Tony Malaby 'The Cave of Winds' – Jan. 7 via Pyroclastic Records

Saxophonist/composer Tony Malaby reconvenes his stunning quartet Sabino with guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tom Rainey

 

The Cave of Winds, due out January 7, 2022 via Pyroclastic Records, draws inspiration from Malaby’s Covid-era sessions under a NJ turnpike bridge

" [The] tenor and soprano saxophonist Tony Malaby has earned a reputation as one of New York’s stalwart improvisers, through an array of sideman appointments and some rigorously rewarding albums."

– Nate Chinen, New York Times

 

" Malaby will play inside, outside and all around his saxophone, but never once will it sound out of place with whatever else is happening."

– Paul Acquaro, The Free Jazz Collective 

The 2020 pandemic forced most of us indoors, musicians included, resulting in a surfeit of new solo projects and home recordings. Saxophonist Tony Malaby took the opposite approach. Having hosted regular sessions at his home for years, resulting in countless new collaborations and inspired breakthroughs, he decided to take these creative get-togethers out into the streets (both as an antidote for cabin fever and out of consideration for his suddenly homebound neighbors).

 

Beginning in July of 2020, Malaby began hosting regular sessions underneath a turnpike overpass near his home in New Jersey. Leading a trio featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Billy Mintz, Malaby invited such improvising luminaries as Tim Berne, Mark Helias, Ches Smith, William Parker and others to join him in the graffiti-covered, reverberant enclave that buzzed with the sound of nearby pedestrians, overhead traffic and the usual collision of nature and humanity that fuels the city.

 

“My artistic discipline comes from playing sessions,” Malaby says. “I just couldn't let that go. It was something I needed just to keep my head above water with everything that was happening with the pandemic and the [presidential] election. Everything was nuts, so I just had to go down there and throw sound with my guys. It got me through and kept me positive.”

 

The turnpike sessions proved to be not only a respite from Covid-related stir craziness but also a source of considerable inspiration for Malaby. The saxophonist felt rejuvenated by the freedom and unique sonic qualities of the space, elements that he wanted to carry into the studio. Feeling that a guitar quartet would make the ideal setting, he reconvened Sabino, the group with which Malaby recorded his debut album in 2000. With bassist Michael Formanek, drummer Tom Rainey and guitarist Ben Monder (stepping in for the original album’s Marc Ducret), he recorded the adventurous new album The Cave of Winds, due out January 7, 2022 via Pyroclastic Records.

 

While there are natural rock formations that share the name in both Niagara Falls and Colorado, The Cave of Winds is Malaby’s affectionate nickname for the turnpike bridge that he made his musical home for the better part of a year. “It was like a tunnel down there,” Malaby recalls. “Wild, crazy things would happen while we were playing in that cavern. Trucks were rolling by, sirens going off, birds singing. We would be down there in 30-degree February weather and the wind would be howling. It was incredible.”

 

The compositions that make up The Cave of Winds were directly inspired by Malaby’s tenure under the bridge. With the literal and figurative space offered by that environment, he was prompted to pen minimal pieces ripe for expansion by the trio and their guests; at the same time, they also are colored by a return to more traditional jazz contexts by this inveterate free improviser.

“Billy Mintz and John Hébert got me into playing standards and jazz repertoire again,” Malaby explains. That comes into play here. We still play freely, and so, you know, but doing that led me to think about harmonic color, the richness of my roots and the joy of playing changes with someone like Ben Monder.”

 

One of the most striking examples of this collision of the tradition and Malaby’s intrepid spirit is the album’s closing track, “Just Me, Just Me.” A contrafact based on the chord changes of the classic “Just You, Just Me” (memorably recorded by the likes of Nat King Cole and Thelonious Monk, among countless others), the tune is far more agitated experience than its jaunty predecessor, and while the title is a tongue-in-cheek play on the original it also captures the fervent individuality of these four musicians.

 

Similarly, the burnished bop melody of “Corinthian Leather” is a loose reinterpretation of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Woody ‘n You,” leading to unspooling invention from both Malaby and Monder as they stretch the flexible theme beyond recognition. Monder’s roaring heavy metal distortion introduces “Scratch the Horse,” which draws inspiration from the Native American ceremonies depicted in the Richard Harris western A Man Called Horse. “Recrudescence” is a hypnotic group improvisation reflecting on the cyclical nature of the musical life, interrupted though it may have been by recent events, while “insect Ward” suggests a sanctuary for Malaby’s restless, flitting soprano (parried by Formanek’s buzzing bowed bass). “Life Coach” is a duo improvisation by Malaby and Rainey dedicated to their former bandleader, bassist Mark Helias, whose presence the saxophonist insists he can hear in the rhythm and language they share.

 

The Cave of Winds marks the closing of a few chapters for Malaby. For one, it spells the end of the turnpike sessions and the period of research and exploration they represented. Coinciding with the lifting of pandemic-era restrictions, Malaby also left the New York area after more than 25 years for Boston, where he’s taken a position on the faculty of Berklee College of Music.

 

The album also brings Malaby’s career full circle as he embarks on this new venture. 20 years after the release of Sabino he revisits that quartet with three of his most longstanding collaborators. Malaby met Formanek while the saxophonist was still a student at William Paterson University, when both played with the Mingus Big Band. They were both enlisted by saxophonist Marty Ehrlich for a band that also included Tom Rainey on drums, forging a connection that would remain strong for the next three decades.

 

While Ducret was featured on the 2000 album, Ben Monder actually precedes him as Sabino’s guitarist, in an early version of the quartet that featured Jeff Williams and Ben Street. Malaby had initially heard the brilliant guitarist in Marc Johnson’s short-lived band Right Brain Patrol, then approached him at the bar of the Knitting Factory. They met again a week later on a session led by Guillermo Klein and have been working together regularly and fruitfully ever since.

 

Like the primal space its name implies, The Cave of Winds is vast and tempestuous, opening into a reservoir of mystery and inviting the curious to venture deep within. Encouraged by Malaby’s dauntless curiosity, these four stellar musicians delve into the furthest reaches and emerge with inspired riches.

1. Corinthian Leather

2. Recrudescence

3. Scratch the Horse

4. Insect Ward

5. The Cave of Winds

6. Life Coach (for Helias)

7. Just Me, Just Me

Tony Malaby - Tenor and Soprano Saxophones

Ben Monder - Guitar

Michael Formanek - Double Bass

Tom Rainey - Drums

All compositions by Tony Malaby (Chubasco Music/ Sesac) except 'Recrudescence' by Monder/ Formanek/ Rainey/ Malaby

Recorded at Samurai Hotel Studios on June 24, 2021

Mixed and Mastered by Mike Marciano at Systems Two Long Island

Graphic Design by Hidde Dijkstra

Cover Art: 'Lost in Thoughts' by Marieken Cochius

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

Produced by Tony Malaby

Executive Producer: Kris Davis

Tony Malaby’s Sabino – The Cave of Winds

Pyroclastic Records – PR 18 – Recorded June 24, 2021

Release date January 7, 2022

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Out Fri. Nov. 12: "Just Me, Just Me" – Single from Tony Malaby's upcoming album "The Cave of Winds"

Saxophonist/composer Tony Malaby reconvenes his stunning quartet Sabino with guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tom Rainey 

The Cave of Winds, due out January 7, 2022 via Pyroclastic Records, draws inspiration from Malaby’s Covid-era sessions under a NJ turnpike bridge 

" [The] tenor and soprano saxophonist Tony Malaby has earned a reputation as one of New York’s stalwart improvisers, through an array of sideman appointments and some rigorously rewarding albums."

– Nate Chinen, New York Times 

" Malaby will play inside, outside and all around his saxophone, but never once will it sound out of place with whatever else is happening." 

– Paul Acquaro, The Free Jazz Collective

The 2020 pandemic forced most of us indoors, musicians included, resulting in a surfeit of new solo projects and home recordings. Saxophonist Tony Malaby took the opposite approach. Having hosted regular sessions at his home for years, resulting in countless new collaborations and inspired breakthroughs, he decided to take these creative get-togethers out into the streets (both as an antidote for cabin fever and out of consideration for his suddenly homebound neighbors). 

Beginning in July of 2020, Malaby began hosting regular sessions underneath a turnpike overpass near his home in New Jersey. Leading a trio featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Billy Mintz, Malaby invited such improvising luminaries as Tim Berne, Mark Helias, Ches Smith, William Parker and others to join him in the graffiti-covered, reverberant enclave that buzzed with the sound of nearby pedestrians, overhead traffic and the usual collision of nature and humanity that fuels the city. 

“My artistic discipline comes from playing sessions,” Malaby says. “I just couldn't let that go. It was something I needed just to keep my head above water with everything that was happening with the pandemic and the [presidential] election. Everything was nuts, so I just had to go down there and throw sound with my guys. It got me through and kept me positive.” 

The turnpike sessions proved to be not only a respite from Covid-related stir craziness but also a source of considerable inspiration for Malaby. The saxophonist felt rejuvenated by the freedom and unique sonic qualities of the space, elements that he wanted to carry into the studio. Feeling that a guitar quartet would make the ideal setting, he reconvened Sabino, the group with which Malaby recorded his debut album in 2000. With bassist Michael Formanek, drummer Tom Rainey and guitarist Ben Monder (stepping in for the original album’s Marc Ducret), he recorded the adventurous new album The Cave of Winds, due out January 7, 2022 via Pyroclastic Records.

While there are natural rock formations that share the name in both Niagara Falls and Colorado, The Cave of Winds is Malaby’s affectionate nickname for the turnpike bridge that he made his musical home for the better part of a year. “It was like a tunnel down there,” Malaby recalls. “Wild, crazy things would happen while we were playing in that cavern. Trucks were rolling by, sirens going off, birds singing. We would be down there in 30-degree February weather and the wind would be howling. It was incredible.” 

The compositions that make up The Cave of Winds were directly inspired by Malaby’s tenure under the bridge. With the literal and figurative space offered by that environment, he was prompted to pen minimal pieces ripe for expansion by the trio and their guests; at the same time, they also are colored by a return to more traditional jazz contexts by this inveterate free improviser. 

“Billy Mintz and John Hébert got me into playing standards and jazz repertoire again,” Malaby explains. That comes into play here. We still play freely, and so, you know, but doing that led me to think about harmonic color, the richness of my roots and the joy of playing changes with someone like Ben Monder.” 

One of the most striking examples of this collision of the tradition and Malaby’s intrepid spirit is the album’s closing track, “Just Me, Just Me.” A contrafact based on the chord changes of the classic “Just You, Just Me” (memorably recorded by the likes of Nat King Cole and Thelonious Monk, among countless others), the tune is far more agitated experience than its jaunty predecessor, and while the title is a tongue-in-cheek play on the original it also captures the fervent individuality of these four musicians. 

Similarly, the burnished bop melody of “Corinthian Leather” is a loose reinterpretation of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Woody ‘n You,” leading to unspooling invention from both Malaby and Monder as they stretch the flexible theme beyond recognition. Monder’s roaring heavy metal distortion introduces “Scratch the Horse,” which draws inspiration from the Native American ceremonies depicted in the Richard Harris western A Man Called Horse. “Recrudescence” is a hypnotic group improvisation reflecting on the cyclical nature of the musical life, interrupted though it may have been by recent events, while “insect Ward” suggests a sanctuary for Malaby’s restless, flitting soprano (parried by Formanek’s buzzing bowed bass). “Life Coach” is a duo improvisation by Malaby and Rainey dedicated to their former bandleader, bassist Mark Helias, whose presence the saxophonist insists he can hear in the rhythm and language they share. 

The Cave of Winds marks the closing of a few chapters for Malaby. For one, it spells the end of the turnpike sessions and the period of research and exploration they represented. Coinciding with the lifting of pandemic- era restrictions, Malaby also left the New York area after more than 25 years for Boston, where he’s taken a position on the faculty of Berklee College of Music. 

The album also brings Malaby’s career full circle as he embarks on this new venture. 20 years after the release of Sabino he revisits that quartet with three of his most longstanding collaborators. Malaby met Formanek while the saxophonist was still a student at William Paterson University, when both played with the Mingus Big Band. They were both enlisted by saxophonist Marty Ehrlich for a band that also included Tom Rainey on drums, forging a connection that would remain strong for the next three decades. 

While Ducret was featured on the 2000 album, Ben Monder actually precedes him as Sabino’s guitarist, in an early version of the quartet that featured Jeff Williams and Ben Street. Malaby had initially heard the brilliant guitarist in Marc Johnson’s short-lived band Right Brain Patrol, then approached him at the bar of the Knitting Factory. They met again a week later on a session led by Guillermo Klein and have been working together regularly and fruitfully ever since. 

Like the primal space its name implies, The Cave of Winds is vast and tempestuous, opening into a reservoir of mystery and inviting the curious to venture deep within. Encouraged by Malaby’s dauntless curiosity, these four stellar musicians delve into the furthest reaches and emerge with inspired riches.

1. Corinthian Leather

2. Recrudescence

3. Scratch the Horse

4. Insect Ward

5. The Cave of Winds

6. Life Coach (for Helias)

7. Just Me, Just Me

Tony Malaby - Tenor and Soprano Saxophones

Ben Monder - Guitar

Michael Formanek - Double Bass

Tom Rainey - Drums

All compositions by Tony Malaby (Chubasco Music/ Sesac) except 'Recrudescence' by Monder/ Formanek/ Rainey/ Malaby

Recorded at Samurai Hotel Studios on June 24, 2021

Mixed and Mastered by Mike Marciano at Systems Two Long Island

Graphic Design by Hidde Dijkstra

Cover Art: 'Lost in Thoughts' by Marieken Cochius

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

Produced by Tony Malaby

Executive Producer: Kris Davis

(c)(p) 2021 Tony Malaby & Pyroclastic Records

Tony Malaby’s Sabino – The Cave of Winds 

Pyroclastic Records – PR 18 – Recorded June 24, 2021

Release date January 7, 2022 

PREORDER

Diego Pinera - Odd Wisdom (2021 ACT Music)

Diego Pinera is a unique figure who is genuinely taking music in new directions by juxtaposing the po-lyrhythmic freedom of jazz with other metric systems. As he says, “I studied music in the places where it came from.” He started playing drums as a four-year old in Montevideo. His student years were spent in Havana, Boston (Berklee) and Leipzig.

Based in Berlin since 2003, he has continued to wi-den his musical horizons, immersing himself in the ‘odd’ meters of the title through extensive work with Berlin-based musicians from Greece and Bulgaria.

‘Wisdom’ here refers not just to Pinera’s accretion of wide knowledge and consummate skill, but also to mystery and alchemy: the track “Conversations With My-self” is a hushed, concentrated masterpiece. His ear for fresh colours and timbres is astonishing.

His ACT debut “Despertando” was described as a “treat for the ear,” and “Odd Wisdom” is a kaleidoscope of sonic inventiveness. “Mi Cosmos”, for example, has the rasping sound of a snare over the drum-head. “Robotic Night” features a drum synth pad, played live in the studio.

“Odd Wisdom” is a significant and personal album. “It brings together all of the sounds and rhythms that I have been working on for the past decade.” Pinera gathered a dream team from the New York top flight together for just one day at the Trading 8s studio in New Jersey: Donny McCaslin, Ben Monder and Scott Colley have already made their mark in countless other contexts, and they are on spellbinding form here.

And yet “Odd Wisdom” also has a wonderful ‘lightness’ about it (it is one of Pinera’s favourite words). In these truly capable hands, complex music has a magical fluidity, freedom and flow. Pinera has acquired his wisdom by being watchful. As his evocative lyric for “Space” ex-presses it: “Al mirar arriba, más allá, en el sol.” (I under-stood by looking up, beyond, into the sun.)

01 Clave Tune 8:39

02 Domingo 6:14

03 Conversation With Mysel f 5:09

04 Robotic Night 4:12

05 Mi Cosmos 5:03

06 Space 7:18

07 Away 4:50

08 De Madrugada 5:04

09 Easter in Pugl ia 3:18

10 Blue Monk 7:16

Diego Pinera / drums

Donny McCaslin / saxophone

Ben Monder / guitar

Scott Colley / bass

Music composed by Diego Pinera, except Blue Monk composed

by Thelonious Monk, arranged by Diego Pinera

Recorded and rough mix by Chris Sulit at Trading 8s Recording

Studio, New Jersey (NYC), February 07, 2020

Final mix and mastering by Klaus Scheuermann

Produced by Diego Pinera

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Ben Monder / Tony Malaby / Tom Rainey - Live at 55 Bar (February 26, 2021 Sunnyside Records)

If anything good has come from the past year, it has been an enhanced appreciation of friendship and communal interaction. In jazz and improvised music, the former is always a blessing, but the latter is a necessity. Guitarist Ben Monder set out with the intent of recording a studio album with longtime collaborators, saxophonist Tony Malaby and drummer Tom Rainey, but circumstances led to a more informal situation, providing a visceral glimpse of these stellar musicians’ rapport.

The performance world was on the brink of shutting down in early March 2020 due to the appearance of COVID-19. Monder decided to take the opportunity provided by his monthly Tuesday residency at New York City’s stalwart jazz club, The 55 Bar, to present a recurring project with Malaby, a bass-less trio with drums. Rainey commanded the revolving drum chair on March 3rd and the two sets were recorded as a remarkable live document of fully improvised music making from three masters, released now as Live at The 55 Bar.

Monder has made a mark on the contemporary jazz world as a brilliant technician, virtuosic soloist and meticulous composer. The concept for his nearly 25-year partnership with Malaby was to focus on improvisation, as the saxophonist’s energy and creativity have always provided a perfect foil for the guitarist. Monder’s relationship with the versatile Rainey goes back even farther to the guitarist’s first demo recordings in the early 1990s; their familiarity is obvious in the ease of communication between them.

There are many active elements in this type of musical approach. Monder considers performing with this amalgamation particularly rewarding because of his bandmates’ abundance of ideas and penchant for improvising compositionally. These traits allow the music to evolve naturally, in a long-form manner, granting the musicians the ability to venture into different places without repeating themselves.

Three long improvisations were recorded that night, each piece unfolding organically. The ebb and flow and the building of tension to release demonstrate just how confident these musicians are in their craft of composing on the fly, in full control of their musical choices. The recording was made by the brilliant producer Joseph Branciforte, who was able to provide gorgeous studio quality sound and help with the narrative arc for the completed recording.

The trio took the suite approach to heart, naming the three pieces as such with the date of performance. The beginning segment, “Suite 3320 – Part I,” begins quietly with guitar arpeggiations, searching tenor moans and skittering drums. The brooding feel blossoms as Malaby pokes and prods at melodic ideas and the ambient guitar harmonics begin to unfurl more and more. Rainey’s tempo and volume build the intensity, and the guitar distortion adds to the density of sound.

“Suite 3320 – Part II” was actually almost the entire second set played on the evening of March 3rd. Malaby’s playful soprano jousts with Rainey’s lightly played snare as Monder patiently builds. The percussion focuses the group in its ascendancy. The saxophone and guitar push against one another, the dissonance electrifying the proceedings. The intensity breaks with waves of controlled reverbed guitar feedback and ghostly plucked tones over pounding drums. The thirty-minute performance rolls through echoing, ambient valleys and rocky, percussive slopes.

The concluding “Suite 3320 – Part III” initially finds the trio in a hazily disjointed space. Malaby’s sputtering tenor vocalizes and bleats over Monder’s dark, densely-packed and reverb-drenched guitar manipulations. Rainey’s drums are relentless as the trio’s level of intensity remains full tilt. A sudden break finds the musicians in an icy realm of false calm, Monder’s cold ominous waves of sound only broken by Malaby’s entreating sax.

Monder, Malaby and Rainey’s Live at The 55 Bar is a rare document of the guitarist convening an impressively supportive and expansive unit in a purely improvisational setting. The recording should reinforce the importance of, and will surely whet the appetite for, live improvised music made in the moment.

1. Suite 3320 - Part I

2. Suite 3320 - Part II

3. Suite 3320 - Part III

Ben Monder - guitar

Tony Malaby - saxophone

Tom Rainey - drums

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Kristiana Roemer - House of Mirrors (Sunnyside Records)

Every individual has the opportunity to forge her own path through life making decisions based on internal and external factors. One’s intuitions, lessons learned, relationships and experiences inform the path one takes. Once the course has been taken, there is always reflection on the choices made and on what other choices may have yielded, and what they both may tell about one’s self.

Vocalist/composer Kristiana Roemer likens these wide-ranging deliberations to a disorienting, ever-changing array of looking glasses, thus, the title of her new recording, House of Mirrors. Roemer’s recording debut finds the vocalist at an exciting time in her promising career, navigating her unique path, where she is ready to introduce her fabulously broad musical approach and singular experience to the world.

Born to an American mother and a German father, Roemer grew up in a bi-lingual household in Frankfurt, Germany. Her mother instilled the importance of integrating her American with her German culture, namely through attending their English-speaking church and making long summer visits to North Dakota. Music was an important part of Roemer’s life from early on. She began piano lessons at six and then began singing in church and with a traveling choir; her first efforts at songwriting took place by the age of nine.

Roemer was taking classical voice lessons as a teenager when she met a professional pianist who invited her to sing popular tunes and standards with him at a local lounge, and soon they were performing together regularly. Choosing to continue her music education, Roemer received a scholarship to attend Concordia College in Minnesota for a year before she returned to Germany to care for her mother, who had fallen ill and passed away soon thereafter. During this time, Roemer had enrolled for her bachelor of science at Frankfurt University but soon impulse led her to move to Paris, where she spent three years performing regularly at cabarets and clubs and hosting a jam session, along with studying vocal jazz at the Paris Conservatory and completing her bachelor’s degree from abroad. In Paris, she formed a quartet and began performing her original compositions.

On a summer trip to New York, she fell in love with the City. Though Paris had been instrumental in solidifying her love and pursuit of jazz, the openness of New York’s scene made Roemer feel free to truly spread her musical wings and provided the nurturing ground that allowed her to define her musical voice. While writing music had become second nature to her, she felt that to truly express herself in her storytelling she had to broaden her approach, including her introduction of German lyrics along with English.

Roemer moved to New York soon thereafter and dove directly into the jazz scene there, performing regularly at Rockwood Music Hall, Jazz at Kitano Hotel and Cornelia St. Café, and completing her Master of Music in jazz studies at Queens College. Roemer was anxious to record as soon as she arrived. One of the many musicians she met was bassist Alex Claffy, whose enthusiasm for collaboration motivated Roemer to push through the production of House of Mirrors. Roemer set up recording dates and they brought on pianist Addison Frei and drummer Adam Arruda.

The original pieces on her stylistically diverse and explorative recording were selected with the intention of taking the listener on a journey and telling the story in a direct and honest way. These are compositions that Roemer felt needed to come out so that she could continue her growth and explore new pathways. The pieces span from her time in Paris to her time in New York, many having been written with her ensemble and special guest artists in mind. Many of the lyrics, hers and otherwise, began as poetry.

The story is introduced by the title track, a meditative piece exploring decisions made and paths taken, that’s mood is amplified by guest Gilad Hekselman’s sensitive but spacious guitar. The haunting “Beauty Is a Wound” is a tribute to Roemer’s mother, the music going straight to the heart with stripped-down, minimalist but emotionally charged accompaniment by percussionist Rogerio Boccato. The intrepidly upbeat “Virgin Soil” is an benison given to a sister to go out and find one’s own way; gorgeous solos from Dayna Stephens and Frei emphasize Roemer’s message.

Roemer intentionally includes German language in her music, as there has not been much use of the language in contemporary jazz, which she delivers in a natural, relatable way. In seeking German poetry, she discovered Felice Schragenheim’s “Deine Hände,” an uplifting love poem, written by a courageous woman who knew misfortune and died young at the hands of the Nazis, that Roemer arranged exquisitely for the quartet. The intensely persistent “Dark Night of the Soul” utilizes St. John of the Cross’s poem for content but really shines with Roemer’s brazen recitation of her own writing accompanied by Ben Monder’s guitar exploration. Hermann Hesse’s “Manchmal” is a blue-tinged appeal for humans to see our reflection in nature and mend our relationship with it.

Monder’s shimmering guitar tones provide a gorgeous, enveloping soundscape for Roemer’s “Lullaby for N.,” a thoughtful piece echoing the parting of a friend. Roemer adapted Stanley Turrentine’s “Sugar” into a metrically intriguing arrangement, the paramour’s message of love heightened by Stephens’s brilliant tenor, Frei’s rhapsodic piano and Claffy’s expressive bass. The recording concludes with Charles Mingus’s “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love,” a tremendous song about the love of music that brings us back to the journey’s true essence and its ultimate goal, the music.

The music of Kristiana Roemer comes from an honest place, a place of appraisals of actions and embracing all potential paths, whether taken or not. Her House of Mirrors is a diverse and brilliantly devised program of music that illustrates where Roemer has been and where she will go in her bright future.

1. House of Mirrors 03:02

2. Beauty Is A Wound 04:14

3. Virgin Soil 04:46

4. Deine Hände 02:01

5. Dark Night of The Soul 04:57

6. Manchmal 03:03

7. Lullaby for N. 03:56

8. Sugar 05:54

9. Duke Ellington's Sound of Love 04:53

Kristiana Roemer - vocals

Addison Frei - piano

Alex Claffy - bass

Adam Arruda - drums

Gilar Hekselman - guitar (1)

Ben Monder - guitar (5, 6, 7)

Dayna Stephens - saxophone (3, 8)

Rogerio Boccato - percussion (2)

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Aaron Shragge & Ben Monder - This World Of Dew (Human Resource Records July 20, 2018)

This World of Dew is Aaron Shragge’s third release with Ben Monder

The duo project, an exploratory, meditative collaboration, has been praised as  “…lyrical and heartwarming…” (Jazz Times) and “thoroughly modern with a definitive sound...” (The Birmingham Times). 

The album features guitarist Ben Monder’s otherworldly harmonic virtuosity in expansive sonic textures that highlight Shragge’s subtle and distinctive lyrical voice on the shakuhachi and dragon mouth trumpet (a custom microtonal instrument).   

The fourteen new compositions by Shragge are inspired by the writings of both ancient and modern poets: Kobayashi Issa, Matsuo Bashō, Li Po, Nishiyama Sōin and Charles Bukowski.

Tracks 2-7 make up “This World of Dew Suite” which follows the emotional arc of poet Kobahashi Issa’s grief as he mourned the loss of his young daughter. What ties all these compositions together is how they explore themes of loneliness, perseverance and impermanence. 

This World of Dew will be released worldwide on Friday, July 20th 2018 on Human Resource Records (NYC. )  

There will be a CD release celebration on July 20th at the Jazz Gallery in New York City and on July 21st at La Vitrola in Montreal, Canada. 

Track Listing

1. Companion  5:34

This World of Dew Suite

2. By Rain and Mud  0:49

3. A Tiny Boat  7:01

4. This World of Dew  1:43

5. There is Always One You Follow  4:19

6. Stink Worm  2:40

7. Pretending Wisdom  2:27

8. Roll The Dice  4:14

9. Nothing In The Cry  3:24

10. It’s Ours  3:01

11. Old Dust 5:24

12. Settling  1:44

13. Blue Bird  5:52

14. Sun Coming Down  3:50

Aaron Shragge - Dragon Mouth Trumpet,  Flugelhorn, Shakuhachi

Ben Monder - Guitar

Aaron Shragge & Ben Monder - This World Of Dew (Human Resource Records July 20, 2018)

This World of Dew is Aaron Shragge’s third release with Ben Monder

The duo project, an exploratory, meditative collaboration, has been praised as  “…lyrical and heartwarming…” (Jazz Times) and “thoroughly modern with a definitive sound...” (The Birmingham Times). 

The album features guitarist Ben Monder’s otherworldly harmonic virtuosity in expansive sonic textures that highlight Shragge’s subtle and distinctive lyrical voice on the shakuhachi and dragon mouth trumpet (a custom microtonal instrument).   

The fourteen new compositions by Shragge are inspired by the writings of both ancient and modern poets: Kobayashi Issa, Matsuo Bashō, Li Po, Nishiyama Sōin and Charles Bukowski.

Tracks 2-7 make up “This World of Dew Suite” which follows the emotional arc of poet Kobahashi Issa’s grief as he mourned the loss of his young daughter. What ties all these compositions together is how they explore themes of loneliness, perseverance and impermanence. 

This World of Dew will be released worldwide on Friday, July 20th 2018 on Human Resource Records (NYC. )  

There will be a CD release celebration on July 20th at the Jazz Gallery in New York City and on July 21st at La Vitrola in Montreal, Canada. 

Track Listing

1. Companion  5:34

This World of Dew Suite

2. By Rain and Mud  0:49

3. A Tiny Boat  7:01

4. This World of Dew  1:43

5. There is Always One You Follow  4:19

6. Stink Worm  2:40

7. Pretending Wisdom  2:27

8. Roll The Dice  4:14

9. Nothing In The Cry  3:24

10. It’s Ours  3:01

11. Old Dust 5:24

12. Settling  1:44

13. Blue Bird  5:52

14. Sun Coming Down  3:50

Aaron Shragge - Dragon Mouth Trumpet,  Flugelhorn, Shakuhachi

Ben Monder - Guitar

Dan Weiss - Starebaby (PI RECORDINGS 2018)

Starebaby is the upshot of drummer/composer Dan Weiss’s long-running dream to bring together some of the most accomplished players on the jazz scene to play music that combines the improvisation nature of that music with the power of heavy metal and electronic new music. One of the most in-demand drummers in jazz, Weiss performs with such disparate artists as Rudresh Mahanthappa, Chris Potter, John Zorn and Jen Shyu, evidence of the breadth of his artistry. As with his two critically-acclaimed previous releases — Fourteen, which was named one of the best releases of 2014 by The New York Times, and Sixteen: Drummers Suite, — Starebaby is a decidedly original work that is largely without precedence, reflecting the power of conviction coming from a single, brimming wellspring.

Weiss has wanted to put this particular project together for over a decade. As with his prior output, it reflects his catholic taste in music, where jazz improvisation, doom metal, electro-acoustic music, Indian beat cycles, and innumerable other influences are all compounded into an outpouring of personal expression completely beyond musical boundaries. Starebaby, though, definitely tilts towards the heavy, and Weiss, in particular, cites as influences metal bands such as Meshuggah, Burning Witch, High on Fire, Gorguts, early Metallica, Wormed, and Confessor; electronic and electro acoustic composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bernard Parmegiani, and Luc Ferrari; and every type of jazz ranging from Sidney Bechet to Threadgill. It is also inspired by Season 3 of the television show Twin Peaks, whose surreal, ominous emotional landscape helped shape the overall feel of this music. The music ebbs and flows, surging to thundering swells of foreboding doom before tempering to quiet reflection, finding a deep space where brutal aggression meets ghostly vulnerability. The expansive soundscape ranges from fortissimo to pianissimo, grave to presto, and dense, roiling dissonance to exquisite, pellucid melodies.

All of the musicians: Craig Taborn and Matt Mitchell on keyboards, piano, and electronics, Ben Monder on guitar, and Trevor Dunn on bass, along with Weiss – some of the heaviest hitters in the jazz/improvised music scene – share a love for heavy metal. It’s an astonishment to hear them play in this distinctly different setting, but perhaps the absolute authority they display should not be a complete surprise. Weiss played with the doom metal band Bloody Panda a dozen years ago and Dunn was a member of the experimental rock bands Mr. Bungle (with Faith No More singer Mike Patton) Fantômas (also with Patton), and Secret Chiefs 3. Weiss’s thundering gestures and Dunn’s shuddering, sludgy bass serve as the backbone of this music. Mitchell and Taborn are well known for their adroit experimentation on electronics, and they deliver to the music a huge variety of swirling textures and color. Monder’s own music usually tilts toward the spacious, so it’s somewhat of a surprise to hear him outright shredding with overdriven distortion. Together, they perform this music with complete conviction, melding meticulous precision, prodigious power, and masterful improvisation.

According to Matt Mitchell: “One thing I admire about Dan’s composing it’s how he manages to transcend stylistic issues. Although heavy music is undoubtedly the primary inspiration for this batch of material, I notice here many updated examples of forms that I associate with Dan’s composing: strong, direct melodies; long cycles allowing for building towards ecstatic climaxes; multiple instruments asymmetrically orbiting each other. Unique to this project is the combination of a very strong and distinctive compositional voice and extensive contribution from each of the musicians. Although this is Dan’s music through-and-through in a very specific way, he asked for a lot of input, especially regarding timbre, and he provided many novel spaces in which to improvise or act as a sonic free agent. All these qualities taken together result in an extremely powerful and multifarious musical message, one in which it is a privilege to take part.”

1. A Puncher's Chance 03:10

2. Depredation 05:32

3. Annica 09:04

4. Badalamenti 06:53

5. Cry Box 06:20

6. The Memory of My Memory 10:18

7. Veiled 04:23

8. Episode 8 14:28

Dan Weiss (drums, compositions)

Ben Monder (guitars)

Trevor Dunn (electric bass)

Craig Taborn (keyboards, piano)

Matt Mitchell (keyboards, piano)

David Ake - Humanities (POSI-TONE RECORDS 2018)

Pianist, composer, and educator David Ake is a native of New Haven, CT, but spent his formative years in Chicago. He did his  undergraduate at the University of Miami before heading to the West Coast to do post-grad work at the California Institute of the Arts and UCLA.

Ake’s fifth album on Posi-Tone is titled “Humanities” and features the powerful musical voices of his fellow CalArts colleague Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Ben Monder (guitars), Drew Gress (bass), and Mark Ferber (drums).  If you have heard any of Ake’s earlier group albums, you’ll know he’s a powerful and thoughtful pianist while his music often has a powerful forward motion.

There are moments on the new album where the music leans towards Americana, not surprisingly on the quintet’s reading of The Grateful Dead’s “Ripple” (the only “cover” tune on the CD) – they don’t mess with the gentle bluesy quality of Jerry Garcia’s sweet melody. Alessi’s muted trumpet brings the sound of Ron Miles to mind and the piece would not be out of place on a Bill Frisell album (but note the alternate chords at various times throughout the piece). The piano introduction to “Drinking Song” has the feel of a Randy Newman ballad but there is a spare quality to the melody. The trumpet and guitar play the melody and counterpoint while the rhythm section tosses and turns beneath them, not disrupting the flow as much as creating dynamic differences.

What stands out throughout the program is how distinctive all five voices are.  On songs such as “The North“, one can hear the power of the guitar, the rich melodic sense of the trumpet, the “heavy” chords from  the piano, the counterpoint and melodies from the bass, and the driving force of the drums. Ferber is truly in the driver’s seat; listen to his strength on “Rabble Rouser“, how Gress helps him push the music forward, and then how the soloists are inspired by the rhythm section.  And, they can swing! “Hoofer” starts out with the drummer’s brush work creating his own sweet soft-shoe.  Ake picks up on that and dances right through his sly Monk-like solo.  The bassist leads the group through the beginning of “Stream” – much of the fun of the piece is how the dynamics change on the fly.  After the opening, the band moves into a harder-edged melody but drops back for the piano solo.  Ake build the tension as the trumpet and guitar play a unison counterpoint to his solo. A similar interaction takes place beneath Alessi’s solo, this time the pianist and guitarist playing chordal patterns as Ferber builds the tension with a fiery drum spotlight.

The program closes with “Walter Cronkite“: that’s the newsman’s voice you hear near the beginning saying “...it’s the ultimate question that being a democracy we the people are responsible for the actions of our leaders“.  Alessi’s keening, questioning, trumpet moves atop the rumbling piano, droning bass, quiet guitar fill, and active drums, giving the rubato piece the feel of an elegy, at times, a prayer.  There is a short section where the trumpet and piano sounds like a telegraph signaling an urgent question across the great divide before the music fades.

To do justice to the music on “Humanities” is truly to tell you to listen and listen deeply. David Ake composes music that asks questions, that plumbs the depth of the human spirit, and looks for the soul within the songs. And the musicians know how to transmit those questions and searches to an eager audience.  Give some time to this music; it will make you think and, perhaps, even move you to action in these often tense times.

Kristjan Randalu - Absence (ECM 2018)

Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu makes his ECM debut with a striking album of his own rigorous-yet-lyrical music, sensitively played by a trio formed especially for this recording, with US guitarist Ben Monder and Finnish drummer Markku Ounaskari. As an improviser of prodigious technique, once described by Herbie Hancock as “a dazzling piano player”, Randalu’s affinities are with the jazz musicians, but the forms and dynamics of his pieces also reflect a discerning sense of structure, and he has cited composers  Erkki-Sven Tüür and Tõnu Kõrvits amongst his mentors. Absence was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the south of France in July 2017 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

1 FORECAST (Kristjan Randalu) 09:27

2 LUMI I (Kristjan Randalu) 05:09

3 SISU (Kristjan Randalu) 04:52

4 LUMI II (Kristjan Randalu) 03:23

5 ESCAPISM (Kristjan Randalu) 06:06

6 ADAPTION I (Kristjan Randalu) 03:07

7 ADAPTION II (Kristjan Randalu) 05:55

8 PARTLY CLOUDE (Kristjan Randalu) 05:12

9 ABSENCE (Kristjan Randalu) 04:49

Kristjan Randalu   Piano

Ben Monder   Electric Guitar

Markku Ounaskari   Drums

Mika Pohjola, Miguel Zenón, Ben Monder, Fernando Huergo & Roberto Dani: Landmark - Remastered Expanded Edition (BLUE MUSIC GROUP 2018)

This remarkable disc features Mika Pohjola's crafty ensemble, with Miguel Zenón on alto sax and flute, Ben Monder on guitar, Fernando Huergo on bass, and Roberto Dani on drums, with Johanna Grüssner contributing haunting vocals on occasion. Pohjola plays Fender Rhodes and other electric keys in addition to acoustic piano; on Landmark and Retrospectives he doubles certain melodies on harpsichord, as he has done on two previous albums (he may well be the first musician to employ the arcane instrument in a modern jazz ensemble, although Herbie Hancock played an electric harpsichord on a couple of unissued Miles Davis tracks in the late 60s.)

Compositionally, Pohjola's work is involved yet infectious and profoundly melodic, driven by the virtuosity and strong personalities of his players. On tracks like Screenplay and Future Apparent the band purveys a hip, appealing species of electric jazz. Pohjola's mellower side comes through on A Ballad About Something and Old Couples Lullaby. In contrast, he makes loud mischief on the rhythmically skewered punk of Young in the '80s and conveys a peculiar, semi-rubato feel on the evocative Summer Garden (which features Monder and Dani in a duo exchange toward the end). Pohjola also works wonders with Grüssner's voice on an inspired arrangement of the fourth century Ambrosian hymn, as well as the Finnish-titled Reppurin Laulu (Vagabond's Song), the lyrics of which are in the Karelian language.

The highly recommended Landmark sets the bar very high for creative music.There is an underground alternative jazz scene that is beginning to bubble over the surface and its starting to leak into all the different areas of music and culture. It's based in Manhattan New York. People like Mika are leading the way. When you get a four star review with the All Music Guide you have made the grade. This gentleman has arrived in a big way. I knew that he would, and the deserving recognition was just around the corner after the last release. Yes, I knew that he was special, and so will you when you hear his music. This is the perfect title for this CD; it is no doubt a Landmark release. - Down Beat 

1. Landmark 06:18

2. Screenplay 06:53

3. A Ballad about Something 04:17

4. Future Apparent 05:01

5. Isämme kiitos päivästä (Thank You, Lord, for This Day) 02:25

6. Old Couples Lullaby 04:54

7. Young in the 80s 07:34

8. Forest Nocturne 03:42

9. Passing Recline 05:19

10. Movements in Style 02:18

11. Summer Garden 04:32

12. MikaSonik Theme 00:36

13. Retrospectives 08:11

14. Now Came to Us 03:14

15. Reppurin laulu (Vagabond's Song) 04:43

16. Old Manhattan Tango 04:57

17. Future Apparent (Live in Stockholm) 07:06

18. Old Couples Lullaby (Live in Stockholm) 05:32

19. Old Manhattan Tango (Live in Stockholm) 07:33

20. Screenplay (Live in Stockholm) 08:10

21. Landmark (Live in Stockholm) 07:31

22. Now Came to Us (Live in Stockholm) 03:11

23. Announcement - MikaSonik Theme (Live in Stockholm) 15:50

24. Passing Recline (Live in Stockholm) 05:14

25. Movements in Style (Live in Stockholm) 03:14

26. Summer Garden (Live in Stockholm) 06:19

27. Young in the 80s (Live in Stockholm) 08:12

28. A Ballad about Something (Live in Stockholm) 05:59

29. Retrospectives - MikaSonik Theme (Live in Stockholm) 10:39

30. Nights Flights Spice (Quartet Version 1) 08:14

31. My Mother Turned Fifty (Quartet Version) 06:15

32. Old Couples Lullaby (Quartet Version) 04:33

33. Screenplay (Quartet Version) 06:55

34. Announcement (Quartet Version) 08:13

35. Summer Garden (Quartet Version) 05:56

36. When Things Will Change (Quartet Version) 09:55

37. Movements in Style (Quartet Version) 04:47

38. Nights Flights Spice (Quartet Version 2) 07:59

39. Landmark (Take 1) 06:03

40. Passing Recline (Take 1) 04:35

41. Forest Nocturne (Take 2) 03:26

42. A Ballad About Something (Take 1) 04:10

43. Summer Garden (Take 2) 04:50

44. Screenplay (Take 2) 06:12

45. Future Apparent (Live in New York City) 05:52

46. Landmark (Live in New York City) 05:56

47. Old Manhattan Tango (Live in New York City) 05:45

48. Passing Recline (Live in New York City) 05:30

49. Screenplay (Live in New York City) 06:30

50. Young in the 80s (Live in New York City) 07:14

Mika Pohjola - piano, harpsichord, fender rhodes, all compositions (except 5 and 15)

Miguel Zenón - saxophone, flute

Ben Monder - guitar

Fernando Huergo - bass

Roberto Dani - drums

Johanna Grüssner - voice (1, 5, 6, 7, 13, 15)

Matt Penman - bass (32-38)

Thomas DeVinko, Ben Monder & Sean Conly - 30217 (2017)

1. Greytone 4:08

2. King Standard 5:55

3. Doctor Blood Shot 5:15

4. The Hermit Is the Star 5:18

5. Gnarls Bukowski 5:43

6. Brooklyn Grandmas 5:53

7. Fiend the Queenn 2:37

8. Quarter Stones 4:09

Ben Monder, guitar

Sean Conly, double bass

Thomas DeVinko, drums

Brian Charette - Kürrent (2017)

New CD for 2017!! Circuit Bent organ trio with Ben Monder on Guitar and Jordan Young on Drums. Moments of Prog and Metal!! All new compositions by Brian. Circuit Bending is a technique where electronic instruments are manipulated so that they misfire (!!) creating far out sonic landscapes.

01. Doll Fin 8:02

02. Time Changes 4:35

03. Mano Y Mano 5:41

04. Intermezzo 1 0:22

05. Honeymoon Phase 4:02

06. Schooby's Riff 7:23

07. Intermezzo 2 1:27

08. Conquistador 5:26

09. 5th Base 6:34

10. The Shape of Green 6:21

11. Intermezzo 3 2:04

12. Catfish Sandwich 6:11