Noah Preminger and Kim Cass - Thunda (April 2, 2021)

THUNDA is the new digital release from longtime friends and colleagues saxophonist Noah Preminger and bassist Kim Cass, out April 2, 2021 via Dry Bridge Records

When lighting strikes, thunder follows. Such was the electrifying energy when longtime friends and colleagues Noah Preminger and Kim Cass collaborated during the second half of 2020, one of the most trying and unusual years on record. The result is THUNDA, featuring ten entirely original tracks by award-winning saxophonist Preminger and acclaimed bassist Cass. 

Preminger and Cass met during their college days in 2004 but didn't start working together until Cass moved to New York City after a brief stint on the West Coast. Through their mutual focus on pushing the boundaries of instrumental virtuosity toward innovative uses of rhythm and harmony, the two forged a strong connection, working together on countless performances and collaborations, including more than half a dozen of Preminger's albums. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic led to cancellations of their planned live tours, Preminger and Cass turned to technology as a safe outlet for creating and recording new music. THUNDA, Preminger's sixteenth and Cass' second release as band leaders, takes the artists' compositions and improvisations into new territory. "This is the first recording I've made remotely and entirely at home," says Preminger. "It also marks the first recording where I play and layer multiple instruments, all entirely improvised. Kim is one of the most imaginative bassists and musical voices in jazz and this project truly got both of us to reach outside the box."

Cass was equally excited to work with Preminger on a duo album: "I have always admired the way in which Noah navigates harmony, especially on open-ended material," says Cass. "THUNDA unleashes the best of both our playing with countless maelstroms of exposed lines that defy form, yet are strongly rooted in time and pitch. This music was incredibly exciting to create. It's a blast to listen back to each one of these individual storms."

The album's opener, "Slaughter," is a vivid declaration of the duo's instrumental prowess and their ability to elevate it to serve the music. Cass's bass runs wild and free while Preminger's thrilling horn sails above, bolstered by his peerless tone and unparalleled, technical lines. "Me You Sad" follows with an entirely different mood, the edgy pensiveness of Preminger's clarinet underlined by Cass's alternately sing-song and weaving bass lines. "Chron" begins with Cass's fun, technical brilliance and answered by Preminger's crystalline horn, evolving into a spirited dialogue infused with snippets of unison. Preminger's swing-tinged fanfare announces "Tradr Hoez" before Cass's probing bass joins in, ultimately culminating with the two in sonic union. In "Slow Ridah," Preminger's sensitive multi-tracking creates the effect of a woodwind choir, full of wistful sweetness. On "Iris," another slow piece, Cass's technical use of harmonics contrasts with Preminger's haunting, contemplative clarinet melody. "Drone," "Ricky," "Roobz," and "Huck It" round out this collection of extraordinary new music by two of the most forward-thinking improvising instrumentalists in jazz.

Of Brooklyn-based saxophonist Noah Preminger, The New York Times says, "Mr. Preminger designs a different kind of sound for each note, an individual destiny and story." Born in 1986, Preminger grew up in Canton, Connecticut. His debut album, Dry Bridge Road, was released just after his 21st birthday and named Debut of the Year in the Village Voice Critics Poll. Preminger's second and third albums as a leader came in 2011 and 2013 while signed to the Palmetto Records label. He has performed with the likes of Jason Moran, Dave Holland, John Patitucci, Fred Hersch, Dave Douglas, Billy Hart, Rob Garcia, Joe Lovano, Victor Lewis, John and Bucky Pizzarelli, Cecil McBee, George Cables, and Roscoe Mitchell. Preminger, just 34, won the category of Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist in DownBeat Magazine's 2017 Critics Poll, and has released sixteen critically acclaimed albums as a bandleader. 

Kim Cass, originally from Bar Harbor, Maine, spent his early life producing solo recordings of upright bass in electronic composed settings, and always striving to develop a unique voice as an improvisational conceptualizer and technical virtuoso. After receiving his degree from New England Conservatory in Boston, Cass relocated to San Francisco and then New York City. He has worked with Rudresh Mahanthappa, Jason Moran, Matt Mitchell, John Zorn, Mat Maneri, Noah Preminger, Tyshawn Sorey, and David Binney, among others. In 2015, Cass released his acclaimed, self-titled debut recording for solo bass and electronics. He's currently focused on composing for instruments in new ways that stretch rhythmic, technical and harmonic boundaries, and will release a new album of original music in 2021 featuring pianist Matt Mitchell. Cass utilizes a unique style of detailed handwritten notation, which has become an important part of his creative exploration. Cass is part of the faculty at The New School in NYC.

1. Slaughter

2. Me You Sad

3. Chron

4. Iris

5. Tradr Hoez

6. Drone

7. Slow Ridah

8. Ricky

9. Roobz

10. Huck It

Noah Preminger - saxophone/clarinet/flute

Kim Cass - bass

Co-Produced/Engineered by Noah Preminger and Kim Cass

Mixing/Mastering by Matt Marantz

Recorded July 11th - December 20th, 2020

All compositions composed by Preminger (BMI) and Cass (BMI) 2020

Pre-order

Noah Preminger and Kim Cass - Thunda (April 2, 2021)

THUNDA is the new digital release from longtime friends and colleagues saxophonist Noah Preminger and bassist Kim Cass, out April 2, 2021 via Dry Bridge Records.

The album showcases the electrifying energy of the music on ten original tracks. While Preminger and Cass met during their college days in 2004, they didn’t start playing together until Cass moved to New York City after a brief stint on the West Coast. Through their mutual focus on pushing the boundaries of instrumental virtuosity toward innovative uses of rhythm and harmony, the two forged a strong connection, working together on countless performances and collaborations, including more than half a dozen of Preminger’s albums. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic led to cancellations of their planned live tours, Preminger and Cass turned to technology as a safe outlet for creating and recording new music. THUNDA, Preminger’s sixteenth and Cass’ second release as band leaders, takes the artists’ compositions and improvisations into new territory.

1. Slaughter

2. Me You Sad

3. Chron

4. Iris

5. Tradr Hoez

6. Drone

7. Slow Ridah

8. Ricky

9. Roobz

10. Huck It

Noah Preminger - saxophone/clarinet/flute

Kim Cass - bass

Co-Produced/Engineered by Noah Preminger and Kim Cass

Mixing/Mastering by Matt Marantz

Recorded July 11th - December 20th, 2020

All compositions composed by Preminger (BMI) and Cass (BMI) 2020

Pre-order

Noah Preminger and Kim Cass - Thunda (April 2, 2021)

Really excited to announce my new collab recording, THUNDA, with bassist, Kim Cass, is now available for pre-order! It's also @bandcamp Friday, so they waive all the sales fees for the day!

Thanks for your support and hope you love it: Pre-order

1. Slaughter

2. Me You Sad

3. Chron

4. Iris

5. Tradr Hoez

6. Drone

7. Slow Ridah

8. Ricky

9. Roobz

10. Huck It

Noah Preminger - saxophone/clarinet/flute

Kim Cass - bass

Co-Produced/Engineered by Noah Preminger and Kim Cass

Mixing/Mastering by Matt Marantz

Recorded July 11th - December 20th, 2020

All compositions composed by Preminger (BMI) and Cass (BMI) 2020

Noah Preminger / Rob Garcia - Chopin Project (CONNECTION WORK RECORDS 2018)

Saxophonist Noah Preminger and Drummer Rob Garcia Form Dead Composers Club, Reimagine Chopin Classics on First Outing

Chopin Project, featuring guitarist Nate Radley and bassist Kim Cass, takes a thrillingly imaginative approach to the composer’s Nocturnes and Preludes

“[Preminger and Garcia] are the kind of unblinkered contemporary musicians for whom the restrictions of genre have little meaning.” – The New Yorker

Succinct yet profoundly expressive, deceptively simple and staggeringly beautiful: Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturnes and Preludes are some of the most revered compositions in the classical music canon. Make that the whole of music, as saxophonist Noah Preminger and drummer Rob Garcia prove on Chopin Project, the debut release by their co-led project Dead Composers Club, out May 18 via Connection Works Records. The quartet – which also features guitarist Nate Radley and bassist Kim Cass  - approaches these timeless works with a vitality and urgency that connects these stellar modern musicians with their 19th-century source, regardless of elapsed centuries. 

The idea behind the Dead Composers Club is to celebrate and explore the music of iconic composers, the only common thread being their shuffling off of mortal coils. Though the Chopin Project, the first of the quartet’s planned annual examinations of a deceased composer’s oeuvre, is the farthest thing from an overwrought classical-jazz hybrid, Preminger and Garcia took on these classic works with enough respect to realize that they were strong enough to withstand the most radical of transformations. “These are masterpieces,” Preminger insists. “They play themselves. Some of the songs we played pretty straight up and others we deconstructed a little more, but they’re really beautiful on their own.” 

“These are great songs that can be played with many different treatments,” Garcia adds. “There’s a lot of room for us to just be ourselves.” 

The inspiration for the project came to Preminger during a rare late-night listening session – the ideal setting for a close study of the Nocturnes in particular. In recent years the saxophonist has focused his musical attention far more on output than input, and when he does dust off the headphones it tends to be to listen to the Mississippi Delta blues classics that inspired his stunning 2016 album Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground. Though the elegance of the Nocturnes and Preludes would seem to be the polar opposite of these raw early blues recordings, there’s more soul to Chopin and more grace to Skip James and Blind Lemon Jefferson than a surface listen might imply. 

All of those elements shine through in the Dead Composers Club’s take on these pieces. As Garcia says, “Blues and folk music happen in a very natural way, and that’s the same attitude with which we approach playing Chopin’s music. We don’t intend for it to sound difficult or intricate, although some of the pieces are quite challenging. We want to to have it feel as natural as possible.” 

In part, the success they achieve in meeting that goal stems from the considerable histories shared by the band’s members. Preminger and Garcia first met on a gig with trumpeter John McNeil nearly a decade ago, and since have toured and recorded regularly with Garcia’s critically-acclaimed quartet. Cass is a regular in Preminger’s bands while Radley has played with both leaders in a variety of situations. With that familiarity to build on, the four entered the studio and played the music entirely live in one room, without the safety net of edits or overdubs. That immediacy is palpable despite the intricacy inherent in many of the pieces.

Preminger and Garcia divvied up the arranging duties, each selecting their favorites from among Chopin’s 21 Nocturnes and 24 Preludes. Their takes varied, but at the core each becomes something deeply personal and compelling. “These are basically stories that Chopin wrote,” Preminger says. “We just picked our favorite stories and decided to retell those stories in our own way as a unit.” 

The stories gathered here range from the brooding “Nocturne Op27 No.1 in C# minor,” which opens the album amidst a storm of rumbling drums and ominously droning bass; to the wistful “Prelude Op28 No. 9 in E major, which closes the album with Preminger’s resilient tone flowing over gently loping rhythms. Mysteries abound in “Nocturne Op9 No. 2 in Eb major,” while “Nocturne Op62 No. 2 in E major” becomes a stunningly lyrical ballad countering Preminger’s moaning tenor with Radley’s plangent strings. The driving momentum of “Prelude Op28 No. 6 in B minor” displays the same steely resolve that ran through Preminger’s recent protest album, Meditations on Freedom, combined with the coloristic percussion that characterizes Garcia’s compositional work. 

It was never the point to place a clever twist or complex reimagining onto Chopin’s work. As with any immortal jazz standard or classic folk tune, it was simply to imbibe and personalize music that speaks to the player and the listener alike. “Basically, we wanted to celebrate this wonderful composer and have a blast doing it our way,” Preminger says. “Most important jazz musicians have checked out Chopin, so this is a major part of our history. So acknowledging that, celebrating it and telling our own story using Chopin’s original works is important.” 

“His music is so open to interpretation and can truly stand the test of time,” adds Garcia. “Every one of those compositions has a life of its own.” 

Noah Preminger

© Jimmy Katz

A native of Canton, Connecticut, Noah Preminger released his debut album, Dry Bridge Road, shortly after graduating from the New England Conservatory. He has since recorded more than ten critically acclaimed albums as a bandleader and is steadily listed among the top tenor saxophonists by critics and readers on the annual DownBeat Poll. Two new recordings were released in 2016, including an all-ballads date on the French vinyl label, Newvelle Records, and a recording inspired by Delta Mississippi Blues musicians, Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground.  On Inauguration Day, 2017, Preminger released Meditations On Freedom, a musical protest against ominous political developments in America. Preminger has also been featured in bands led by Fred Hersch and Cecil McBee, and recorded four albums for Brooklyn Jazz Underground as a member of the Rob Garcia 4.  

Rob Garcia

© John Guillemin

A prime mover in the current Brooklyn jazz scene” (Time Out-New York) and "one of New York’s great jazz drummers and composers” (Capital New York), Rob Garcia is a strong presence in the New York and international jazz scene as a sideman and bandleader. He has collaborated with such stellar artists as Joe Lovano, Sheila Jordan, Dave Liebman, Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall, Myra Melford, Joseph Jarman, Anat Cohen, Vince Giordano, Reggie Workman, Bill McHenry, and Wycliffe Gordon. He has played on over 40 albums including Grammy winners. Rob has released si critically acclaimed albums as a bandleader, featuring such artists as Noah Preminger, Dan Tepfer, Gary Versace, Joe Martin, John Hebert, Dave Kikoski and Mike Formanek. His CD Perennial was named one of the 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2009 in the New York Observer. His most recent album, Finding Love In An Oligarchy On A Dying Planet, includes guest appearances by jazz legend Joe Lovano and vocal sensation Kate McGarry. Rob has received grants from Meet The Composer, DCA and NYSCA and been a major force in artist-run jazz organizations as the founder and artistic director of Connection Works, a member of the Brooklyn Jazz Underground and a founding member of the Douglass Street Music Collective.

noahpreminger.com

robgarciamusic.com

Noah Preminger: Genuinity via CRISS CROSS RECORDS

Genuinity

Thirty-one-year-old tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger's Criss Cross debut is his tenth leader CD, and fifth in the pianoless quartet context with trumpeter Jason Palmer and bassist Kim Cass, joined for the first time on this ocassion by the brilliant drummer Dan Weiss. Unlike Preminger's four previous no-chordal-instrument dates, the hour-long program consists entirely of the leader's original pieces. Each evokes a different mood and tonal ambiance with strong melodies underpinby percolating grooves that provoke unfailingly cohesive, thematic improvisations by the horns.

In preparing his nine songs, Preminger hewed to his recent m.o. of "sitting down with my saxophone every day, recording what I do, and listeling back-a stream of consciousness. "He contrasted this process with writing on the piano, as he did on his first-ever date, the eclectic 2007 album Dry Bridge Road, Kimbrough, guitarist Ben Morder, trumpeter Russ Johnson, bassist John Hébert and drummer Ted Poor.

"I was writing at the piano a lot then, so I was writing with the piano in mind," he says. "Then the record label I'd signed with had a certain vision for me as an artist, and I was pushed in directions I might not have gone in if I hadn't been guided that way. On this record, the basslines, the harmonies everything came from my horn. I feel taht's a more genuine way to express who I am as an artist than coming up with a form and then writing a melody over it. I play piano just fine, and I still write on piano as well as guitar. But the saxophone is literally my voice."

It's fun to play the name-that-influence game with Preminger, whose vocalized, caress-all-the-notes, reflective-yet-vigorous tonal personality coalesces and refracts a broad swath of tenor saxophone language. "I've dipped my feet in he attended Dave Liebman's Pennsylvania jazz camp. sparking an enduring, fruitful relationship with the elder master, who he calls "my first main guru." He credits Liebman and saxophone sages George Garzone and Jerry Bergonzi (mentors when Preminger attended New England Conservatory between 2003 and 2007) for nurturing his loose, relaxed approach.

"These guys have deep history in their playing," Preminger says. "They understand what has come before them, and each established an individual voice. Each one has a sort of free quality to their improvisation. They're not so confined by changes on a form. I really relate to that. I don't feel necessarily tied to 4/4. or tied to a pulse. That's fun. I don't feel like I'm stuck. It makes me enjoy what I do more."

After graduating NEC, Preminger moved to New York, finding work with elders like Cecil McBee, who employed him, and Billy Hart, whose skills he retained on several occasions. Thrust into the fray, Preminger -who cites a chronological influence tree that moves roughly fron Joshua Redman to Joe Lovano to Ornette Coleman to John Coltrane- grew into the realization that "I want to play every time like it¡s my last day on earth, which is what separates the masters from your Grade-B cat. "As his career evolved, Preminger -who returned to Boston in 2015 to get a Masters degree, and still lives there- has made in his business "to surround myself with cats who understand that."

Each of Preminger's partners herein qualifies for that encomium. You couls describe Palmer, 38, himself the leader of six small ensemble dates, as Preminger's aesthetic doppelganger for his gorgeus tone, broad knowledge of just back in Boston, beelined to Wally's Jazz Café, where Palmer has led the house band most weekends since 2004.

"He's like Don Cherry with chops, " Preminger jokes. "He knows every song ever written in the history of the American book, but he's a true improviser, a real artist, which you don't offen find. We have a special connection on the bandstand."

The Preminger-Kim Cass connection dates to their shared undergraduate experience at NEC. "Kim is a one of a kind player who does things other people can't do, with a unique harmonic and rhythmic approach, " Preminger says. Throughout the proccedings, the Maine-born bassists's catlike reflexes, impeccable time feel, and centered tone stamp him as an occupant of the upper branches of his instrumental tree circa 2017.

Preminger observes that his recent compositions suited the mammoth skill sets of drummer Dan Weiss, familiar to assidous Criss Cross listeners -and an internationel cohort of fans and connoisseurs- for his contributions to six albums by David Binney, and as well as his own sui generis leader albums and sideman work with such upper echelon improvisers as Rudresh Mahanthappa, Rez Abassi, Miles Okazaki, Amir El-Saffar, Jen Shyu, Matt Mitchell and Joel Harrison.

"Dan has incredible energy," Preminger states. "He lets things feel open rhythmically, and whether you're in 4 or 13, it will never fall apart. It will always be tippin', it will always have energy, and he'll be right next to me the whole time. He understands arc, he understands form, and he understands phrasing, which a lot of people don't."

Weiss's prowess in the arts of rhythmic design and thematic development immediately come to the fore on the opening track, Halfway To Hartford, a kinetic opening salvo that evokes and Old and New Dreams ambiance. After Preminger's gnarly, 38-second intro, and then a bravura 50-second-long Premimger-Palmer unison on the melody, each soloist engages Weiss in extended conversation.

Preminger and Palmer exchange ideas and play overlapping lines over Weiss' "stinky funk groove" on Mad Town, Preminger's slightly melancholic depiction of a frigid, snowy winter weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, home of the University of Wisconsin, where the saxophonist was "for a moment contemplating doing a Ph.D."

At Preminger's request, Weiss puts a Clyde Stubblefield 6/4 groove on T.S., a gentle refrain named for the initials of a special friend with whom Preminger has "listened to a lot of music and gone dancing, and who's into what she calls the smile-and-sway. "Preminger's neologism aptly describes the quality of his interplay with Palmer during the tune's first section, after which Cass unleashes his chops onmultiple choruses of dialog with the leader. "Let's say you've had a few drinks, and you're listening to something that really grooves," Preminger continues. "You kind of just smile and sway. I wrote it for her and the arc of her life."

A drum fanfare introduces A.H., for guitar hero Allan Holdsworth, who passed away in 2017. "As I was writing this melody on my horn, and the counter-line below it with the bass, I imagined it as something Holdsworth migth have come up with," says Preminger, whose creative solo, spurred by Cass' and Weiss' instanneous, interlocking responses, includes a quote from Sonny Rollins' Paul's Pal. Palmer assumes the baton, bulids the momentum further, then guides the flow into a closing unison.

Preminger describes the elegiac, medim-slow, not quite rubato My Blues for you as "a gospelly blues that I wrote in freshman year of college." After his achingly soulful melody statement, first Palmer and then the leader testify with a primal-yet-restrained quality on the elemental raw materials, evoking the ambiance of such recent collaborations as the albums Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground and Meditations on Freedom.

Weiss' pointillistic beats are a portal into Nashua, named for the New Hampshire city where Preminger, soon after returning to Boston, took a teaching job that "lasted about two weeks". The querulous tme hints at New England Rust Belt dystopia-Cass, Palmer and Preminger remain true to the melody in their solos.

Preminger wrote the Ornette Coleman-esque Walking On Eggshells after listening to an interview on National Public Radio "with somone who wrote an article how it's difficult to be a white person who's concerned about racial injustice, which he said is like walking on eggshells." He continues; "I started playing this, and then wrote an entire melody like it-the feeling was like skipping along, like walking on eggshells."

The date closes with Acknowledgment, no relation to the opening movement of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, but nonetheless vibrationally akin to the man Preminger calls "the very top as an improviser." "If you¡ve got 100 levels, Trane is on 100 and everybody else starts at level 60," Preminger says. "To me, Coltrane had the most incredible balance of technique and emotional artistry." After Preminger's bluesy rubato introduction, Cass begins a dialogue, Preminger recapitulates the simple melody, Weiss offers Rashied Ali-like ametric beats before morphing to 4/4 freebop at 3:30, leading to another elegant, forceful Palmer statement, and a closing Preminger solo, patient and intense.

"I don't know why I came up with the title," Preminger says. "Maybe it's acknowledging what's going on in my life-where I am, what my beliefs are, receiving acknowledgment. My style of playing is maybe an acquired taste, but I have a very honest way of performing, and a lot of energy. It's not commercial whatsoever. It's weird-I'm not out here touring that much, but I'm leaving a trail of work. Sure. I'd like to be appreciated for what I do. But I love making albums, and I love laying down my personal statement. I like the procces. I'm happy. That's most important."

Ted Panken

Noah Preminger & Rob Garcia: Dead Composers Club - Chopin Project (with Nate Radley and Kim Cass) May 18, 2018

"Nocturne Op27 Nº1 in C# minor" - Chopin Project

"Nocturne Op27 Nº1 in C# minor" is the first track on Chopin Project, the debut album from Dead Composers Club, available May 18, 2018 via Connection Works Records.

Dead Composers Club, formed by saxophonist Noah Preminger and drummer Rob Garcia, also features guitarist Nate Radley and bassist Kim Cass. The idea behind the Dead Composers Club is to celebrate and explore the music of iconic composers.

The quartet takes a thrillingly imaginative approach to Chopin's Nocturnes and Preludes, approaching these timeless works with a vitality and urgency that connects these stellar modern musicians with their 19th-century source, regardless of elapsed centuries.

Noah Preminger - Genuinity (CRISS CROSS RECORDS February 16, 2018)

Thirty-year-old tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger's debut on Criss Cross in a piano less context with trumpeter Jason Palmer and bassist Kim Cass, who record here with the brilliant drummer Dan Weiss for the first time on this occasion. The hour-long program consists of nine Preminger originals. Each evokes a different mood and ambiance with strong melodies and percolating grooves that provoke unfailingly cohesive, thematic improvisations by Preminger and Palmer. Genuinity is consistently compelling, and repays repeated hearings.