Saxophonist Kyle Nasser's Persistent Fancy via ROPEADOPE RECORDS (October 5, 2018)

Saxophonist/Composer Kyle Nasser Strikes a Vivid Balance Between the Cerebral

and the Sensual on New Album

Persistent Fancy, out October 5, 2018 on Ropeadope, draws inspiration from literature and

philosophy as well as personal experience and struggle, with a stellar band

featuring Roman Filiú, Jeff Miles, Dov Manski, Nick Jost, and Allan Mednard

“[Nasser’s] exquisitely balanced works reflect both his ardent creativity and his urbane artistic composure.”

– Hrayr Attarian, All About Jazz

“Kyle Nasser… is intelligent and soulful, has a sense of freedom yet understands the concept of structure and is

a leader with a finely tuned sense of organization and order… vital new music.”

– Donald Elfman, The New York City Jazz Record

CD Release Dates:

• Thurs. Oct. 11 – Café 939 Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA

• Fri. Oct. 12 – Greasy Luck Brewpub, New Bedford, MA

• Sat. Oct. 13 – Cornelia Street Café, NYC

“’Tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.” The words of Sir John Falstaff, Shakespeare’s great

tragicomic rogue, grace the inside cover of Persistent Fancy, the latest release by saxophonist/composer

Kyle Nasser. Granted, Nasser’s passionate pursuit of jazz is more easily defensible than Falstaff’s chosen

profession of purse-snatching, but The Bard’s use of eloquent language in the mouth of such an incorrigible,

gluttonous rascal has a strong appeal for the saxophonist, who strikes his own musical balance between the

cerebral and the sensual.

Persistent Fancy, due out October 5, 2018 via Ropeadope, is highlighted by a pair of three-part suites that

straddle that boundary: the “Baroque Suite,” inspired in particular by Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues,

foregrounds the elegance of classical composition, while the “Eros Suite” dwells on the carnal, tracing the

stages of desire from initial attraction through consummation to reflection. As with all of Nasser’s music,

however, the intellectual and the emotional coexist vividly in both, epitomizing the same mix of impulses that

makes Shakespearean characters like Prince Hal so compellingly complex.

“Prince Hal had a very dissolute upbringing, palling around with Falstaff, this fat, comic philosopher, then has

to leave that behind to become King Henry V,” explains Nasser, who explores the prince’s maturation in his

piece “The Ascent of Henry Monmouth.” The wry wisdom of Falstaff echoes that of Svidrigailov in Crime and

Punishment, whose words provided the epigraph for Nasser’s previous release, Restive Soul. “I always find

that the best insight in literature comes from the most evil characters, or at least the characters that live

outside the mainstream.”

In assembling the ensemble to breathe life into the music of Persistent Fancy, Nasser surrounded himself

with stellar musicians who can deftly navigate the blend of intricacy and fire that these compositions require.

Guitarist Jeff Miles and keyboardist Dov Manski return from Restive Soul; drummer Allan Mednard has

worked with the likes of Kurt Rosenwinkel and Melissa Aldana, bassist Nick Jost swerves between acoustic

jazz virtuosity and powerhouse electric playing with heavy metal band Baroness, and Cuban-born alto

saxophonist Roman Filiú is an innovative voice who has performed with Henry Threadgill, David Murray,

and Chucho Valdés.

Much as Shakespeare’s young prince changed paths to follow his life’s true calling, Nasser switched gears

at a key moment in his own life – albeit somewhat less dramatically. Where Hal left behind a misspent youth

to rule a kingdom, Nasser changed his focus from Economics and Political Philosophy, which he studied at

Harvard, to pursue his love of jazz after crossing paths with iconic pianist Hank Jones. He went on to

Berklee College of Music and hasn’t looked back since, though he’s never wholly turned his back on his

intellectual and literary interests.

Persistent Fancy, in fact, takes its title from an idea posited by the poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor

Coleridge (best known for “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”), who contrasted the invention of new concepts

(imagination) versus the assembling of pre-existing thoughts or notions (fancy). Nasser comes down on the

side of 20th century critic T.E. Hulme, who countered that modern art should thrive on fancy as it relates to

familiar experience rather than high-flown fantasies.

“I was thinking about the way that thoughts tend to recur over and over again,” Nasser says. “Even if they’re

not the deepest thoughts in the world, they can be insistent and keep coming back so that you can’t shake

them. That’s not imagination, it’s not earth-shattering, it’s fancy – persistent fancy.” The title track is built on

that sort of insistent recurrence, with recurring melodic lines over a cyclical ostinato.

Playing from the gut is one way of praising impassioned musicality, but it became a very literal struggle for

Nasser during the writing of this album. Persistent pain prevented him from playing for a time, until a

physical therapist finally discovered that scar tissue in his abdomen was the cause; it was during Nasser’s

recovery that several of the pieces on Peristent Fancy were composed, including the opening piece, “Split

Gut,” which celebrates the recovery of his voice in dialogue with Roman Filiú’s alto.

The surging “Arrival” was initially written for a trio gig in Chile, where Nasser was collaborating with his

bandmate in the collective quartet Beekman, Chilean drummer Rodrigo Recabarren. Miles is given free rein

to shred over the bombastic grooves of Jost and Mednard on “Sticky Hipster,” named in homage to the rockinclined

denizens of Nasser’s Brooklyn neighborhood.

Despite following the “Eros Suite,” Nasser’s “3-Way” takes its title from a radio term, not a sexual innuendo.

On the air it refers to a conversation between three people, reflecting the tripartite melodic voices of the

composition. The album’s sole non-original tune is “Arioso,” an excerpt from German composer Paul

Hindemith’s “Ludus Tonalis.” Finally, the ebullient “Coffee and Cannabis” ends the album on a joyful note,

finally giving in to those minor vices that may not provide a vocation but can make life that much more

enjoyable.

Kyle Nasser

A Massachusetts native and graduate of both Harvard and Berklee, Kyle Nasser has been described as

possessing "superlative musicianship as a performer, writer and a bandleader…ardent creativity and urbane

artistic composure” (All About Jazz). Since moving to New York City in 2010, he has played at some of the

city's most prestigious venues – including the Blue Note, Smalls, Iridium, 55 Bar, and Cornelia St. Cafe –

and has toured the U.S. and South America. Nasser has shared the stage with jazz luminaries such as Jim

Hall, Hank Jones, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Rich Perry, Ethan Iverson, Michael Formanek, and Ben

Monder, among others. In addition to leading his own group, he also plays with and composes for the

international collective Beekman, whose sound has been described as "a joyful and continued speculation

flowing in almost all facts with surprising ease” (Jazz, ese ruido). Nasser's 2015 debut, Restive Soul,

features his quintet presenting "a collection of sophisticated and complex modern jazz originals" (Jazz

Weekly). The album's songs weave together sonata forms, baroque to 20th century counterpoint, and

modern rhythms with modern jazz vocabulary. "The saxophonist's debut is knotty with a contrapuntal weave

of voices, bumpy mixed meters, and alternating rhythmic currents that nonetheless groove, sometime with a

rocking edge" (Boston Globe).

kylenasser.com

Kyle Nasser - Restive soul (2015)

Label: Aisa 

Source: Cdbaby

“Nice! Lots of terrific playing... my compliments to the musicians.”  Peter Erskine

Saxophonist Kyle Nasser was a student of Economics and Political Philosophy at Harvard University when his life was changed by an encounter with Hank Jones. The legendary pianist, then in his late 80s, visited Cambridge to teach and play a concert with the Harvard Jazz Band, making a profound impact on the young saxophonist. “Seeing him in peak form and expressing joy through music at such an advanced age was really deep,” Nasser recalls. “We took him out to dinner, ended up playing a three-hour session, and then he asked us to take him home so that he could get in some practicing before bed. That left a huge impression and reinforced that I should do this. I didn’t have any old investment banker friends that seemed very happy.”

Nasser graduated from Harvard and switched paths, leading him to another revered institution: Berklee College of Music. He’s now reaching another landmark along that path with his striking debut, Restive Soul, out March 25, 2015 A trace of the saxophonist’s former pursuit remains in the title, which was drawn from a quote by French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville ascribing his pursuit of politics to his own “restive and insatiable soul.” The album displays the keen intellect that landed Nasser at one of America’s most hallowed schools, along with the passion that steered him away from a potentially lucrative career in business to pursue his lifelong love of music.

The compositions that comprise Restive Soul combine fervent jazz playing by Nasser’s quintet – Jeff Miles (guitar), Dov Manski (piano), Chris Van Voorst (bass), and Devin Drobka (drums) – with elements from Nasser’s intensive study of western classical music. But this is no Third Stream hybrid, wearing its “classical” inspirations on its sleeve; instead, Nasser seamlessly assimilates counterpoint and long-form harmonic development into electrifying modern jazz pieces. Those concepts were then workshopped on the bandstand over the course of several years during the band’s regular Tuesday-night gigs at Brooklyn bar The Fifth Estate.

“I became obsessed with counterpoint at Berklee,” Nasser says. “You have to take traditional counterpoint courses, and it hit me that this is what I had been looking for and missing in a lot of the jazz that I’d been listening to and playing. I got the impression that a lot of people were writing tunes because they wanted to blow over them as opposed to having a conscious compositional direction to the piece. I wanted to make a quintet sound like an orchestra.”

The album opens with “For Rick B.,” a theme-and-variations tribute to Nasser’s most important teacher, New Bedford-area saxophonist and pianist Rick Britto, who passed away while Nasser was in the midst of writing the piece. No mournful elegy, the piece instead builds from a piquant sax-and-guitar melody over a surging rhythm. It’s followed by the floating, dream-like “Angelique,” a shimmering showcase for the rhythm section.

The title track illustrates that restlessness of spirit that drives an artist like Nasser with its persistent rock groove, driven by Miles’ serrated guitar. The dark-tinged cinematic feeling of “Shadow Army” is captured in its evocative title, while “Gyorgi Goose” refers to both avant-garde classical composer György Ligeti and a stuffed animal that Nasser received from his mother – twin inspirations evoked by the tune’s simultaneous dissonance and playfulness. The melody of “Radiator Lady” hints at the song hauntingly crooned by one of the memorable oddities in David Lynch’s Eraserhead,

“Trip To Lester’s” is an homage to Harvard professor emeritus and marijuana activist Lester Grinspoon, who would hold court for graduates at his home. Nasser’s piece conjures the atmosphere of those sessions and their crisscrossing, disjointed but stimulating conversations. “Whitestone” and “Ecstatic Repose” are impressionistic pieces, the former an attempt to capture the sunset vista of New York City as seen from the Whitestone Bridge, the latter a depiction of how the mind can be frenetic while the body is at rest. The album draws to a hopeful close with the folk-like melody of “Rise.”

While it wasn’t until the end of his tenure at Harvard that Nasser determined to pursue jazz as a career, his love for it began at the age of six. Kyle’s parents frequented a local restaurant in his native New Bedford, Massachusetts, that featured a live jazz band. He was immediately enthralled by the saxophone player, who ended up becoming his first teacher. Too small at the time to hold the saxophone, he started out on the clarinet, leading initially to a more classical education before he joined his junior high jazz band.

After graduating from Harvard and Berklee, Nasser moved to New York City in 2010. He has shared the stage with jazz luminaries such as Jim Hall, Hank Jones, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas and Ben Monder, among others. He’s also toured the U.S. and South America with his own music and with the collective quartet Beekman, which recently released its own debut album.

1. For Rick B.
2. Angelique
3. Restive Soul
4. Shadow Army
5. Gyorgi Goose
6. Radiator Lady
7. Trip to Lester's
8. Whitestone
9. Ecstatic Repose
10. Rise

Kyle Nasser - saxophone
Jeff Miles - guitar
Dov Manski - piano
Chris Van Voorst - bass
Devin Drobka - drums

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