“I’ve always loved the way Dave plays guitar. He’s a soulful, blues-oriented player, with a beautiful touch and tone. His originals were fun to play, with plenty of harmonic sophistication, but lyrical, too. He’s the real deal.”
– John Patitucci
“It’s my dream project,” Dave Stryker repeats several times in a conversation about his 34th release as a leader, As We Are, on which the guitar master addresses one of the few configurations he hasn’t tackled during 40-plus years in the jazz trenches.
Stryker, not predisposed to hyperbole, isn’t exaggerating. How else to describe an opportunity to record a suite of new originals with a band propelled by all-world bass-drum partners John Patitucci and Brian Blade, fleshed out by harmonically erudite pianist Julian Shore’s bespoke string quartet arrangements that include room for a couple of soaring violin solos by the luminous Sara Caswell? Stimulated by the chance to make music together after long isolation, all members interact with crackling, pent-up energy.
“I always wanted to do something where strings would really be integrated into the music, not a coloring or sweetening that comes in later,” Stryker says. Shore rises to the occasion, imparting a lush, fulsome sound to the two violins, viola and cello, creating sections that offer texture and contrast.
In keeping with the dream project Stryker reached out to two of the greatest musicians alive today - Patitucci and Blade who happily signed on. Six new Stryker originals, one Shore original and Nick Drake’s River Man are arranged with string quartet by Shore to create one of the most truly beautiful and exciting recordings in recent times.
Once upon a time, three musicians, who came of age together during the last century's thriving free jazz scene in Memphis, joined forces in far off Little Rock. And they were gifted, and it was good. Alto saxophonist Chad Fowler and pianist Christopher Parker were experimenters going back to the 1990s, hovering in the orbit of the famed University of Memphis jazz department, two Arkansas jammers sharing a house in the Bluff City. They did one-off sessions with the likes of Frank Lowe or George Cartwright, or in combos with local luminaries. Ultimately Fowler introduced Parker to a Memphis singer named Kelley Hurt. The years rolled on.
Cut ahead a quarter century, and the three were living in Arkansas again, with Parker and Hurt now married, and all of them still committed to finding something fresh in jazz. When the couple was commissioned to write music in honor of the Little Rock Nine, the students who marched into Central High School in defiance of local segregationists in 1957, they recruited Fowler and another comrade from their Memphis years, trumpeter Marc Franklin, now an arranger and side man extraordinaire for the likes of Grammy-nominee Don Bryant. Parker and Hurt's creation would become the No Tears Suite, premiered in 2017 with much acclaim on the grounds of Central High itself; and it was for that project that the beat stepped in. And the beat came in the form of Brian Blade.
Adding the magic of rhythm to the mix, the group coalesced into something great, something resembling Dopolarians. Blade left his native Shreveport at 18 to learn from the many jazz masters of New Orleans, then applied that experience to found the Fellowship Band. Along the way, he drummed for even more legends, from Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock to Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. Beyond his drumming, he distinguished himself as a composer and songwriter in his own right.
While Blade's participation in No Tears Suite galvanized the group, and led to a stellar album of the same name, they weren't yet the Dopolarians. That group identity came about when other players were added to the combo, as Blade went on to his many other commitments.
The experience of bringing Parker and Hurt's composition to life left the core trio hungry for more creation. Working with Blade led them to set their sights high, and by the spring of 2018 they'd recruited two stellar players, well versed in the intricacies of free jazz. Bassist William Parker, who first came to prominence in his native New York with Cecil Taylor, was a perfect addition to set their course for free horizons, having developed a deeply philosophical approach to music over the course of two books, even as he pursued his playing beyond conventional jazz bass, developing a refined bowing technique and impressive skills on the West African kora.
And with drummer Alvin Fielder, Jr., the newly formed group found a kind of shaman, a mentor to help set the tone for all that would follow. Having left his native Meridian, Mississippi to study phamacology, he nurtured his drumming with a passion, finally ending up in Chicago, where he played with Sun Ra, ca. 1960. From there, he became a charter member of the paradigm-shifting Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). This pillar of experimental jazz thus brought a wealth of experience to the group from Little Rock, and, as they prepared for their first recording session in New Orleans, adding the fabled saxophonist Kidd Jordan to the mix, they became Dopolarians.
Their debut album, aptly titled Garden Party, was redolent of all the intimacy, beauty and wildness of a soiree in a Crescent City courtyard. And yet, to the players' great sorrow, it served as Fielder's swan song. He passed away in January, 2019, but his fellow Dopolarians, inspired by his memory, lived on.
Which brings us to The Bond, the group's latest offering to the gods of free expression and lyrical beauty, once again under the Mahakala Music imprint. With Fielder, their most inspiring force, having moved on, it was only fitting that they return to the beat that unlocked their potential in the first place: Brian Blade. And in this free context, Blade reveals his creative depths as never before, applying his acuity in the fleeting moments of creation, composer indeed.
Also returning to the Dopolarians' fold is trumpeter Marc Franklin, filling Jordan's slot with brassier tones. In November of 2020, on the very day that the world breathed a collective sigh of relief over the defeat of a racist presidential incumbent, the group convened once again in Marigny Recording Studio, the very site of their initial sessions with Fielder. And what transpired was truly phenomenal, an achievement of musical telepathy and empathy equal to any in the free jazz tradition. In three extended pieces, “The Bond,” “The Emergence,” and “The Release,” the collective hive-mind of Brian Blade, Chad Fowler, Marc Franklin, Kelley Hurt, Christopher Parker, and William Parker conjures up a dream, an ineffable narrative, springing from the unconscious, and flying free in directions both gripping and glorious.
Pianist-Composer Edward Simon Presents the Album Sorrows and Triumphs,
Featuring Afinidad, his Quartet with Alto Saxophonist David Binney,
Bassist Scott Colley and Drummer Brian Blade
The richly textured Sorrows and Triumphs - to be released April 20, 2018, via Sunnyside Records - is also colored by very special guests: vocalist Gretchen Parlato, guitarist Adam Rogers
and chamber quintet Imani Winds
"One of the strongest pianists of his generation, with intuitive empathy and drum-like ingenuity, Simon solos compositionally with passionate elegance."- DownBeat
Pianist Edward Simon - a native of Venezuela who has made a name for himself over decades in America as a jazz pianist, bandleader and composer-arranger, along with being a Guggenheim Fellow and member of the hit SFJAZZ Collective - presents his latest album, Sorrows and Triumphs, via Sunnyside Records on April 20, 2018. The recording showcases his virtuoso quartet Afinidad, featuring alto saxophonist David Binney, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade; the album's color-rich arrangements also include special guests: vocalist Gretchen Parlato, guitarist Adam Rogers and the chamber quintet Imani Winds, along with percussionists Rogerio Boccato and Luis Quintero. The album's material blends two bodies of music commissioned by Chamber Music of America's New Jazz Works program: the suites "Sorrows and Triumphs" and "House of Numbers," their individual movements re-sequenced to form a holistic listening experience that brims with a lyricism both intimate and majestic. This release follows Simon's Latin American Songbook, with the four-and-a-half-star DownBeat review for that 2016 album praising its "grand and sophisticated" sound. Latin American Songbook also won Simon an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album. JazzTimes has said: "Simon is less talked about than many other important jazz pianists from the Caribbean and South America, but he may be the most complete creative artist among them." The three tracks on Sorrows and Triumphs drawn from the original title suite - "Equanimity," "Rebirth" and "Triumphs" - feature Afinidad with Parlato, Rogers and Baccato, the compositions inspired by Simon's studies of Buddhism over two decades. Afinidad first performed the "Sorrows and Triumphs" suite in 2009 at Walton Performing Arts Center in Arkansas and later at New York's Jazz Standard, with performances broadcast on NPR's Jazz Set. "The music isn't narrative in any way," Simon explains. "But it was inspired intuitively by the effects Buddhist practice has had on me, the perspective and the little bits of enlightenment that come every day. I wrote my own words for 'Triumphs,' but Gretchen has also studied Buddhism, so when I asked her to contribute lyrics to 'Rebirth,' she knew exactly how to convey the message. Gretchen is such a special singer, who has the gift making the most of small details to expressive effect. She knows that just a whisper can have a big impact. As for the compositions, I wanted them to bring joy to the listener, to be direct and accessible, with singable melodies." The album's tracks taken from the suite "House of Numbers" - "Uninvited Thoughts," "Triangle," "Chant" and "Venezuela Unida" - feature Afinidad with Quintero and award-winning classical group Imani Winds. The ballad highlight "Chant" also includes words and vocals by Parlato. Simon's compositions explore the cross-cultural resonance of numerology, as well as the musical possibilities that arise when jazz and classical artists combine. The music draws on traditions from Europe, Africa, North America and South America, blending composed structures with sections for improvisation; the numbers 3, 4, 5 and 7 - and their cultural and musical implications - form the basis of the suite's four pieces. The composer explains: "The number 3, for instance, can suggest triple meters, such as 3/4, 6/4 or 6/8, which in turn can suggest certain grooves, particularly in the music of South America. It can also point to the use of triads and three-bar phrases. Above all, the number 3 points to the even distribution of forces into three equal parts, which suggests balance - an ideal in nature and life." Afinidad and Imani Winds unveiled House of Numbers in 2016 at California's University of the Pacific.
Simon Rowe, executive director of Roots, Jazz & American Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, attended the premiere of "House of Numbers," saying afterward that the blend of the five Imani Winds with Simon's jazz quartet was "mesmerizing," as the "writing juxtaposed the lyrical and often dense textures of the quintet with the ever-changing, percolating rhythmic drive of Afinidad." Reviewing Afinidad's music-making, All About Jazz described the band's sound as "wonderful, accessible and deep." Simon remarks on his bandmates: "Their musicality, openness, and breadth give me the greatest freedom as a composer. I write with the sound and sensibilities of Dave, Scott and Brian in mind, and I depend on our instant empathy and almost wordless communication in the studio. It is our artistic bond of trust, built over many years, that underpins and encourages my exploration in these pieces." Simon and Binney co-founded Afinidad in 2000, with the kindred-spirit rhythm section of Colley and Blade there from the start. The quartet has previously released the albums Afinidad (Red Records, 2001) and Océanos (Criss Cross, 2007). Simon and Binney share a 25-year affinity, their musical visions as simpatico as their personalities. "Dave is eclectic, open to all sorts of influences, and has the ability to put them together into something personal, as a player and as a composer," Simon remarks. "We have both composed for Afinidad over the years, even though this album is mine as a composer. But David's sharp ear for aesthetic beauty makes him a great sounding board in the studio - in addition to being a featured player, he has real producing chops. He co-produced the track 'Triumphs' with me, adding electronics." For his part, Binney says: "I've always enjoyed Ed's sensitive musicality. His musical concept sums up the way I hear things, and because of his Latin American roots, his rhythmic sense is very strong, which complements the way I play. Sometimes I play with more abandon, and he locks things in. And his compositions have such thought behind them." About Colley and Blade, who are leaders in their own right, Simon adds: "Musicians who are composers interpret other people's music in a more informed way, so Scott and Brian have the sensibility to articulate my music with sensitivity to space, to quality of sound, to textural nuance." Guitarist Adam Rogers has been part of the extended Afinidad family for years. "He's such a strong improver," Simon explains, "and his versatility as a player, whether on electric or acoustic, adds a lot to what we can do texturally." About the extra percussion of Boccato and Quintero, Simon adds: "Groove has always been a vital aspect of music for me, and with a lot of this music influenced by classical minimalism - especially Steve Reich - the extra percussion helps articulate the groove. And in 'Venezuela Unida,' Luis plays the culo'e puya, a long, narrow drum, played in sets of three, associated with Afro-Venezuelan music. This composition is dedicated to my homeland. Venezuela has undergone tremendous socio-economic and political changes during the past decade. It pains me to see the strong divisions that have emerged as a result and the great difficulty people are going through. I wish for my fellow Venezuelans to elevate themselves beyond differences in views and hope they manage to find peace, understanding and unity once again."
Edward Simon - who first came to the U.S. in 1981 at age 12, then settled permanently stateside after attending the Performing Arts School in Philadelphia - grew up in a musical family in the oil-refinery town of Punta Cardón, Venezuela. His father planted a musical seed with young Edward and his siblings, the kids raised on the strains of their dad playing guitar and singing boleros with his drinking buddies. Chucho Valdés was Simon's first big influence on piano, then he got the jazz bug watching a VHS tape of Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz playing at the White House - with "the freedom of jazz" forever instilled in him as an ideal. After graduating from the Performing Arts School at age 15, Simon received a music scholarship from the University of the Arts where he studied classical music. Later, he transferred to the Manhattan School of Music where he studied jazz piano. During his stint as a young jazzer in New York City, Simon was inspired by the innovative Nuyorican jazz of Jerry Gonzalez & the Fort Apache Band, eventually playing with the group. As a young striver, Simon took the piano chair in Bobby Watson's band Horizon (1989-94), later moving to the Terence Blanchard Group (1994-2002). Simon made his debut album as a leader in 1994 with Beauty Within (Audioquest). The same year, he placed third in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, with the albums Edward Simon (Kokopelli, 1995) and La Bikina (Mythology, 1998) to follow. Simon co-founded the quartet Afinidad with David Binney, releasing the discs Afinidad (Red Records, 2001) and Océanos (Criss Cross, 2007) with the rhythm duo of Scott Colley and Brian Blade. Simon and Binney also released the duo album Fiestas de Agosto (Red Records, 2008). In 2010, Simon was named a Guggenheim Fellow, and he became a member of the SFJAZZ Collective, which comprises what The New York Times called "eight of today's most in-demand" performer-composers. Following his leader discs The Process (Criss Cross, 2003) and Simplicitas (Criss Cross, 2005), Simon recorded several albums featuring his All-Star Trio with Blade and bassist John Patitucci; complementing the studio discs Unicity (CamJazz, 2006) and Poesía (CamJazz, 2009), the group's most recent release is the 2013 Sunnyside album Trio Live, recorded at New York's Jazz Standard. The New York Times praised Simon's "warm touch" as a pianist, while Jazz Journal International singled out his "deep emotional statements" as a composer. With the folk-accented compositions of his album Venezuelan Suite (Sunnyside, 2014), Simon garnered some of the most glowing reviews of his career, including a rating of four-and-a-half out of five stars from DownBeat. With Venezuelan Suite, the pianist blended the tuneful, buoyant sounds of his native country with the harmonically sophisticated, forward-looking manner of jazz. The compositions - written on a grant from Chamber Music America - featured star saxophonist Mark Turner alongside virtuosos of the Venezuelan folk tradition. All About Jazz marveled over the album: "Venezuelan Suite is pianist Edward Simon's love letter to his homeland, but that's not all it is; it's the perfect confluence of Venezuelan ideals, jazz language and chamber-esque sophistication. In short, it's a masterpiece." Latin American Songbook (Sunnyside, 2016) saw Simon create artful piano-trio arrangements of such classics as Astor Piazzolla's "Libertango" and Antônio Carlos Jobim's "Chega de Saudade," as well as the Cuban ballad "En La Orilla Del Mundo" (On the Edge of the World). NPR's All Things Considered said: "This recording works because an expert musician applies himself so sincerely to songs that were formative for him. Simon puts his head and heart into Latin American Songbook, and the album gives Latin standards a rightful and joyful place at the center of instrumental jazz." In fall 2017, Simon, Colley and Blade released their first album as a cooperative trio, the eponymous Steel House.
1. "Incessant Desires"
2. "Uninvited Thoughts"
3. "Equanimity"
4. "Triangle"
5. "Chant"
6. "Venezuela Unida"
7. "Triumphs"
8. "Rebirth"
Produced and composed by Edward Simon
"Triumphs" co-produced by Edward Simon & David Binney
Lyrics for "Chant" and "Rebirth" by Gretchen Parlato
Every year the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal – June 28 - July 7, 2018 – is a highlight of my summer.
It's a truly international festival with 3,000 musicians from 5 continents performing in some 500 events, many of them free and open to the public.
Ticketed shows already announced include Kamasi Washington, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Holly Cole, Ian Anderson presents Jethro Tull 50th Anniversary Tour, Chris Botti, Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band featuring Dennis Chambers and Tom Kennedy, Keyon Harrold and more! (See press release below.)
I so agree with Michael Bourne who wrote in DownBeat Magazine that it's the "Best of the Fests.... Bigger! Better! Best, actually..." Playboy Magazine says it's "the best urban music festival in North America." Mitch Myers writes in the Hollywood Reporter that the Festival is "a compelling summer destination....the multicultural and cosmopolitan nature of Montreal is reflected in the festival's diverse programming, showing a great respect for music, the artists and culture in general." And Under the Radar notes that the Fest "is known for its impeccable curation that sees living legends nestling among newer names with some real curveball surprises."
In addition, the Festival is family-friendly, featuring a special kids park with a walk-on playable keyboard, saxophone slide, face painting, special performances and much more.
The full schedule, which includes jazz in every style, world music, soul, and electro-pop – from blue-chip tickets to newcomers, from home and abroad, will be announced later this spring.
Critically acclaimed vocalist JEFF BAKER returns with his 5th OA2 Records release, an alive and bristling set of originals and thoughtfully conceived pop and jazz standards. Collaborating with some of the most influential and compelling jazz musicians in the world today - Brian Blade, Steve Wilson, Marquis Hill, Clark Sommers, Geof Bradfield, and Gregory Uhlmann - Baker and his co-producer/musical director, pianist Darrell Grant, present a provocative collection of original songs and arrangements based on text by writers such as Pablo Neruda, J.D. Salinger, A.A. Milne and Salvador Plascencia. Certainly, his most ambitious and personal recording yet. "From all accounts, this charismatic crooner needs to be tracked closely. Mr. Baker has the potential to skyrocket to many accolade-coated triumphs." - JazzTrenzz
1 NERUDA 6:03 | Jeff Baker, BMI
2 AND SO IT GOES 8:56 | Billy Joel / arr. Jeff Baker
3 PEOPLE OF PAPER 5:39 | Jeff Baker
4 BALLAD OF THE SAD YOUNG MEN 7:37 | Frances Landsman & Thomas Wolf
Three well-known instrumentalists are building a new band called Steel House. The foundations of this house are deep and strong, the roof sturdy. Inside is one big, light-filled room occupied by the three leaders: Edward Simon on piano, Scott Colley on acoustic bass, and Brian Blade on drums. Each man is a world-class jazz player with his own robust composing, recording, and performing career. Since meeting in New York in the early 1990s, they have shared stages and studios, playing many different styles of music together. They decided to form (build) Steel House to create a dedicated place for their own musical explorations. The music of Steel House embraces both silence, and emerging from that stillness, conversation. The communication among Simon, Colley, and Blade stays nimble, focused on moment-to-moment interaction. Musical structure is minimal, poetic, and full of purpose. Walls of genre, category, and style are torn down. Light and space abound. We can hear them down the street now, Simon, Colley, and Blade building their Steel House. The music is infectious. It is everything you wanted – spirited and serious, caring and carefree.
Cornetist and trumpeter Ron Miles connects African American blues and gospel roots to the tangled branches of contemporary genre-bending jazz with rare perceptiveness. On this set of originals, named after a civil rights-era proclamation, Miles draws regular collaborator Bill Frisell, pianist Jason Moran, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Brian Blade into seven cool thematic and improv conversations. Enhanced by Miles giving his partners the whole score, not just their own parts, these are breezy early-swing figures mixed with modern time-stretches, and graceful sways like 60s Miles Davis, tugged at by free jazz, deep-toned dirges. The brittle and then soaring title track establishes the group’s collective alertness, while Darken My Door segues between quiet piano lyricism, romantic turbulence and country grooves. Revolutionary Congregation mixes tenderness and raw multiphonic brass effects. Mother Juggler is a beautiful lament, and Is There Room in Your Heart for a Man Like Me is a rolling ensemble feature that keeps its narrative shape. It is often an understated session, but it exerts a powerful grip.
Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band marks its 20th anniversary with the release of their sublime fifth album, Body and Shadow, a succinct nine-track meditation on lightness/darkness that arrives like a balm for the soul, ebbing and flowing with grace, subtlety and no shortness of beauty. The album will be released on vinyl and CD, and will be available on all digital retailers and streaming services, on November 10. The lead track “Broken Leg Days” is available today to stream, download, or receive immediately with album download pre-order.
Formed in 1997, the Fellowship released their eponymous Blue Note debut in 1998, but the bond among the musicians goes back even further. Brian Blade, the band’s namesake and drummer, first met pianist Jon Cowherd in 1988 while attending Loyola University in New Orleans, and they met bassist Chris Thomas in the Crescent City a year later. With Myron Walden (alto saxophone and bass clarinet) and Melvin Butler (tenor saxophone), the Fellowship Band’s sturdy unified bond (“we think of the band as a collective instrument,” Cowherd says) has evolved with every album, and Body and Shadow, which also features Denver-based guitarist Dave Devine, is an extension of that evolution.
Blade and Cowherd wrote, arranged and produced the songs for Body and Shadow, which was recorded at the historic Columbus Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island. The experience reminded Blade of recording the band’s debut with producer Daniel Lanois at the Teatro, a former movie theater in Oxnard, California.
“It is always great to be in the moment and in process with the band,” says Blade. “We come in with all our grand plans and then there’s this yielding to, ‘Okay, here’s what’s actually being captured.’ Maybe not what I thought but another feeling, another energy, which is unpredictable. There’s joy in the whole mystery of what we are hoping to create. You step into the process to see what you’re made of, individually and together. Since we’ve shared so much time together, that trust and the sort of inherent knowing of what’s needed for each other kicks in pretty quick.”
“I think we have a lot of hope for the world and ourselves and the desire to create something which will move or touch people,” Cowherd adds. “There’s a spiritual background to the band. We come from a foundation of playing music that is inspirational and I think we all want it to be intellectually interesting, too.”
Guitarist Davy Mooney left his home of New Orleans in 2005 as Hurricane Katrina loomed. He left his newly acquired house and eventually settled into life away, mainly off and on, for six years in the jazz capital of the world, New York City. In 2013, Mooney moved back with his wife, balancing the anxiety of leaving New York and getting acclimated once again with his hometown. His new Hope of Home showcases Mooney’s efforts to integrate his New York and New Orleans personalities in a moving, musical fashion.
Originally from New Orleans, Mooney went through the famed jazz programs of New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and the University of North Texas. Though he considered a move to New York, as many young musicians do, Mooney held out until Katrina forced his hand. He went on to compete in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Guitar Competition, where he finished third, and then on to the Monk Institute for two years, where he studied with the great trumpeter and New Orleans native Terence Blanchard. After, Mooney settled into the world of a professional musician in the competitive New York market.
It was during his time in New York that Mooney recorded Perrier Street with an incredible cast of musicians. The record was very well planned and highly structured, performed ably; mainly by musicians with ties to New Orleans, including drummer Brian Blade, pianist Jon Cowherd and saxophonist John Ellis. Along with their connections to the South, these musicians are all ambitious and eclectic in their musical scope. All had gone through a similar developmental process as Mooney (the jazz programs of Loyola and settling in New York), not to mention paying their dues with many of the same musicians along the way.
For Hope of Home, Mooney insisted on keeping this ensemble, which also included bassist Matt Clohesy. Blade’s The Fellowship Band had long been a touchstone for Mooney’s own musical development, so having Blade and core band member Cowherd on his recording was important to Mooney and certainly worth the wait. It was important to preserve the essence of the continuity between the two scenes, knowing that they connect and you can still go home.
Interestingly enough, Mooney carried New Orleans with him in the music he created and the people he created it with. The title of the recording comes from a line from the Homer’s The Odyssey about keeping your “hope of home” in your heart while away for an extended time. His roots seep into the music, which he intentionally wrote more straight ahead and blowing. His penchant for writing comes across in the illustrative lyrics that he penned for three tunes.
The album begins with “Scarlatina,” a propulsive composition evolving from an earlier piece entitled “Crimson” that utilizes a fixed contrapuntal design. Originally written in 30 minutes as an assignment, “Ides of April” is an aural tribute to Blade’s The Fellowship band that Mooney was excited to hear at Lincoln Center on April 15, 2005. The moving “Cold, Sober” is about taking stock and cleaning up in this poetic tune, while “Hope of Home” is an anxious piece written about the time Mooney purchased his first home, but displaying his ability to write catchy. Taken from twisting the melody of Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye,” the bright “Think So Little of Me” is a challenging piece with hard chord changes and a quick tempo.
The heroic “I’ll Be Freeing You” reinvents a transcription of a Kurt Rosenwinkel solo in the melody and provides an inspiring conversation between Ellis and Blade. The quirky “Stutter Step” is a tribute to New Orleans music sensibility and directly to Mooney’s former teacher, guitarist Steve Masakowski. The harmonically wandering “Peregrine” swings nicely and features a lovely turn by Cowherd, while “Intervalis” is written for Gil Goldstein and features the use of all intervals (e.g. minor second, Major third, etc.) before repeating, a type of serial motive. The catchy “The Clover” is a nostalgic and pastoral piece taking inspiration from the work of Ravel. The recording concludes with the somber “Like Before,” a ballad for voice, guitar and piano.
On his new recording Hope for Home, Davy Mooney has returned to the foundation of his music: his hometown of New Orleans and a fantastic ensemble that identifies with his history and ambitions.
Throughout the album, Mooney demonstrates his skills as a composer, arranger, and improviser. The fascinating rhythmic twists...in "I'll Be Freeing You," are just one example.
-Alex W. Rodriguez, Portland JazzScene, January 2017
Mooney’s fingers fly over the fretboard, though no note sounds superfluous. His playing throughout relies on imagination rather than licks.
-Geraldine Wyckoff, Offbeat Magazine, March 2017
Mooney reveals his considerable fretboard prowess here, but it’s always in the context of his harmonically sophisticated, literate tunes like the moody “Swingset," “Crimson" (his syncopated meditation on “Little Red Riding Hood") and the darkly alluring ballad “Phelia."
-Bill Milkoswki, Jazz Times, May 2012
…soulful postbop guitar work and lithe, old-school vocal stylings.
-Time Out New York, March 2012
Evocative and emotional, exquisite and elegiac, here the perspicacious artist proves his poetry is as perceptive as his playing.
-Aaron LaFont, Offbeat Magazine, January 2010
Mooney reveals himself to be a fingerstyle, chordal player of the highest order as well as a burning single-note picker. He nimbly integrates both aspects here—cascading lines with rich chordal voicings—often at the same time; a neat trick that only a few…can successfully pull off.
-Bill Milkowski, JazzTimes, December 2009
…A soulful and harmonically savvy guitarist from New Orleans…
-Nate Chinen, New York Times Jazz Listings, May 9, 2008
Spirit House is a Joel Harrison original! Original compositions, ideas, instrumentations, and grooves. While jazz sometimes repeats itself (in style, instrumentation, or choice of songs etc.), Harrison creates completely new music worth listening to, "repeatedly."
I say this because he wrote the music "specifically for this unique group of individuals," using electric guitar with bassoon (Paul Hanson), and the echoed voicings of trumpeter Cuong Vu. Add in veteran drummer Brian Blade and bassist Kermit Driscoll, and you have a spirit-band of professional brothers.
For example, the first song "An Elephant in Igor's Yard" makes use of the bassoon doubling the bass line to get a lumbering but well defined elephant sound, and Cuong Vu answers by improvising as the trunk. But that description doesn't do the song justice, because throughout there is a feeling of incense or spirits floating over the band.
Harrison says "I kept the composing fairly simple, wanting to lean on the intuitive skills of the players, and went for a feeling of openness, spirit and soul in the music."
When I first heard Spirit House my impression was one you might get sitting in a small listening room hearing the musicians delicately and almost within arms reach, as in a small circle.
Harrison was using an East Asian miniature structure, a Spirit House, as a metaphor for the album.
Some tunes groove more, such as "Left Hook," which has Driscoll on electric bass playing back and forth off of Blades, while Vu solos, and Harrison adds blankets of chordal sounds, although he is apt to add rock distortions and effects. But the tune transitions into a softer section, allowing Hanson to express himself sax-like, and it all resolves into a tight, written outro.
Johnny Broken Wing features a lightly charged but sensitive guitar intro. Harrison is able to arrive at his style in this setup, and the tune picks up when the bass and drums bring in the beautiful organic sounding head played duet style, trumpet and bassoon. The musicians are really listening well to each other on tunes like this.
"You Must Go Through a Winter" is a light structure of a tune leaving room for trio play between guitar upright bass and drums, before Vu enters on improv.
The band toured together on the West Coast in 2013 and was able to play through these songs for several days before recording, allowing them to take a unique approach throughout the album's nine songs.
"Sacred Love" perhaps best captures the mood of the whole project, which has gorgeous intro lines with Vu Hanson and Harrison, breaking into a Blade and Driscoll groove. While Blade has remained soft in approach for much of the album, he's able to drive a stake in the ground on this one, and the band goes for a sort of "group hug" (LOL) improvising all together.
Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade have been three quarters of the extraordinary Wayne Shorter Quartet for more than a decade. Since, they’ve also continued their individual careers as leaders of their own projects and groups. Now, on Children of the Light, they step forward as a trio for the first time with an imagination and fearlessness in their approach that defies the roles and ways of a trio in both obvious and subtle ways. “When I gave Wayne a copy of the recording I told him: ‘this is for you, Doctor. This is our gift. This is our show of love, care and gratitude for all the lessons’,” says Pérez. “The compositions on this recording represent the idea of ’going beyond the music.’ That’s what he has taught us: to not think about music just in musical terms but as a tool for the betterment of society. It’s about creating music that brings people together.” Daring and luminous, often an improbable mix of pointed, questioning turns and childlike joy, the music unfolds with mischievous unpredictability.
The 11 tracks include original compositions by all three members of the trio and a fresh take on “Dolores,” an old Shorter classic. Pérez, who typically plays acoustic piano, plays a Yamaha CP4 Stage electric piano on his West African-rooted piece “Lumen.” Patitucci, who plays here acoustic, five and six-string electric bass, contributes three pieces, including “Ballad for a Noble Man,” which features cellist Sachi Patitucci. Drummer and percussionist Blade contributes the soulful “Within Everything,” perhaps the closest to a standard song in the program. It’s a remarkable balancing act but even as they put their considerable talents to the service of the trio, each of the members maintains his distinct personality. “We can ‘comprovise’ (spontaneous composition) with dense harmonic and melodic forms, but we can also explore the beauty of a simple harmony,” says Pérez. “And you can see the care each one of us put into the songs we brought in.” The pieces themselves don’t follow conventional song forms but rather suggest cinematic structures. Narratives do not always unfold linearly. Solos play out more like close-ups in the telling of the story than individual features.”For us, it was like writing the soundtracks of our own lives,” offers the pianist. “It was about using music to paint a scene, using the sounds to tell a story.”
Children and light are two recurrent themes throughout the recording. The references to kids are not only explicit (such as the voices in Patitucci’s “Milky Way”) but also suggested by some of the themes, perhaps most evident in the playfulness of the motifs in the title track and “Sunburn and Mosquito” (dedicated to Carolina, one of Pérez’s daughters). “Wayne has taught us the magic of having a simple idea,” says Pérez. “Like in his ‘Over Shadow Hill Way’ (he sings the theme). In a way, I’m using my children as good judges for melodies. If they can sing it, if something sticks with them, I feel I’m on the right track.” As for the idea of light, it is most obviously present in the song titles (“Moonlight on Congo Square,” “Lumen,” “Looking for Light” and “Light Echo/Dolores” to name a few) but it is also evident in the approach and the choices of open, translucent textures the trio favors. “’Light Echo’ is just an introduction I put together and it’s named after a phenomenon in astronomy,” explains Pérez.
The light echo is analogous to an echo of sound. “It is the echo of a burst of light, like at the creation of a star, and it can go on for a long time. For us, it has to do with Wayne’s light echo and our hope of passing it on. We want to explore the galaxies together, but we also want to remain human and explore the earth.” As for the playing, it doesn’t take long to realize that this is not a conventional piano trio. Pérez, Patitucci and Blade first came together during the recording sessions for the Pérez’s Motherland in 2000, and their work with Shorter since has fostered not only their audacity and cohesion as a trio but also a distinct, shared language. “As a trio, we have found a way to orchestrate things differently, we overlap in a certain way that makes it feel like there are other instruments in there,” says Pérez. “One of the things I feel is so strong is how we function without Wayne, and yet he is there in spirit. As a group, we have a language we play and his notes are felt even when he’s not playing.” The pianist further comments, “We didn’t get together just to do a record. We’ve been writing music since we met, and Wayne has encouraged, supported, and guided us along the way.” Pérez elaborates, “John, Brian and I have a long history, and this is not just a record for us but a commitment to continue the Shorter school.
We have developed a language we call ‘zero gravity,’ a way of interacting, of orchestrating the music that we want to continue exploring and developing. While we were putting this record together there was no pretension, no grandiose ideas. This was simply three brothers who just wanted to keep the family together.” The very name of the recording is a play on Shorter’s “Children of the Night,” a piece that first appeared on Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers’ Mosaic in 1961. Years ago, while they were touring, “It was John who said ‘we should call it Children of the Light and bring a little light to the world’,” recalls Pérez. “You say ‘thank you’ to a great man like Wayne not by imitating what he does but by playing off the language he created —finding a new language in the process. Like Wayne says: ‘This is the new sound of the trio. You guys are touching another dimension’.”
Danilo Pérez, piano
John Patitucci, bass
Brian Blade, drums
01. Children of the Light
02. Sunburn and Mosquito
03. Moonlight on Congo Square
04. Lumen
05. Within Everything
06. Milky Way
07. Light Echo/Dolores
08. Ballad for a Noble Man (In Memory of Doug Sommer)
