the Jamie Baum Septet + / Bridges (SUNNYSIDE RECORDS May 18, 2018)

Hailed by Downbeat for her “remarkable artistic facility” and by The New York Times for her “remarkable balance of fluidity and restless creativity,” New York-based flutist/composer and 2014 Guggenheim Fellow Jamie Baum is proud to announce the release of her sixth CD as a leader, Bridges, featuring The Jamie Baum Septet+. The highly anticipated follow-up to her 2013 recording In This Life, Bridges offers yet another recording of incredible depth, beauty, spirituality, undiluted zeal and is the culmination of Baum’s search for common links between some of the world’s great religious music traditions. While conducting research for her Guggenheim Fellowship Award, Baum explains, “I found there to be very deep connections going back centuries, between certain types of Jewish music (my earliest musical influences), and Muslim/Arabic and Hindu/South Asian music.” Exploring these musical connections, and composing new music inspired by her findings, became the focus of Bridges. 

Baum’s advanced harmonic sensibility and sonic imagination, beautifully brought to life by the stellar members of her long-running ensemble, proves yet again the capacity of modern jazz to absorb and transform music of diverse traditions, without sacrificing the improvisatory element at the core of jazz’s identity. In her album notes Baum cites Wikipedia’s definition of the word “bridge,” one that seems to sum up her artistic mission here: “a structure built to span physical obstacles without closing the way underneath.” At the same time, Baum’s musical wanderings highlight something even deeper: our shared humanity, and the common threads that run throughout our history. 

With great respect for these varied traditions and their vast languages, Baum’s goal was not to play or compose exactly in these styles, but to have her travels and playing experiences inspire new ways of writing and improvising. The diverse musicians who make up the Jamie Baum Septet+ are all first-call artists on the jazz scene, many of them accomplished leaders in their own right. Their presence gives Baum limitless compositional freedom and inspiration: “Having specific players to write for is a bandleader/composer’s dream and offers an incredible opportunity for experimentation and growth,” she says. We hear this borne out in the lyrical melodies, intricate contrapuntal passages and complex rhythmic ideas at the heart of Bridges, and in the textural warmth and surprise of Sam Sadigursky’s alto sax and bass clarinet, Brad Shepik’s guitar, Amir ElSaffar’s trumpet and voice, John Escreet’s dazzlingly virtuosic piano and of course Baum’s compelling improvisations on flute and alto flute throughout the album. 

Baum’s fascination with world sacred music traditions stemmed from her love of South Asian music and in particular for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistan’s late Qawwali vocal master. Her previous album In This Life was inspired by Khan’s legacy, because she “found in him what I have found in those musicians who have touched me, like Coltrane, Miles and Pavarotti…a truly gifted, deeply spiritual and soulful artist,” Baum writes in her album notes. Expanding her focus from Qawwali outward to other forms of religious music, Baum arrived at the focus of Bridges. 

Khan’s influence is also felt on “Joyful Lament,” derived from a melody of Khan’s called “Lament,” Baum explains. This piece was arranged with Shepik’s guitar in mind, and “his solo certainly exceeds anything I could have imagined,” Baum enthuses. 

In addition to her study of Khan, Baum’s travels to India and especially Jazzmandu, the Kathmandu Jazz Festival, in 2003 and again in 2009, widened her musical horizons immeasurably. The three-movement “Honoring Nepal: The Shiva Suite,” a centerpiece of Bridges, represents Baum’s wish to give back to a community that has given her so much. The piece was commissioned by the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art in New York. “It was difficult to watch the pain and destruction the 2015 earthquake caused to the beautiful people and historic sites in Nepal, including musicians I knew and places I’d been,” Baum writes. “I knew I wanted to highlight and pay tribute in some way to this event and found inspiration in a painting of Shiva … a pan-Hindu deity revered widely by Hindus in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Shiva is the ‘destroyer of evil and the transformer’ within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity that includes Brahma and Vishnu. Shiva is the Supreme Being who creates, protects and transforms the universe. Completely contradictory aspects of life have been built into the personality of Shiva…. A particular ‘thank you’ to my rhythm section [Escreet, bassist Zack Lober and drummer Jeff Hirshfield] for their drive, sensitivity and expertise in navigating and highlighting the changing colors, dynamics and intensity, giving so much meaning to the arc and intent of this suite!” 

The Nepali influence emerges again on “Mantra,” arranged by Baum with Nepali musician Navin Chettri, who plays tanpura and sings on the track. The tune is based on Mahamrityunjaya Mantra “meant for healing, rejuvenation and nurturance,” Baum writes. “According to Shiva Purana when you have fear of any unknown event this chant helps you to overcome the fear. The Shiva Purana is the highest science of elevating human nature to the very peak of consciousness, expressed in the form of very beautiful stories.” 

“From the Well” opens the album with the sound of a scale “common to Maqam, Jewish and South Asian music,” writes Baum. “Song Without Words,” a tribute to Baum’s late father, highlights the composer’s Jewish influence — in particular the Kol Nidre prayer so central to the holiday of Yom Kippur. “There Are No Words,” with its relaxed straight-eighth feel and beautiful chamber-like interplay within the ensemble, revisits the theme of loss as well. And the closing track, “Ucross Me,” was written during Baum’s residency at the UCross Artist Colony in Clearmont, Wyoming in March 2015. It’s a piece “about crossing boundaries and connecting influences,” Baum writes, encapsulating the theme of Bridges as a whole. 

In addition to her Guggenheim Fellowship (an honor she shared the same year with Steve Coleman and Elliott Sharp), Baum was awarded the 2017 New Music USA Project Grant and selected as a 2014-15 Norman Stevens Fellow during her MacDowell Colony residency. Baum’s exemplary career has been built on superlative performances in the studio and on stages around the world, alongside a long list of renowned jazz artists including Randy Brecker, Mick Goodrick, Tom Harrell, Dave Douglas, Fred Hersch, Uri Caine, Ralph Alessi, David Binney, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith and many others.

She has placed in the DownBeat Critics’ Polls annually since 1998 and has been nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association as “Flutist of the Year” eight times; the Jamie Baum Septet+ was nominated in 2014 as “Best Midsize Ensemble of the Year” in the same category as the Wayne Shorter Quartet and Steve Coleman’s Five Elements. She has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, International Jazz Composers Alliance, Meet the Composer, Chamber Music America and the American Music Center. Her playing credits include tours as a State Dept./Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador, in 1999 to South America and in 2002 to India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Thailand and Bangladesh. Baum has served on the faculty of the jazz department at Manhattan School of Music since 2007 and on the adjunct faculty roster at the New School University since 2004. Altus Flutes/KHS America has sponsored her innovative clinic “A Fear-Free Approach to Improvisation for the Classically Trained Musician”™ at colleges, conservatories, festivals, flute clubs and “music and art” schools worldwide since 1993.

1. From The Well

2. Song Without Words (for S. James Baum)

3. There Are No Words 05:59

4. Honoring Nepal: The Shiva Suite Part 1 - The Earthquake

5. Honoring Nepal: The Shiva Suite Part 2 - Renewal

6. Honoring Nepal: The Shiva Suite Part 3 - Contemplation

7. Joyful Lament

8. Mantra

9. UCross Me

Jamie Baum - flutes, singing bowl

Amir ElSaffar - trumpet, vocals

Sam Sadigursky - alto sax, bass clarinet

Chris Komer - French horn

Brad Shepik -guitar

John Escreet - piano

Zack Lober - bass, singing bowl

Jeff Hirschfeld - drums

Jamey Haddad - percussion (Bridges)

Navin Chettri - percussion, vocals (Bridges)

Brad Shepik & Ron Sanworth - Quartet 1991 (2016) SONGLINES RECORDINGS

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Brad Shepik & Ron Sanworth - Quartet 1991 (2016)

This recording was never meant to see the light of day. It’s is a tale of two young guitarists and of a would-be producer who didn’t have a clue, but continued to love his flawed step-child – long after it had ceased to have any relevance for the musicians who created it.

Brad Shepik (it was Schoeppach back then) and Ron Samworth met at the Banff jazz workshop in 1987. Ron was playing freelance jazz, r&b/soul and improvised music in Vancouver. Brad was studying at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and was putting together a band which included Phil Sparks and Michael Sarin. By 1991 (when this was recorded) Brad was in New York, living with Sarin (who had made the move to NYC in 1989) in a house they shared with Dave Douglas, and they were soon performing with him as a trio. Ron was co-leading Lunar Adventures and the New Orchestra Workshop, both of which had CDs out on Nine Winds, and Creatures of Habit, which had won the CBC/Alcan Grand Prix Concours de Jazz in 1990 and had a CD on Justin Time.

The idea for the record arose from a single gig Brad and Ron played in Vancouver in 1990. Each of them brought new pieces to the session, complemented by Ornette Coleman’s “Ramblin’” and Robin Holcomb’s “Nightbirds” (“Way In” is a reference to Wayne Horvitz, and Ron’s collaboration with Robin, The Point of It All, came out on Songlines in 2010). But there were serious issues with some of the performances, and the project was put on indefinite hold. Ron reflects back on it today: “Music to me has always been about creating a feeling between people, so playing together as a band is far more important than woodshedding cool stuff to play over the tunes. In hindsight it would have been great to have done a couple of live gigs with that material and then hit the studio – it could have been a nice little project. I had so much regard for Brad and Mike and Phil and regretted not being on my game those few days.” Brad comments: “I had completely forgotten about this session. Surprised to hear it again in the sense that much has changed yet remains the same. Not a huge struggle to recognize myself – I guess I have to own it.” Michael’s view is more positive: “It sounds pretty damn good to me.” (Digital editing has dealt with any shortcomings in the performance of composed sections, and two pieces have been shortened, otherwise the music is as played.)

Why release it now? Certainly there is some historical interest in light of these performers’ subsequent careers, including collaborations with other guitarists: Brad with David Tronzo, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Monder, Steve Cardenas and others in Paul Motian’s Electric Bebop Band and Joey Baron’s Killer Joey, and currently with Monder as well as with Nate Radley in the Arthur Kell Quartet; Ron with Tony Wilson in his band Bugs Inside and currently in The Peggy Lee Band, also performances with Bernard Falaise, René Lussier, Fred Frith, and Mark Ribot. And one interesting comparison to be made is the versions of “PLAW” here and on the first, self-titled record by BABKAS, the group that Brad formed in’92 with Briggan Krauss and Aaron Alexander (with three releases on Songlines).

But the ultimate justification is the particular character of this collaboration. It’s true that there are a swirl of influences in the music. Brad: “Conceptually I hear Ornette Coleman, Jerry Granelli, Jay Clayton, Julian Priester, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz. Guitar-wise Frisell, Scofield, Metheny, Abercrombie, Jim Hall, Jimi Hendrix.” Ron: “The Zorn, Frisell, Tom Cora, Tim Berne, Knitting Factory scene was what I was checking out as well as Paul Bley, Ornette, Henry Threadgill and Paul Motian. There were a lot of influences to sort out – all of the jazz guitar guys Brad just cited for sure, Miles, Coltrane and especially the AACM, Ornette and the Downtown New York scene. The NY scene was great because it was not just rock-influenced jazz but full on genre-busting. Skronk, Hendrix, tango, minimalism, bebop, complexity, classical, folk music – whatever you brought to the table could co-exist, and that, to me was liberating.” Michael: “My playing was a compendium of various styles and influences I was processing at time: Ed Blackwell, Roy Haynes, Paul Motian, Shannon Jackson (in the Power Tools Trio with Frisell – that probably accounts for any ‘rock’ element since I was never much influenced by classic rock drummers), Joey Baron, Billy Hart, Al Foster, Jack DeJohnette, Jerry Granelli.”

Yet, out of all these influences, this one-off created some memorable, compelling music. Brad’s pieces especially, four of them never subsequently recorded, display a tense lyricism, and his playing an urgent logic, that would stamp his work with BABKAS. Despite Ron’s demurral his soloing is generally effective, and the way the guitars interact and complement each other is often beautiful. Mike is killing throughout, limning and shadowing the shifting rise-and-fall with unerring grace. Phil, whose recorded sound is unfortunately less than ideal, provides much more than just weight and propulsion at the bottom.

Ron is featured on our other March 2016 release, Michael Blake’s Fulfillment (check out his solo on “The Soldier and the Saint”). Brad is self-releasing a record by the Brad Shepik Organ Trio, Top Down, in late March.

Confluenza

Terrestrials

Bent House

Circa

Nightbirds

PLAW

Ramblin’

Way In

Song of Then

Brad Shepik, electric guitar (l. channel)

Ron Samworth, electric guitar (r. channel)

Phil Sparks, bass

Michael Sarin, drums

Compositions by Brad Shepik (1, 3, 4, 6, 9)

Ron Samworth (2, 8)

Robin Holcomb (5)

Ornette Coleman (7)

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Brad Shepik Organ Trio - Top Down (2016)

Label: JLC Records 

Source: Brad Shepik

Shepik writes about Top Down- "These compositions (except Gary Peacock's Major Major) were written in the late spring/early summer of 2015. Friday evokes a wide open elation I feel working in my studio in Brooklyn. Sweet Suzy, written just a few days before the recording recalls the Meter's and the blues and was a highlight of the recording for me. There's more than a hint of one of my favorite guitarists, John Scofield, on this tune. Coincidentally, on the morning of the day of this album's second recording session, I had the honor to record a song with him along with Peter Bernstein and Adam Rogers as part of an New York University Guitar Ensemble record. Vampa has South American feel though I didn't have a specific regional rhythm in mind. The tune's harmonic/rhythmic structure leaves a lot of room for melodic invention and suggested a conversation in the trading choruses. Hall is dedicated to Jim Hall, the giant of the guitar whose influence is felt on every generation of guitarists that have come along since the the late 1950's. Something in the wide melodic intervals and fluid rhythm suggested his artistry. Top in the Middle is a bluesy AABC form however the chords deviate and suggest a somewhat difficult climb to the goal. The title refers to the inevitable mix of sweet and bitter as life unfolds. Major Major has been a favorite tune from Gary Peacock's "Tales of Another" for many years, I had the privilege of playing a session with him when I was 19. Aeolia is a circular tune with a 7/8 Balkan rhythm that reminds me of a friend who lives on a windy island. I was playing with harmonic colors and phrasing on Stumma Cake. The tune's title could be a dessert but the final two chords reflect a mild discomfort experienced occasionally by the very young."

1. Friday
2. Sweet Suzy
3. Vampa
4. Hall
5. Top in the Middle
6. Major Major
7. Aeolia
8. Stumma Cake

Brad Shepik - guitar
Gary Versace - organ
Mark Ferber - drums  

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