As a followup to 2017’s acclaimed Ballet: The Music of Michael
Gibbs, Seattle-based trumpeter Cuong Vu joins forces once again
with guitar great Bill Frisell, bassist Luke Bergman and drummer
Ted Poor on the boundary-pushing quartet outing for RareNoise
Records, Change in the Air. With all the members of the quartet
contributing compositions, this one finds the four participants on
equal footing on ten adventurous originals. From Poor’s dreamy,
noirish opener “All That’s Left of Me Is You” and his lonesome
echo-laden waltz “Alive” to Bergman’s dynamic “Must
Concentrate,” Frisell’s delicate “Look, Listen” and his beguiling
heartland melody “Long Ago” and Vu’s angular “Round and
Round” and his edgy and electrified “March of the Owl and the
Bat,” these four stellar musicians are truly on one accord and
dealing with a rare level of nuance and depth of communication
on Change in the Air.
“It was a team effort,” said Vu. “The only real leader thing that I
did was make sure everyone had the studio dates in their
calendars, set up rehearsals, made sure they knew where the
studio was; more like secretarial work, is what I did. My only
intention was that we should all bring in tunes to make it as
collective as we could. This collection of people allowed me to let
go and trust, and I knew that we all just wanted to make the best
music that we could together.”
Poor added that the team effort developed quite naturally. “Cuong
invited us all to contribute and I'm very pleased with how the band
was able to sincerely welcome such a broad range of
compositions into the fold. We needed repertoire and I think
everyone felt comfortable and confident bringing in their own
music. At that point we had played a lot of music together and I
for one felt as though we were well on our way to developing a
clear band sound and identity.”
Vu commented on the various compositional qualities that his
three bandmates brought to the table on Change in the Air. “Bill’s
writing, like his playing, at first glance is seemingly simplistic
though always full of character. And when you patiently zoom in
you find that it’s filled with multi-layered info that is cohesively
bonded. His pieces can be played on any collection of
instruments and arranged in any way, and the truth of what he
intended will come through as the listener will find it as deeply
moving as it is beautiful. Luke’s writing is smart, clever, ironic,
funny and feels inevitable. He comes from having seriously
investigated a wide and eclectic range of music but he’s rooted in
a rock band-based type of viewpoint. I think it all comes out in the
music that he writes. And Ted is one of these guys who sounds
like the source music for whatever genre he plays, and he sounds
like a wise, experienced elder playing it. What I find impressive is
in how he’s able to get deep into whatever type of music and so
quickly absorb it. He’s like a jack-of-all-trades type of drummer
because of that ability, along with the technical freedom to
execute it all. I’m not surprised that his writing reflects all that. The
three tunes that he brought to the table are so different from each
other and they all feel extremely rooted and focused in the
specific context that each inhabits.”
Regarding his three stylistically wide-ranging compositions on
Change in the Air, Poor offered: “I liked the idea of trying to writing
something that could pose as an old standard found in an archive
somewhere, and that’s how I came up with ‘All That’s Left of Me
Is You.’ The title is a potential lyric for the final melodic phrase of
the song. While the song does not in fact have lyrics I wanted us
to play it as if we were playing an instrumental version of a
standard song like ‘Embraceable You’ or ‘If You Could See Me
Now.’ For ‘Lately’ I just had the sound of Cuong and Bill playing
the melody and chords vividly in my ears, and I wrote it in one
sitting not long before our recording session. ‘Alive’ was written
back in 2012 for a gig I had in New York with Mark Turner and
Pete Rende. I have enjoyed playing that tune with a number of
different bands but until now it hasn't been recorded. We needed
a few tunes with intensity and tempo to balance the set and ‘Alive’
felt like an obvious choice.”
Poor’s sublime brushwork is beautifully showcased on “All That's
Left of Me Is You,” “Lately” and particularly on the rubato closer
“Far From Here,” which bears the stamp of the late drumming
great and longtime Frisell collaborator Paul Motian. “Paul Motian
is a hero of mine,” said Poor. “Seeing him at the Village Vanguard
with Frisell or with his own bands is something I'll never forget.
His playing was riveting, provocative and pure music. Regarding
brushwork, he’s definitely one of my favorite drummers, along
with Andrew Cyrille, Elvin Jones and Philly Joe Jones (his brush
playing on ‘Young and Foolish’ from Everybody Digs Bill Evans
comes to mind). All of those great players are able to extract
infinitely nuanced sound and a powerful specificity of mood and
feel. Brushes are exciting for me because they allow you to create
sustain and offer such a wide range of attack, from staccato to a
legato bloom of sound that has no attack at all.”
Frisell, who moved from New York to Seattle in 1988 and
remained there for 30 years before returning to the Big Apple,
says the chemistry for this particular quartet began in the Emerald
City. “I was lucky to have first met Luke Bergman and over the
years we have been playing more and more in all kinds of
different situations together. It’s been awesome connecting with
him. Then as soon as Ted moved to Seattle we started playing a
lot together too, just getting together at his house and playing
tunes. It was the same with Cuong. As soon as he came to
Seattle we started playing together. So it was great to have
someone to be able to get together with and practice together and
just play music together. That happened with all those guys
separately and then eventually the four of us got together as a
quartet. Cuong has been such an incredible inspiration-energizer
for music in Seattle. Luke and Ted too. They all make things
happen.”
While the quartet tackled the music of composer-arranger and
Frisell's mentor Michael Gibbs on its first RareNoise record
together, they decided to stick strictly with originals on Change in
the Air. Vu’s trumpet work is brilliant throughout. Whether its his
extraordinary lyricism on Frisell’s “Look, Listen” and Poor’s
dreamy jazz ballad “All That’s Left of Me Is You,” his plaintive call
on Poor’s melancholy “Lately” or his staccato bursts and
skronking statements on his own “March of the Owl and the Bat,”
his playing is marked by bold instincts and nuanced expression.
Poor cited one possible influence on Vu’s “March of the Owl and
the Bat”: “Cuong has written a number of pieces over the years
that are based on driving, angular syncopated rhythms. We are
both huge fans of the Swedish heavy metal band Meshuggah and
their rhythmic language informs our approach significantly. We
worked off of a chart in the studio and the biggest challenge was
to internalize the rhythms and meters and make them feel good.
From there the embellishment and shaping of the tune flowed
naturally.”
Frisell offers authoritative solos and beautiful, pianistic
accompaniment to the fabric of these ten tunes on Change in the
Air. “I’m just trying to listen and do the right thing,” he said. “I’m a
huge fan of master accompanists like Hank Jones, John Lewis,
Tommy Flanagan, Richie Powell, Horace Silver…all guys that are
working from the inside out. I for sure love hearing someone play
a great solo but much more than that what really gets me off is
trying to figure out what’s going on with the whole band and how
all the pieces fit together. When I listen to Miles’ band with Herbie
Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter.…man!
Every note from all of them all the time is astounding and
essential. The magic is in how they play together.”
Vu also commented on his uncanny chemistry with Frisell, which
is especially apparent in their intimate interactions on Frisell’s
chamber-like “Look, Listen” and the sparse closer, “Far From
Here”: “It’s pretty much a necessity for me to be surrounded by
deeply empathetic listeners whose main priority is to serve the
music being created in each instance. And it takes a long time to
find the right people who’ll create the right mixture together. I
really do think that all three of us (Luke, Ted, and I) have a natural
strength in ‘empathic listening’ — making the others sound better
while stating your own opinion with an openness to all possibilities
in the immediate moments. And I do really think that we’re pretty
decent at that approach. But add Bill to the mix…that’s his
genius! He makes everybody that he’s ever played with sound
better and always puts them in a different light. It helps that I’m in
that same zone of thinking, but it’s really about Bill making it
happen.”
Frisell also commented on the the source of the quartet’s
remarkable chemistry: “You play with someone for the first time
and you feel something that makes you want to come back for
more. And I think the key to that is pretty simple. We listen. The
best things happen when everyone’s attention is focused on
everyone else around them ...away from themselves.”
Regarding the source of the album’s title, Vu pointed to the state
of world affairs today as a kind of dark undercurrent to Change in
the Air. “I’ve never felt so much anxiety about the future on so
many levels — environmentally, politically and especially with the
‘leadership’ in our country — than I do now,” he said. “In terms of
what’s going on and how we’ve gotten to this place, it feels
overwhelmingly ominous, dangerous and as if it’s only the
beginning of what will come. I’m scared but, hopefully, just
paranoid.”
Born on September 19, 1969 in Saigon, Vietnam’s largest city, Vu
moved with his family to Seattle when he was six years ago. He
picked up trumpet at age 11 and later received a scholarship to
attend the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. After
moving the New York City in 1994, he formed the group Ragged
Jack with keyboardist Jamie Saft, saxophonist Andrew D’Angelo
and drummer Jim Black in 1997. During his time in New York, Vu
worked with Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Gerry Hemingway,
Myra Melford, Bobby Previte, Dave Douglas and more. He
appeared on Pat Metheny’s Grammy-winning albums Speaking of
Now (2002) and The Way Up (2005). Vu returned to Seattle in
2007 to teach at the University of Washington, where he is
currently a full professor.
3, 9, 10 composed by Bill Frisell
6, 7, 8 composed by Cuong Vu
4 composed by Luke Bergman
1, 2, 5 composed by Ted Poor
1. All That’s Left Of Me Is You
2. Alive
3. Look, Listen
4. Must Concentrate
5. Lately
6. Round And Round
7. March Of The Owl And The Bat
8. Round And Round (Back Around)
9. Long Ago
10. Far From Here
Recorded May 14, 15, 16 2017 at London Bridge Studio, Seattle
Recorded by Julian Anderson
Mixed by Luke Bergman
Mastered by Nich Wilbur at Anacortes Mastering
Executive Producer for RareNoiseRecords : Giacomo Bruzzo
Artwork and Design by Petulia Mattioli
