Luke Stewart - Works For Upright Bass and Amplifier Vol. 2 (February 25, 2022 Astral Spirits)

In Indian musical theory it is said that there are two kinds of sound, one a vibration of ether, the other a vibration of air. The vibration of ether, which cannot be perceived in the physical sense, is considered the principle of all manifestation, the basis of all substance. It corresponds to what neo-Pythagoreans called “music of the spheres”. It forms permanent numerical patterns which are the basis of the world’s existence. The kind of vibration is not caused by a physical shock as are audible sounds. It is therefore called anāhata, “unstruck”. The other kind of sound is an impermanent vibration of air, an image of the ether vibration. It is audible and always produced by a shock. It is therefore called āhata or “struck”. (Alain Daniélou, 1980)

I’d never thought about Luke Stewart in such terms until recently, but I think that scholar Alain Daniélou’s words are a great place to start. When asking our bassist-at-large about how he wanted to approach talking about this new record, he gave a little background, but ultimately wanted the music to speak for itself… and speak it does. 

Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier Volume Two takes the foundation laid down by Volume One and builds a large flame out of it. A sort of regeneration. This beauty is not for the weak listener, afraid of radical change. Nor is it for a casual passerby. Over an hour, this new opus is not only a form of expression regarding where Luke has been but his willingness to examine the nature around him, specifically the relationship between electricity and wood. 

Or, as I like to think of it, a few lovely compositions about a cleansing forest fire. 

After Volume One, Luke advanced his techniques and recording processes through his work with several artists. Traveling and watching an array of disciplines being harnessed before his eyes led him to redeveloping his approach to training his bull fiddle to play nicely in the sandbox with a few power sources. Luke says of forming his concept that “it is the main influence for the process by which the sound is generated on this setup, but using the bass as well as the crucial element of movement. Literally moving the bass back and forth, creating an effect of movement, is necessary to make the process musical.”

Another technical observation regarding Volume Two falls someplace between the opening quote and a conversation on our mutual love for classic-era Hip-Hop production. The chopping function on the Akai MPC allows the user to take any sound and separate the impact from its sustain… or aftermath. Having tinkered on the machine for many years, I always found it fascinating to hold onto the ghosts of notes, as opposed to repeating the point of attack where they are first heard. Luke gives many examples of this through the record. Not only does his creation of the sound resonate, but the actual soul of the notes often lingers in the air like an audience listening to themselves. 

A simple pluck of one, or several, strings reverberates between, at times, two amplifiers placed in varying positions around our bassist. These placements allow Luke to not only focus on his contact with the wood, but also the wood's relation to the electricity. Hand strikes a match, causing flame. Then flame touches the tree. Spreading and cleansing the area. It is ultimately a process of universal creation right before the ears. There aren’t too many spaces left where a brother can go into a place quietly and create his own universe. 

Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn, 2021 

1. 01

2. 02

3. 03

4. 04

5. 05

6. 06

7. 07

8. 08

My Hope is for the Listener to discover a connection within themselves.

To inspire deeper personal development, and radical change when needed.

These pieces contained on this album are documents of various approaches to the setup, intended to further explore the developments of the Sound.

Each Work is an exhibition of the intersection of acoustic and electronic Music, the intersection of the elements in the natural world.

Track 1 - Upright Bass and 2 Amplifiers

Track 2 - Upright Bass and Amplifier

Track 3 - Upright Bass and Amplifier and NO-INPUT Mixing Board

All Subsequent Tracks - Upright Bass and Amplifier

Recorded by Craig Bowen, Mattson Ogg, and Luke Stewart

Performed Live no Overdubs by Luke Stewart

Mixed and Edited by Craig Bowen and Luke Stewart

Mastered for Vinyl by Mikey Young

Film Stills by Pat Cain

Design & layout by Dylan Marcus McConnell

PRE-ORDER

Kuhl / Ballou / Dierker / Stewart - KRAFT (February 11, 2022 Out Of Your Head Records)

Kraft is a German word that means energy, strength, force. KRAFT is a creative, improvisational quartet formed by drummer Mike Kuhl in 2018. Joining Kuhl are long-time collaborators and some the most stalwart improvisers on the scene today - Dave Ballou (trumpet), John Dierker (reeds), and Luke Stewart (bass).

Over the past ten years, Kuhl hosted a weekly gig at Bertha’s Mussels in Baltimore with his trio of Ballou, Jeff Reed (bass) and later John Lee (guitar). During that time, legendary players including Dave Liebman, Tim Berne, Michael Formanek, Tony Malaby, Drew Gress, Mark Giuliana and many others have performed with the group.

One Tuesday in the summer of 2018, Kuhl took the opportunity to showcase a group he always wanted to play with – the group to be known as KRAFT. There was an instant, beautiful, and natural chemistry to the quartet. On February 19, 2021 KRAFT was invited to perform and record a live stream concert at An Die Musik in Baltimore. That night the group realized they had created a special recording. Stewart, who holds a degree in audio production, offered to mix the recording of the concert during his week-long residency at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, New York.

Upon hearing the final mixes, their intuitions were confirmed. What is presented on this recording is completely unedited as it was performed that evening.

1. Ageless One

2. Scoop the Moon

3. Stick and Move

4. A Real Mensch

5. Underneath

Dave Ballou - trumpet

John Dierker - reeds

Luke Stewart - bass

Mike Kuhl - drums

PRE-ORDER

Luke Stewart's Silt Trio - The Bottom (January 22, 2022 Cuneiform Records)

Called “one of the 25 most influential jazz artists of his generation” by DownBeat Magazine and a member of several earth-shaking ensembles, including Irreversible Entanglements and Heroes Are Gang Leaders, polymathic bassist Luke Stewart, a creative catalyst on the Washington D.C. (and beyond) music scene for almost two decades, introduces his protean trio with Chicago drum legend Chad Taylor and powerhouse DC saxophonist Brian Settles.

A casual observer of the Washington D.C. music scene could easily get the mistaken impression that there are four or five guys coincidentally named Luke Stewart playing leading roles in a disparate array of musical communities. In fact, Stewart is a singular, uncontainable artist whose work as a bassist, saxophonist, producer, broadcaster, and all-around mover and shaker has deepened and extended the District’s legacy as a hotbed for creative music.

Given his many pursuits, a single album can only capture a small portion of Stewart’s oceanic sonic continuum, but The Bottom offers a deep dive into a particularly inviting pool with his loose and limber trio making their debut here.

A highly cohesive triumvirate in close communion, the band plays with the conversational ease of longtime, comfortable friends. Untethered to any particular stylistic convention, particularly bebop’s head-solo-head format, the music’s ebb and flow feels utterly in the moment.

“I approached the recording session as closely as possible to playing a set, arranging the sequence with that in mind,” says Stewart, who was born and raised in Mississippi. “Like a set compositions are coupled by moments of free improvisation, but that free improv is contextualized by what happened before and after. It’s a journey, and the recording session reflects that.” 

1. Reminiscince

2. Roots

3. Angles

4. The Bottom

5. Circles

6. Dream House

Luke Stewart – Bass

Brian Settles – Tenor Sax

Chad Taylor – Drums, Mbira

PRE ORDER

Irreversible Entanglements - Open The Gates (November 12, 2021 International Anthem)

Irreversible Entanglements’ third full-length album OPEN THE GATES is ethereal shards of jagged onyx, a melancholic exploration of the post-colonial debris that surrounds us. Let’s watch and listen, as this platter snakes through the sandy ashes of possible histories, dialogs with a nervous present, and asks to be birthed into a holographic new future. “Together in holy sound!” the band stitches patient anthems out of atmosphere. Pulling from a wider sonic vocabulary than on previous excursions, the agit-jazz found here is simultaneously pre- and post-apocalypse, as bass lurches in a tranced-out loop, horns are up in the track grooves like poltergeists playing in the streets, poetry cascades like a warrior call at a satsang, the drums both wild and refined pulse with uhuru-heart cadence. This is Irreversible Entanglements on new ground; same as the old ground.

And we need it now – the universe was awash in the sickly static veneer of anti-cosmos, of anti-nation; the halls were emptied, our shadows echoing and staining the walls of our abandoned oases – so we poured out into 2020’s wild streets. The ghosts of our labor danced around the sickness as we set fire to our old ways of thinking and moving, as we set fire to cop cars and bashed in the windows of our own rising disenfranchisement. “Open the gates!” we shouted, blessed be – we need it now!

Here come Irreversible Entanglements – Luke Stewart, the high priest on bass; Aquiles Navarro, the electric universe in human form on trumpet; Keir Neuringer, the cosmologist with the siren sound on sax; Tcheser Holmes, the griot, the myth-maker on drums; and Camae Ayewa, the Moor mother with an empyrean pen game – on this new disc with their fierce aural tectonics shifting the earth, their watery post-pangea as dirge, their punk rock ethos and crash and bang polyrhythmic super-sonic sound synesthesia in the form of OPEN THE GATES – here it comes, my Brothas and Sistas, here it comes.

1. Open the Gates

2. Keys to Creation

3. Lágrimas Del Mar

4. Storm Came Twice

5. Water Meditation

6. Six Sounds

7. The Port Remembers

Camae Ayewa - voice, synth

Keir Neuringer - saxophone, synth, percussion

Aquiles Navarro - trumpet, synth

Luke Stewart - double bass, bass guitar

Tcheser Holmes - drums, percussion

Recorded on January 5th, 2021, at Rittenhouse Soundworks, Philadelphia. Mixed in April, 2021, at International Anthem Studios, Chicago. Mastered in May, 2021, at Elysian Masters, Los Angeles.

Produced by: Camae Ayewa, Keir Neuringer, Aquiles Navarro, Luke Stewart, and Tcheser Holmes.

Recorded by: Michael Richelle.

Mixed by: Dave Vettraino.

Mastered by: Dave Cooley.

Cover Photo by: Cyrus Moussavi.

Back Cover & Liner Photos by: Bob Sweeney.

Liner Notes by: Alex Smith.

Design & Layout by: Craig Hansen.

Executive Production by: Scott McNiece & David Allen

PRE-ORDER

Luke Stewart - Works For Upright Bass and Amplifier Vol. 2 (February 2, 2022 Astral Spirits)

THIS ALBUM OFFICIALLY IS OUT 2/25/2022...we can only have the pre-order up 90 days prior via Facebook so you'll notice the release date change as we get closer. THANKS FOR UNDERSTANDING!

In Indian musical theory it is said that there are two kinds of sound, one a vibration of ether, the other a vibration of air. The vibration of ether, which cannot be perceived in the physical sense, is considered the principle of all manifestation, the basis of all substance. It corresponds to what neo-Pythagoreans called “music of the spheres”. It forms permanent numerical patterns which are the basis of the world’s existence. The kind of vibration is not caused by a physical shock as are audible sounds. It is therefore called anāhata, “unstruck”. The other kind of sound is an impermanent vibration of air, an image of the ether vibration. It is audible and always produced by a shock. It is therefore called āhata or “struck”. (Alain Daniélou, 1980)

I’d never thought about Luke Stewart in such terms until recently, but I think that scholar Alain Daniélou’s words are a great place to start. When asking our bassist-at-large about how he wanted to approach talking about this new record, he gave a little background, but ultimately wanted the music to speak for itself… and speak it does. 

Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier Volume Two takes the foundation laid down by Volume One and builds a large flame out of it. A sort of regeneration. This beauty is not for the weak listener, afraid of radical change. Nor is it for a casual passerby. Over an hour, this new opus is not only a form of expression regarding where Luke has been but his willingness to examine the nature around him, specifically the relationship between electricity and wood. 

Or, as I like to think of it, a few lovely compositions about a cleansing forest fire. 

After Volume One, Luke advanced his techniques and recording processes through his work with several artists. Traveling and watching an array of disciplines being harnessed before his eyes led him to redeveloping his approach to training his bull fiddle to play nicely in the sandbox with a few power sources. Luke says of forming his concept that “it is the main influence for the process by which the sound is generated on this setup, but using the bass as well as the crucial element of movement. Literally moving the bass back and forth, creating an effect of movement, is necessary to make the process musical.”

Another technical observation regarding Volume Two falls someplace between the opening quote and a conversation on our mutual love for classic-era Hip-Hop production. The chopping function on the Akai MPC allows the user to take any sound and separate the impact from its sustain… or aftermath. Having tinkered on the machine for many years, I always found it fascinating to hold onto the ghosts of notes, as opposed to repeating the point of attack where they are first heard. Luke gives many examples of this through the record. Not only does his creation of the sound resonate, but the actual soul of the notes often lingers in the air like an audience listening to themselves. 

A simple pluck of one, or several, strings reverberates between, at times, two amplifiers placed in varying positions around our bassist. These placements allow Luke to not only focus on his contact with the wood, but also the wood's relation to the electricity. Hand strikes a match, causing flame. Then flame touches the tree. Spreading and cleansing the area. It is ultimately a process of universal creation right before the ears. There aren’t too many spaces left where a brother can go into a place quietly and create his own universe. 

Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn, 2021 

1. 01

2. 02

3. 03

4. 04

5. 05

6. 06

7. 07

8. 08

My Hope is for the Listener to discover a connection within themselves.

To inspire deeper personal development, and radical change when needed.

These pieces contained on this album are documents of various approaches to the setup, intended to further explore the developments of the Sound.

Each Work is an exhibition of the intersection of acoustic and electronic Music, the intersection of the elements in the natural world.

Track 1 - Upright Bass and 2 Amplifiers

Track 2 - Upright Bass and Amplifier

Track 3 - Upright Bass and Amplifier and NO-INPUT Mixing Board

All Subsequent Tracks - Upright Bass and Amplifier

Recorded by Craig Bowen, Mattson Ogg, and Luke Stewart

Performed Live no Overdubs by Luke Stewart

Mixed and Edited by Craig Bowen and Luke Stewart

Mastered for Vinyl by Mikey Young

PREORDER

Luke Stewart - Works For Upright Bass and Amplifier Vol. I (November 2021 Astral Spirits)

1. Works For Upright Bass and Amplifier Pt I 15:00

2. Works For Upright Bass and Amplifier Pt II 14:49

3. Works For Upright Bass and Amplifier Pt III 16:18

4. Works For Upright Bass and Amplifier Pt IV 12:05

LUKE STEWART plays Upright Bass and Amplifier

Recorded by Mattson Ogg

Mastered for Vinyl by Mikey Young

Liner Notes by Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn

Film Stills by Pat Cain

Design & layout by Dylan Marcus McConnell

PREORDER

Luke Stewart & Jarvis Earnshaw Quartet (October 15, 2021 No Quarter)

1. E.C.C.O. 04:21

2. Kenopsia 07:07

3. Anechoic Sunset 07:47

4. Red Hook Blues Got Me Smiling

5. Tibidabo

6. Where I Go, I Am There

Luke Stewart - bass

Jarvis Earnshaw - sitar, loops

Ryan Sawyer - drums

Devan Waldman - alto sax

Recorded at Pioneer Works, February 2021

Mixed by Luke Stewart

Mastered by Carl Saff

Artwork & Design by Robert Beatty

PREORDER

Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi (April 2021)

For the second edition in the Profane Illuminations series of long form temporal suspensions we find two of contemporary music’s most vital and expressive characters - Patrick Shiroishi and Luke Stewart - thoroughly exploring properties of spatial resonance on two sidelong solo pieces.

The A side begins in gorgeous elegiac fashion with Shiroishi alone with a saxophone in a parking garage. Delicately dancing with the echoes of intermittent horn blasts, the piece slowly moves into a sonorous modal ballet of fluttering, combative notes before departing again in desolate elegance.

The B side finds DC multi-instrumentalist Luke Stewart viscerally interacting with the properties of sound itself while drawing out the characteristic resonances of the room at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. Scraping, ringing, piercing, clicking sounds result in frequencies that are gradually layered and emphasized as they resonate throughout the room and oscillate around their central figure eventually turning to the pure, rich tones of the room itself.

1. Staying Human 20:13

2. Works For Pioneer Works 25:56

Luke Stewart: Works for Pioneer Works

Recorded during the Music Residency at Pioneer Works.

Room Feedback by Luke Stewart with

Assistance from Ryan and Federico.

Mixed by Luke Stewart

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

Patrick Shiroishi: Staying Human

Recorded live underneath the Jazz Cat in Monterey Park, California.

mastered at FyK studios by Felix Salazar

Pre-order

Luke Stewart - Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier (ASTRAL SPIRITS 2018)

By now if you don't know Luke Stewart you're behind. Stewart is a force on the Washington DC scene not only as a performer (in Irreversible Entanglements, James Brandon Lewis Trio, Trio OOO, Ancestral Duo and more) but also as a booker, promoter, radio DJ and more. "Works for Upright Bass & Amplifier" is a long form piece Stewart composed using written & original improvised structures. He's been performing various portions of the piece live at art exhibitions throughout 2017. Play Loud!

Luke Stewart plays Upright Bass and Amplifier

1. Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier Pt. I 29:11

2. Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier Pt. II 19:09