David Leon - Aire De Agua (August 27, 2021 Out Of Your Head Records)

I met David when he was attending the School for Improvisational Music summer workshop. Instantly impressed with his versatility as a composer and improviser, I could see he was eager to relocate to New York and make his mark on the creative music scene. After he moved, I requested to mentor David through The Jazz Gallery’s mentorship program during which we performed a series of shows, comprising duo dates as well as a quartet alongside Tom Rainey and Michael Formanek. For the project, he composed pieces that fluidly combine written material and improvisation. It was clear that he was moving towards a personal language through these compositions and refining his expression as a composer and improviser.

Aire De Agua is further evidence of that evolution. Poised for expansion, David gleans conceptual ideas from art forms outside music; at the same time, he allows his work to reflect what he observes and experiences. Selecting a durational performance from artist Marina Abramovic as structural impetus for composing “Bluest Blue,” David pays tribute not only to her work but to her influence: “Marina is an inspiration to me, as someone who pushes her mind and body beyond their limits in pursuit of something greater.” Choreographer Pina Bausch’s works sparked his idea for “Pina,” a piece that obscures the ensemble’s timbral identities through what he calls “sonic illusion” in which the snare drum’s cross stick imitates the saxophone’s slap tongue.

Meaningful connections with fellow artists shape David’s artistic vision. His compositions become vessels for his bandmates to express themselves, connecting with the music and each other. I find it fitting the title track of his debut record features his fellow artists’ performances perhaps more explicitly than his own. In David’s words, Aire De Agua attempts to offer “a dynamic where all four voices are closer to equal in weight". To me, this notion—along with the inclusion of a saxophoneless trio piece “A Hug A Day”—reflects his capacity for expressive empathy and, ultimately, artistic growth.

A powerful and rewarding listen, Aire De Agua documents an initial upsweep of what promises to be the long elegant arc of David Leon’s career. The creative energy and humanity behind each composition—scripted and spontaneous—kindles an inexhaustible motivation to refine his voice and elevate his craft.

- Kris Davis

1. Strange and Charmed

2. Horrible, Horrible Service

3. Pina

4. Aire De Agua

5. First You Must Learn the Grip

6. A Hug a Day

7. Expressive Jargon II

8. Bluest Blue

David Leon - alto saxophone

Sonya Belaya - piano

Florian Herzog - bass

Stephen Boegehold - drums

Produced by David Leon & Eva Lawitts

Mixed and Mastered by Eivind Opsvik, Greenwood Underground

Recorded on February 9, 2020 at Big Orange Sheep in Brooklyn, NY

All compositions by David Leon (Davidleonmusic, ASCAP)

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Noah Becker's Underthought - The Hollow Count (July 2021)

I find myself doodling lines in a notebook otherwise devoted to to-do lists and itineraries during the first track of "The Hollow Count," Underthought’s debut album. Noah Becker—Underthought’s leader, straddling alto saxophone and clarinet—has assembled a varied band: Alex Levine on guitar, Tyrone Allen on bass, and Stephen Boegehold on drums. Each speaks curiously, forcefully. From the outset of “Strange Fish,” we are in a meticulously designed universe of melodies and voices. A syncopated clarinet-guitar line gives way to a phased contrapuntal space. Tyrone delivers his entrance with graceful authority, emblematic of his contributions throughout the record. Stephen seems to breathe this music, further animating the composition, as when an isolated snare accent in one of the final choruses propels the band back towards the closing head.

Alex shines on the title track. The seam of “The Hollow Count” is a trio of harmonically agnostic melodic thirds in the guitar through which the rest of the band threads. The cycle recurs with regularity for most of the piece, like the ticking of a slow clock. In his solo, Noah vaults through these thirds—having traded clarinet for alto, he exploits the latter’s power without sacrificing any of his tone’s precision. Alex tags in after, stepping away from his line for a subdued, articulate solo that functions as a foil to Noah’s.

The two play exceptionally well together over the course of the album. Their relationship, when not in unison, is that of a sound and its subsequent reflections, sustaining some tones while letting others decay. And those roles change from piece to piece. At times, Levine’s distinct approach to linear playing can give one the impression of listening to a chordless quartet, making his dyads and triads resonate with intense significance when they do appear.

These compositions are the work of a creator for whom form is a plaything, not a burden. The album’s first five tracks sketch a big arch: from up-tempo and in time to the unmeasured “We Knew Perfectly Well (Of Course)” and back, the last being the metrically modulating “The Silence of a Convent (From Which the Nuns Have Departed).” On the way back up, the band interpolates “Untitled” (co-written by Noah and Alex), a ballad founded on a pivoting arpeggio that Tyrone and Alex endow with great feeling, and that Noah uses as a launch pad for the melody and his slurred clarinet ascents. Stephen’s brushwork here is supple, his timbral choices intuitive and apt for each register of the clarinet.

Noah’s music erects elastic structures that give when stressed, then snap back into shape. It also knows its performers, and features remarkable dovetailing of improvised and through-composed material. “The Silence of a Convent” is not silent, but I can hear an emptiness in it: the melody darts through the air, from apse to nave, testing for echoes. Alex carries that spirit into his solo, zigzagging like a tailback. When Tyrone suddenly joins him on an octave melody halfway through the guitar solo, I sit up straight in my chair. It is as though Noah’s notated figure were springing directly from Alex’s mind, or Alex’s improvisation were of Noah’s devising. I laugh the laugh of one musician digging another, marveling at Noah’s grip on things, even as he lays out—and when he reenters soon after, he storms after my attention, breezing through the changes on a blistering solo while Tyrone, Stephen, and Alex comp at full tilt.

I am leaning forward now. Outside the room where I’m listening, car stereos have started to compete with “Silence.” And now, suddenly, there’s shouting. It repeats, relents, repeats. Has it been going on this whole time, below the music? Is everything OK? Who—what is it? I get up and turn around, move towards a window.

Meanwhile, the needle slides into “Détente.” I do not notice the transition until something in the music hits the back of my head like a geyser.

For an instant I forget the yells outside. I almost forget the rest of the album, and only now realize that my shoulders have been tensing higher and higher since the end of “We Knew Perfectly Well,” microcosmic in retrospect. I turn halfway back around, not so much relaxing as giving in to all the sound around me. Something has been here, counting down, that I could never have forecasted.

–Griffin Brown

1. Strange Fish 03:51

2. The Hollow Count 05:20

3. We Knew Perfectly Well (Of Course) 06:12

4. Untitled 05:16

5. The Silence of a Convent (From Which the Nuns Have Departed) 05:32

6. Détente 04:39

Underthought:

Noah Becker – alto saxophone, clarinet

Alex Levine – guitar

Tyrone Allen – upright bass

Stephen Boegehold – drums

All compositions by Noah Becker,

except "Untitled" co-composed by Noah Becker + Alex Levine

©2021 Noah Becker | Pelican's Arc Publishing (ASCAP)

Recorded, mixed + mastered by Edward Gavitt

Album art by Zekkereya El-magharbel

Liner notes by Griffin Brown

Filming by Arielle Toub

Video editing by Alex Hunter

Recorded at The Jazz Gallery

New York, NY ● February 6, 2020

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Alex Levine: Special Adaptations - Special Adaptations Volume 1 (2021 Aut Records)

These recordings are the result of a two weeks residency that took place at Mare Culturale Urbano, in Milan, between the 11th and the 24th of November 2019. This band is a collaborative project between American musicians Alex Levine, Ben Rolston, and Stephen Boegehold, and Italian musicians Stefano Grasso and Andrea Jimmy Catagnoli.

Special Adaptations was made possible thanks to the coordinated work of many people from different cities and countries. For this reason, we would like to dedicate Volume 1 to fair cooperation between humans and to the possibility of building creative networks between people from all over the world.

1. Il Bosco 08:26

2. Heed the Periphery 04:35

3. Lasso di Tempo 01:45

4. Down on the Antfarm 02:20

5. Milanoni 04:46 video

6. Kaleidoscope 02:23

7. Legato alle Nuvole 04:06

8. Geminifico 01:16

9. Fuori Fuoco 05:55

10. Bellano Lake 06:15

11. Titoli di Coda 00:16

Tracks composed by Alex Levine

Recorded by Il Lorenz at Il Guscio Recordings, Milan on November 20th, 2019

Mixed by Juanma Trujillo in New York in August 2020

Mastered by Eivind Opsvik at Greenwood Underground in Brooklyn, New York in August 2020

Graphic design by Sandro Crisafi

Produced by Alex Levine, Stefano Grasso, and Aut Records

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