto Rican-born songwriter and proprietor of Casa Amadeo, the city’s longest-running Latin music store.

The set gets off to a brisk and swinging start with Barron’s “New York Attitude.” The song was originally recorded on the pianist’s 1996 album of the same name, but it’s an apt kick-off to an exhilarating evening dedicated to the toughness and tenacity of the jazz mecca’s steadfast musical community.

“We're at Smoke and there's no one there, there're baffles between us, and we have masks on – Kenny Barron, who is royalty and could easily have decided just to stay home and not deal with this, is across the stage with a double mask on. But he's out there. That’s the fortitude of the New York musician. You have to have it to be here because you get smacked around by so many different things, but you just keep showing up.”

The flip side of that attitude is the tenderness and grace that Barron brings to a classic standard like “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” buoyed by Washington’s fleet basslines and the airy touch of Farnsworth’s nimble brushwork. “Moonlight in Vermont” is taken at an achingly slow pace, inspired by an encounter that Farnsworth shared with vocalist Betty Carter while playing at the now-defunct Greenwich Village club Sweet Basil in Benny Golson’s band. Album closer “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise,” meanwhile, takes on an uncharacteristic brightness that represents the dawn after the darkness.

“Kenny suggested that tune,” Farnsworth says. “Everybody was so worried about the future at that point. We were constantly talking about taking things day by day. That's all you heard during the pandemic, but it’s something you should hear every day. So ‘Softly’ is a reminder that today is a new day.”

Farnsworth’s “City of Sounds” is a woozy blues that hints at an after hours jam session, while the blistering “No Fills” recounts a formative lesson taught to him by saxophonist George Coleman. “After the set George asked me, ‘Do you want some butter with them rolls?’ I was playing too much. He wanted me to be more like Billy Higgins. If you listen to Hank Mobley’s Straight No Filter, they do a tune called ‘Soft Impressions’ where McCoy Tyner is on fire but Billy never plays a fill. It's just straight through the top like George was talking about. For me, that's really the bible of no fills.”

The continuity of tradition represented by the album is also captured in its cover photo, which was taken in Weehawken, New Jersey at the same spot where saxophonist Benny Golson is depicted on the cover of 1959’s New York Scene. Golson was one of Farnsworth’s earliest employers, and the site is not far from the homes of Thelonious Monk and Barry Harris, which Farnsworth says affected the very atmosphere of the place.

“People ask all the time if it's still relevant to come to New York anymore,” Farnsworth concludes. “Without a doubt, if you were to spend a year here, you would be a better musician. Why? Charlie Parker's not here, but you still feel him. Monk's not here, but you still feel him. Their presence flows through the streets. It flows through the people. It’s the ultimate power source.”

"City of Sounds" was produced by Paul Stache and Damon Smith,

recorded live at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club, NYC from February 19-21, 2021

and mastered to ½” analog tape using a Studer mastering deck.

Joe Farnsworth · City of Sounds

Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: October 1, 2021

For more information on other Smoke Sessions Records releases, please visit:

SmokeSessionsRecords.com | Facebook | Instagram

Orrin Evans | "The Magic of Now" | Smoke Sessions Records

Pianist Orrin Evans Boldly Embraces

Challenges and Change to Create Music of

Beauty and Meaning in the Present Time

The Magic of Now Reconnects Evans with

Immanuel Wilkins, Vicente Archer, and Bill Stewart

moke Sessions Records proudly releases The Magic of Now, Orrin Evans’ sixth leader album for the label, and the 20th of the 46-year-old pianist-composer’s luminous career. Recorded in the midst of the upheavals set in motion by the COVID-19 pandemic, this latest recording of Evans’ kaleidoscopic artistic journey coincides with several self-generated sea changes in his life. For one thing, Evans and his wife recently sold their Philadelphia home of 20 years to their oldest son. For another, on March 15th, Evans ended a three-year association with the popular piano trio The Bad Plus to focus on musical projects under his own name.

“People have had to make adjustments and be reborn to a certain extent,” Evans says by way of explaining the title. “We’re past the point where we didn’t know what was going on or what the future would look like. Now we’re settling into what our ‘new normal’ will be, embracing the magic of now and the shape of what will happen next.”

The Magic of Now was recorded at SMOKE during the second weekend of December 2020 by Evans and a multi-generational cohort of A-list partners – first-call New York bassist Vicente Archer; iconic drummer Bill Stewart; and the dynamic 23-year-old alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins. They generate an eight-piece program that exemplifies state-of-the-art modern jazz, including three tunes apiece by the leader and Wilkins (whose 2020 Blue Note debut, Omega, was named “Best Debut Jazz Recording of 2020” by NPR Music and number-one jazz recording of 2020 by the New York Times). From the first note to the last, the quartet, convening as a unit for the first time, displays the cohesion and creative confidence of old friends.

Actually, “old friends” is a precise descriptor for the protagonists. “This album is a reunion,” explains Evans, who met Archer when both moved to New York City during the mid-1990s. He began playing frequently with Stewart when saxophone titan Steve Wilson hired both to play in his Wilsonian Grain quartet in 2008. In 2013, he played “big fun” trio gigs with Archer and Stewart at the Litchfield Jazz Festival and the Detroit Jazz Festival, and used Stewart on his 2014 Smoke Session album Liberation Blues.

Evans initially met Wilkins – a fellow Philadelphia resident – when teaching him at a summer music camp. They first shared the Smoke Jazz Club bandstand in 2018, when Evans to organize a series called “Philly Meets New York.” Their simpatico intensified last summer, as Evans recruited Wilkins to play several self-produced “Club Patio” concerts outside his Philadelphia home.

“I knew Immanuel as a performer and a saxophonist, but not as a composer until I played some of his pieces during that series,” Evans says. “I loved the compositions, how he treated them within a set, and how he put everything together. Playing other people’s music inspires me.”

Producer Paul Stache, who’d personally experienced the Evans-Wilkins simpatico during a Wilkins-led livestream at Smoke last August, suggested the matchup. “I’d wanted to do more with Vicente and Bill after 2013, but they ended up playing with Nicholas Payton for a few years and I couldn’t figure out a way to put it back together,” Evans says. “By happenstance, we were all at home during the pandemic.”

“I love Vicente’s fearlessness,” says Evans, himself known for applying a “kamikaze” attitude to jazz expression since he began leading groups in his late teens. “He learns the music and then adds so much to the conversation by playing harmonic and rhythmic ideas you might not have thought of. And I love the way that Bill’s drums sound – his cymbal choices, the way he tunes his bass drum and snare drum.”

As for Wilkins, Evans appreciates his lovely tone throughout the alto’s registral range; his command of a broad swath of jazz lineage; his “ability to bring music to the table and let it breathe, allowing myself, Vicente and Bill to bring something to it totally different than what his band would do.”

On The Magic of Now, the members apply their collective mojo to three heretofore unrecorded Wilkins songs, including the gorgeous ballad “The Poor Fisherman,” of which Evans (a master of the genre) remarks, “I’ve always wanted to write a ballad like that.” The leader notes the “relaxed” quality that Archer and Stewart impart to the 5/4 time signature that underpins the melody-drenched “Levels,” on which composer and leader engage in probing dialogue before each uncorks a commanding solo. Evans also applauds Wilkins’ “Momma Loves,” analogizing it to “a modern-day Monk tune, or modern-day bebop, with extra bars that make it feel weird – everyone plays right on through it.”

The program opens with a medley of Stewart’s anthemic “Mynah” (which debuted on Stewart’s 1997 Blue Note album, Telepathy) and Mulgrew Miller’s “The Eleventh Hour,” a blues that Evans describes as “a melody that, when you get in there, it’s going to start swinging.” That understates what the unit does on this ferociously executed, up-tempo tour de force, on which Wilkins and Evans refract the language of seminal ’60s modernism into their respective argots, propelled by stalwart beat flow from Archer and Stewart.

The first of Evans’ three tunes is “Libra,” a stick-to-the-ribs melody that previously appeared on Evans’ self-released Luvpark and White Boy, You Don’t Know Nothin’ About No Barbecue. “I wanted to hear what Bill would play,” says Evans, whose intensely percussive solo dances to the “distinctive groove” of Stewart, who played regularly with jazz-funk saxophone legend Maceo Parker during the early ’90s.

Evans dedicated the medium-up swinger “MAT-Matt” – which debuted on Evans’ 1999 album Listen To The Band and was reprised on the 2010 date Faith and Action – to his two sons, now 28 and 23. “It speaks to watching them grow,” he says.

The intensity winds down on the set-closing “Dave,” a pensive ballad on which Stewart showcases his skill at flowing in the rubato space. As on the preceding tunes, where he explores numerous dimensions of piano expression, Evans projects his singular voice onto the 88 keys.

“I love the sound of the piano and drums on this record – and I love the sound at Smoke,” Evans says of The Magic of Now. “I love the energy – so close, so intimate. And I appreciate having a long-standing relationship with Paul Stache that’s built on mutual respect. That has a lot to do with how much I enjoy playing music there.”

1 Mynah / The Eleventh Hour

2 Libra

3 The Poor Fisherman

4 MAT-Matt

5 Levels

6 Momma Loves

7 Dave

PREORDER

Renee Rosnes | "Kinds of Love" | Available September 3 via Smoke Sessions Records

On Her Upcoming Album, Kinds of Love,

Pianist and Composer Renee Rosnes

Honors and Celebrates Love Through

Nine Brilliant New Compositions

The Recording Features a Stunning All-Star Band

with Some of Her Favorite Collaborators,

Chris Potter, Christian McBride, Carl Allen and Rogério Boccato

Kinds of Love is Set for Release September 3

on Smoke Sessions Records

This strange last year has been a time of reflection and contemplation for many of us, cut off from the people and the things that we love. Pianist and composer Renee Rosnes has emerged with a reinvigorated appreciation for the many different shapes that love can take. Her breathtaking new recording, Kinds of Love, is both a celebration of and a meditation on the myriad forms it’s taken in her own life – romantic love, love of family, of nature, of the arts and of close relationships she’s forged with many of her fellow musicians (including the critically acclaimed ARTEMIS, the international all-star group of which Rosnes serves as musical director).

Due out September 3 via Smoke Sessions Records, Kinds of Love is in itself a manifestation of a few of those ideas. The staggering all-star quintet that Rosnes assembled for the occasion – saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Christian McBride, drummer Carl Allen, and percussionist Rogério Boccato – represent a deep web of friendships and collaborations stretching back decades in some cases. And for many of them, the recording date marked one of their first times back in a studio after the long dry spell of 2020. Rosnes seized the opportunity to craft a full album’s worth of new compositions, conceived with these particular voices, and their singular combination, in mind.

“I’ve tried to look at the pandemic as a gift of time, and the knowledge that I would soon be recording with my friends inspired much of the music,” Rosnes says. “It was thrilling to experience the humanity of making music again in the moment. Each of these musicians are profound, humble virtuosos and, on a human level, enlightened spirits.”

For Rosnes, Potter and McBride, Kinds of Love is a reunion of sorts; the three last recorded together on Rosnes’ acclaimed 1997 Blue Note release As We Are Now. The new album marks Potter’s fifth recording with Rosnes, including 1995’s Ancestors, Life on Earth (2002), and the 2018 Smoke Sessions release Beloved of the Sky. While she’s performed with Allen many times over the years, she was thrilled to have him join her on this project. Boccato is the pianist’s most recent acquaintance, a meeting facilitated by their shared experience with the tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene.

“We are longtime friends who share a lot of history and camaraderie,” Rosnes says. “Having an unusual amount of quietude to work kept me creatively motivated during the past year. As I composed, I thought about each musician’s essence, and was truly inspired by all the possibilities.”

The love of family and the finer things are showcased on the album’s vibrant cover photo. Rosnes is seated on a raffia-upholstered club chair created by her nephew Aaron Aujla, the celebrated designer and co- founder of Green River Project. She’s also wearing a one-of-a-kind garment made from antique textiles, created by the award-winning Menswear designer and founder of BODE, Emily Adams Bode, who is Aaron’s fiancée.

The respect and love that these five musicians feel for one another and for the act of making music together is abundantly, joyously clear throughout Kinds of Love; just witness the boisterous groove laid down by McBride, Allen and Boccato on the fervid opener, “Silk,” or the playful back-and-forth between Rosnes and Potter on “The Golden Triangle.” The latter was named in honor of the Village Vanguard, whose iconic stage has seen its fair share of such vivid interplay.

“Silk” is a dedication to the pianist and composer Donald Brown, with whom Allen worked for a number of years. Rosnes’ longstanding fondness for Brown’s work is evident in the fact that she recorded his piece “Playground for the Birds” on her 1990 self-titled leader debut. “Donald’s music is extremely lyrical and harmonically complex but at the heart of it is always the dance of the drums,” Rosnes points out. “Carl, Christian and Rogério’s hookup drove the band from beginning to end.”

But fittingly given the album’s title, that infectious exuberance is far from the only mood explored on this rich album. The past year has also brought troubling aspects of modern life into stark relief, and Rosnes has spent her fair share of time pondering those unresolved issues. The fact that many of them are deeply rooted in people’s inability to recognize, honor or respect other kinds of love influenced her as well.

The title track aches with a fragile beauty illuminated by Allen’s cloud-like brushes and Boccato’s shimmering percussive touches; “Evermore,” which began as an improvisation on a Bach Sarabande, is an elegiac, graceful ballad as intimate as a silent prayer.

Passionately introduced by Boccato’s deft percussion, “Life Does Not Wait (A Vida Não Espera)” ponders the fleeting nature of life with an elegant pas de deux between Rosnes’ piano and Potter’s flute. And “Blessings in a Year of Exile” tenderly expresses the gratitude for what we have in light of the things so many have lost.

Love of nature has been a key element in much of Rosnes’ music, and the pandemic afforded her the opportunity to reaffirm her reverence for the flora and fauna surrounding her home. “In Time Like Air” is one result, inspired by the song of a persistent yet stubbornly unidentifiable bird that became a frequent visitor to her backyard. The Brazilian-hued piece also marks the first time that Rosnes has recorded on Fender Rhodes and on vocals, as she intones the wordless melody with Boccato.

“Passing Jupiter” moves from the earthbound to the cosmic, launching off from a phrase that Lester Young played on his 1957 Newport Jazz Festival performance of “Polka Dots and Moonbeams.” The celebratory mood returns on “Swoop,” with musical ideas bandied back and forth between the players like a bouncing ball. “It was a great feeling to be able to make music in the moment again,” describes Rosnes. “I think this recording reflects an explosion of creativity. You can feel the energy of our connectedness, and I think maybe there was an extra spark of love in the music too.” 

"Kinds of Love" was produced by Paul Stache and recorded live in

New York at Sear Sound's Studio C on a Sear-Avalon custom console

at 96KHz/24bit and mixed to ½" analog tape.

Available in audiophile HD format.

Renee Rosnes · Kinds of Love

Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: September 3, 2021

For more information on other Smoke Sessions Records releases, please visit:

SmokeSessionsRecords.com | Facebook | Instagram

Kevin Hays / Ben Street / Billy Hart | "All Things Are" | CDs Available July 2 via Smoke Sessions Records

Kevin Hays, Ben Street, and Billy Hart

Collaborate on Strikingly Telepathic Performances,

Which Resonate Profoundly After Months of

Pandemic-Induced Isolation

Recorded in December 2020 at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club

to Commemorate Billy Hart's 80th Birthday

On June 4th, Smoke Sessions Records proudly releases All Things Are, a collaborative encounter between pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Ben Street and drummer Billy Hart. Performed on the bandstand of an otherwise empty Smoke Jazz Club, the album features seven pieces, six composed by Hays, who contributes three original melodies and three ingeniously crafted contrafacts of canonic standards.

The proceedings transpired on the first weekend of December 2020, when Smoke proprietors Paul Stache and Molly Johnson – who have made herculean efforts to sustain the club as a viable venue during the COVID-19 pandemic – booked the trio for two livestream concerts in celebration of Hart’s 80th birthday. “The setting and the circumstances were unique, and the guys were eager to play again,” Stache says. “The music was so incredible that we all thought we should cut a record from these tracks.”

These jazz all-stars from different generations, convening for the first time as a unit, achieved this sublime recital in an empty room, after a single rehearsal. That they were able to coalesce so fruitfully in this environment stems not only from their rarefied musicianship, but also mutual trust built on long-standing relationships.

Street’s been a first-call bassist for everyone who’s anyone in New York’s progressive jazz circles since the late 1990s, when he and Hays first intersected on a private gig at Ahmet Ertegun’s Long Island house. They’ve subsequently worked together with Kurt Rosenwinkel and other ensembles led by luminaries of their generational peer group. He’s played alongside Hart in Hart’s working quartet with Ethan Iverson and Mark Turner since 2006.

Hays – whose c.v. includes 16 albums as a leader, a host of collaborative duos and trios, and consequential side artist work with such luminaries as Eddie Henderson, Sonny Rollins, John Scofield, Chris Potter, and Roy Haynes (and an engagement at Smoke Jazz Club in March 2020 with Ron Carter and Al Foster that was attenuated by the onset of COVID restrictions in New York) – first played with Hart in 1987.

Then 18, Hays was in Madrid, on tour with [drummer] Tony Moreno, who brought him to a club where Hart was playing with Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach and Ron McClure. “Tony introduced me to Billy, and without skipping a beat, Billy said, ‘I’m curious about you. You want to play?’ It was an amazing experience. He didn’t know me, and he didn’t have to do that, but if you know Billy Hart, he does stuff that he doesn’t have to do.”

On All Things Are, Hart decisively imprints his personality on the flow. “It seemed like Billy was playing with Kevin like a singer, which inspired me to think of Kevin that way and guided everything,” Street says, perhaps thinking of Hays’ mid-career choice to showcase his considerable singer-songwriter chops on albums like the eponymous trio recital New Day (2015), the Hays-Lionel Loueke duo Hope (2017), and a duo with vocalist Chiara Izzi titled Across the Sea (2019).

Street continues: “Playing next to Billy, there’s a feeling that he’s searching again and again for this thing he already knows, that could be out of reach but is worth reaching for. This beautiful human drive is inspiring. It takes you out of the mundane self-judgment process of ‘am I playing well or not?’”

Hays concurs. “Every time I’ve played with Billy, it sounds like everything is freshly minted in that moment, even though, of course, there’s such history behind it,” he says. “He’s constantly listening and responding to you; there’s a tremendous amount of conversation going on.”

Hart regards All Things Are as an opportunity “to play with two of my favorite players.” He describes Street as “unique – my epitome of a contemporary bassist; what he takes as normal, I think is extraordinary.” He continues: “I love the way Kevin plays. I played with Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner and Richie Beirach, and I don’t use the word ‘love’ lightly. Kevin reharmonizes on that level, and I love his touch.”

Consider Hart’s remarks as you absorb Hays’ ingenious melodic formulations on the contrafacts “Unscrappulous” (“Scrapple from the Apple”), “All Things Are” (“All the Things You Are”) and “Twilight” (“Stella by Starlight”); or the lovely melody and beautiful chord changes of “Elegia” (which debuted on Modern Music, Hays’ two-piano recital with old friend Brad Mehldau) and “Sweet Caroline.”

Then consider how “the sound of surprise” suffuses this iteration of “New Day,” the anthemic leadoff track. “After we finish the head, we’re suddenly in outer space,” Hays says. “Ben somehow knew it was time to go somewhere else, and he stopped playing, then Billy took it – and we were off. I wouldn’t have expected it to go completely left. But at that moment, BOOM, this ‘big bang’ happened, and we now had to evolve.”

That telepathic interplay, which these exemplary improvisers perhaps might have regarded as their quotidian norm before COVID, resonated deeply after months-long pandemic-imposed isolation. “I’ve been practicing more than maybe ever, which I enjoy – but it’s me alone at home,” Hays says. “Perhaps I’ve improved, but I’d also fallen out of practice of playing with other musicians. For this date, I was excited to interact with other musicians again, that it wasn’t just me and my own musical thoughts.

“This is the way I like to play. As someone who loves improvisation, I do my best to not repeat myself. I like the unplanned and I tend not to be directive – these musicians already have a direction, which tends to be open. This isn’t a free trio; we’re not playing free jazz. But we’re playing with the tabula rasa spirit, with as little as possible figured out other than the bare bones.”

"All Things Are" was produced by Paul Stache and Damon Smith,

recorded live at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club, NYC on December 4-6, 2020 and

mastered to ½” analog tape using a Studer mastering deck.

Kevin Hays, Ben Street, Billy Hart · All Things Are

Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: June 4, 2021

For more information on other Smoke Sessions Records releases, please visit:

SmokeSessionsRecords.com | Facebook | Instagram

AVAILABLE NOW: Greg Skaff | "Polaris" | SMK Jazz (Smoke Sessions Records)

AVAILABLE NOW via SMK Jazz

Guitarist Greg Skaff Enlists Jazz Royalty

Ron Carter and Albert "Tootie" Heath for His

First Ever Guitar/Bass/Drums Trio Album, Polaris

Album Reunites the Legendary Bassist and Drummer for

First Time in Decades on Joyously Swinging Session

Fans of Greg Skaff may know him as one of modern jazz’s premier organ jazz guitarists through his own trios with hard-grooving greats like Mike LeDonne and Pat Bianchi; or as a veteran first-call sideman, from his early years with soul-jazz titan Stanley Turrentine through decades of work with the likes of Ruth Brown, Bobby Watson, Freddie Hubbard, Orrin Evans, Matt Wilson, Ralph Peterson and countless others.

 

Despite that impressive resumé, Skaff marks a career first with his new album Polaris: a trio album with a standard guitar, bass and drums line-up. There’s nothing standard about the rhythm section he enlisted for the occasion, however: he’s joined by a pair of jazz icons, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath. Available now via SMK Jazz, an imprint of Smoke Sessions Records, the album features three jazz masters delighting in each other’s creativity and ebullient sense of swing.

 

“When a guitar player works with an organist in a trio,” Skaff says, “the organist is driving the bus. He’s playing the bass, a lot of the harmony and sometimes even the melody. So you're essentially playing their game. In a guitar/bass/drums trio, the guitarist has considerably more responsibility – as well as freedom. Experimenting with that format in the last few years of gigging, I learned to embrace both the freedom and the responsibility. I felt that Ron and Tootie would be simpatico with that because of how sharply they listen and their ability to move the music in different directions.”

 

Of course, simply setting three gifted players in a room and letting them explore the music took on a different meaning in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic kept us all isolated for the bulk of the year. It nearly threatened the recording of Polaris, as the second of two planned studio dates fell on March 16, just as New York City was heading into lockdown.

 

“Right up until the morning of the date I wasn't really sure it was going to happen,” Skaff recalls. “I kept checking in with Ron and Tootie to ask if they were still down; I definitely wasn’t going to demand that they be there. But they both wanted to do it. Tootie was in town to play the Lincoln Center memorial for his brother [legendary saxophonist Jimmy Heath, who had passed away in January]. He was really down because it got canceled when they closed Lincoln Center. So he just wanted to do something.”

 

Heath and Carter were both excited for the chance to play together, an opportunity that had only come once in more than 30 years, when their paths briefly crossed on the 1993 all-star session The Riverside Reunion Band. Their most extensive experience together had come early in both men’s careers, when they were enlisted as the rhythm section for pianist Bobby Timmons, setting out on a solo career following his second stint with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers.

 

“I was very aware of the Bobby Timmons record that they're both on,” Skaff says, referring to the trio’s sole release, 1961’s In Person. “I thought it would be really cool to play with those two guys together, especially since they hadn't worked together in such a long time.”

Skaff had been working with Carter over the last several years in the bassist’s Great Big Band, where he stepped in for Russell Malone. Those gigs provided the guitarist with insight into the veteran bassist’s approach, which spurred him to amply prepare before stepping foot into the studio. Once Carter was on board Heath was quick to accept the gig, and once the trio convened many of those preparations went out the window – but were valuable nonetheless.

 

“I wanted to make sure we knew exactly what we were going to be doing at any minute,” Skaff says. “I know Ron's like that, so I didn’t want to be caught underprepared. But once we got in there, we didn't end up sticking to the details. It was really cool because they didn't just play everything the way I wrote it – in a good way. The tunes ended up being a lot different than the way I would usually play them.”

 

Skaff largely focused on choosing standard repertoire for the session, wanting to minimize the amount of reading required so that spontaneity and interactivity could come to the fore. The album opens with a buoyant run through “Old Devil Moon,” driven by Carter’s vigorous walking bass and inspired by the well-known rendition from Sonny Rollins’ A Night at the Village Vanguard. It’s followed by the first of two Duke Ellington compositions on the album, “Angelica,” transformed into a New Orleans parade thanks to Heath’s high-spirited second line beat.

 

Carter’s classic “Little Waltz,” first recorded on Timmons’ The Soul Man! in 1966 (with Carter, Wayne Shorter and Jimmy Cobb), comes in for two interpretations. The first was a spur of the moment decision when Heath was late for the second session, prompting Carter to suggest a duet in the tradition of his storied partnership with Jim Hall, resulting in a lovely, intimate dialogue. The trio version is equally tender, spotlighting the delicate caress of Heath’s brushwork.

 

The organ tradition that Skaff knows so well is hinted at with a bristling take on Larry Young’s “Paris Eyes,” originally recorded with one of Skaff’s heroes, guitarist Grant Green. Carter’s melodic gifts are showcased on the oft-reprised ballad “Yesterdays,” where the bassist essays the melody following a lush, mood-setting solo guitar intro.

 

The bassist is the honoree of Skaff’s first original, “Mr. R.C.” – a play on John Coltrane’s “Mr. P.C.,” a tribute to Paul Chambers, Carter’s predecessor in the Miles Davis Quintet. The leader also contribute the steely title track, named after the North Star – actually a triple star system, making the name doubly apt as both an acknowledgment of the two elders’ role as guiding lights as well as the album’s trio format. (Though Skaff is quick to humbly shrug off any designation of himself as a third “star” in this situation.)

 

A rare take on Ellington’s “Lady of the Lavender Mist” is exquisite in its restrained beauty, while Carter’s “Caminando,” a regular set opener with the bassist’s current quartet, digs down into an earthy blues feel. Finally, Skaff takes an introspective solo turn on the Harold Arlen classic “Ill Wind.”

 

Where the future lies for the trio is bound up in the state of uncertainty in which we all find ourselves these days. But much like its namesake star, Polaris shines the way to brighter days ahead thanks to the illuminating interplay of three brilliant artists.

Greg Skaff · Polaris

SMK Jazz · Release Date: March 19, 2021

For more information on other SMK Jazz or Smoke Sessions Records releases, please visit:

SmokeSessionsRecords.com | Facebook | Instagram

Pre-order

Vincent Herring - Preaching to the Choir (Smoke Sessions Records April 30, 2021)

Saxophonist Vincent Herring

Battles Back From Bout with Coronavirus and

Career-Threatening Side Effects with Optimistic New Album

Preaching to the Choir, Due Out April 30, 2021

via Smoke Sessions Records

Album Finds Hope in Face of Pandemics and Politics

with Swinging Help from Cyrus Chestnut,

Yasushi Nakamura and Johnathan Blake

Saxophonist Vincent Herring speaks for nearly all of us when he writes, “2020 into 2021 was a morbid nightmare.” Herring has experienced the effects of the pandemic firsthand, contracting COVID-19 while suffering the same loss of performance opportunities befalling every musician during this trying year. That’s only meant more time spent at home, watching the turbulent presidential election and its violent aftermath.

Despite the prevailing darkness, Herring insists on seeing a silver lining in the looming storm clouds overhead. On his latest album, Preaching to the Choir (due out April 30, 2021 via Smoke Sessions Records), he delivers a sermon of optimism and hope to the jazz faithful, aided by as fervent a congregation as a swing disciple could pray for: pianist Cyrus Chestnut, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, and drummer Johnathan Blake.

“We have to have hope for the future,” Herring insists. “I’ve been in a constant state of disbelief with so much going on that is negative in the world, but I try to look at the positive side of everything. Fate is written with all kinds of twists and turns, and in the end the only thing you can do is realize that as bad as things are – and they are bad –the promise of tomorrow is going to be special.”

Herring’s story has undergone more than its fair share of twists in recent months. Last August, he traveled to Las Vegas to take part in a centennial celebration for one of his heroes, Charlie Parker, with conductor Justin DiCioccio leading a string orchestra. The saxophonist now believes that it was on the flight back to New York that he contracted COVID. “It felt like the flu,” he recalls. “I was tired all the time, but I wasn’t coughing, and I didn’t have any respiratory problems. After less than a week, I felt totally fine.”

Despite the relatively minor effects, though, the virus wasn’t done with Herring yet. A few weeks later he began feeling pain in his joints. “I remembered some comedian talking about when you get to be over 50 you get aches and pains, and when you tell the doctor they’re just like, ‘Yeah, it happens.’ So, I didn’t think anything of it, but then it got progressively worse. My doctor had me do a blood test and she told me I had rheumatoid arthritis – and it was a gift from COVID.”

Chronic joint pain can be a death knell for a musician – it has ended careers, especially for pianists – so Herring entered the studio feeling strong but unsure of his future. “I knew it was a possibility that this would be my last record,” he says. “I wasn’t saying that to other people, but the thought was constantly in my mind.”

“Fear” and “trepidation” are hardly words that come to mind when listening to Preaching to the Choir, however. The buoyant, robust music never sounds like the work of a man in pain, and not once does it take on the solemn character of a swan song. Since the recording, Herring—with the help of specialists—has managed to get the pain under control. And despite the disheartening news of injustice and political divisions, Herring is uplifted by the rallying of young people in support of protest efforts like the Black Lives Matter movement.

The saxophonist’s refusal to let the anxieties surrounding the recording pervade his music is evident from the outset of Preaching to the Choir. The album opens with the relaxed stroll of “Dudli’s Dilemma,” an original tune dedicated to the Swiss drummer Joris Dudli, who the composer calls “a great musician and a true friend.” The warmth of that personal relationship lights up Chestnut’s sprightly solo as well as the gentle precision of Blake’s rhythmic foundation.

Nakamura kicks off the well-worn standard “Old Devil Moon” by crossbreeding it with the famed bass line of Benny Golson’s classic “Killer Joe,” shifting the emphasis to the sly devilishness of the song. “Ojos de Rojo” comes from the prolific pen of the legendary pianist Cedar Walton, in whose band Herring played for more than two decades. The saxophonist feels utterly at home as he unfurls an effortlessly eloquent solo, juggling equal parts intensity and lyricism. The quartet then wrings every ounce of emotion from Lionel Richie’s “Hello,” Blake’s ethereal brushwork embracing the heartfelt yearning of the leader’s keening alto.

The mood turns a complete 180 with the gutbucket groove of guitar great Wes Montgomery’s “Fried Pies.” One can almost smell the sizzling grease during the raucous blues, propelled by the window-rattling bravura of Nakamura and Blake. Chestnut contributes the self-explanatory “Minor Swing,” along with a fleet, explosive solo that leaps around the keyboard with bristling spirit. Herring’s breathy, elegiac tone crafts a haunting atmosphere for Duke Ellington’s immortal “In a Sentimental Mood,” matched by the delicate sensitivities of his bandmates.

The call and response head of the title track is straight out of a roof-raising church service, but the choir being preached to in this instance is multi-denominational, united by the simple love for Herring’s lively brand of swing. “I wrote this song as a tribute to my fans,” he says, recalling the messages of love and support he received throughout his recent ordeal. “During a time like this you need to hear kind words. Thinking this would be my last recording was depressing but hearing from people what my saxophone voice meant to them was very rewarding.”

The band simmers on Joe Henderson’s “Granted,” before bursting out for an incendiary run from Herring and a shimmering turn by Chestnut, capped off by a round of trading with Blake’s effusive outbursts. The album closes on a lovely, tender note with Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” which Herring aptly describes as “a classic song played with love.”

That spirit of love, appreciation and, most of all, hope colors every tune on Preaching to the Choir, which arrives as a much-needed salve after such a divisive and disheartening period in history. “In spite of everything,” Herring declares, “even though I’m in constant pain and discomfort, I still feel grateful because it could have been worse. So, I do count my blessings.”

Vincent Herring

Cyrus Chestnut

Yasushi Nakamura

Johnathan Blake