Hank Roberts Sextet - Science of Love (July 23, 2021 Sunnyside Records)

Creation can be a lonely process. The meticulous crafting of art frequently requires isolation for focus, but the process can be aided by the spark of a change of location or meeting new collaborators. Cellist/composer Hank Roberts believes that the acts of creating and sharing music help bring positivity needed to balance the world. In essence, bringing more of a particular life-sustaining energy into the world, namely, love. How better to spread love than through enthusiastic participation with friends in artistic endeavors?

Roberts’s new recording, Science of Love, finds the longtime stalwart of the creative Downtown music scene returning to New York City, after raising a family in Ithaca, NY, in an effort to rekindle the vital, creative energy that only the metropolis can provide. Roberts discovered inspiration in droves, which allowed him to create a unique program of original music unlike anything he had done in the past.

Of course, Roberts has been well known for playing alongside music greats, like Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, and Joey Baron. He has also put together singular and celebrated ensembles of his own that cover a wealth of musical ground, including folk, rock, modern classical, gospel, and world music influences.

In the summer of 2015, Roberts decided to return to New York City. A renewed sense of urgency in creation had struck him and he felt that his burgeoning work should be heard. The pieces heard on Science of Love were already begun prior to Roberts’s arrival but they really blossomed as soon as he began to fit himself back into the rhythms of the City. Immediately, he was seized by inspiration and found himself awakening at 4AM to compose, attaining a near sensual experience as he set his ideas to paper.

It didn’t take long for Roberts to begin meeting invigorating new collaborators. Trombonist Brian Drye was one of the earliest, as Drye asked Roberts to perform with his group at a local concert. Woodwind expert Mike McGinnis and pianist Jacob Sacks were musicians Roberts had been following and with whom he quickly established ties. Drummer Vinnie Sperrazza was introduced by McGinnis, and he met violinist Dana Lynn while performing with her in another group.

The assembly of what would become the Hank Roberts Sextet was entirely organic, evolving out of chance meetings, preexisting friendships between members, and a quick understanding of the leader’s goals. All of the musicians shared similar languages, interacting comfortably between jazz, improv, and classical musical idioms. The group proved to be a perfect size for the emerging music, a reasonably sized ensemble that could sound large.

As a former trombonist, Roberts has always been attracted to the instrument’s possibilities (as can be heard on his debut solo album, Black Pastels) and Drye’s impeccable playing aligned perfectly with the composer’s ideas. The combination of trombone with cello and piano allowed Roberts to experiment with low pitch clusters, unique phrasing, and intonation, all of which brought a lot of energy to the music through their natural tension.

As the music for Science of Love began to emerge, Roberts was reflecting on the energies at work in the world and in the universe, from the wind rustling leaves in a tree to the consciousness shared between all human beings. His takeaway was that love was an important power in the universe and that artists are proponents in spreading that power through their work. These thoughts manifested in Roberts’s desires to push his work farther and to step into a more active role as a conduit for expressing these feelings.

Roberts’s initial phase of composing these pieces began by constructing series of chords or small melodies and expanding them day after day into larger frameworks. His level of focus propelled him into another level of preparation. Roberts’s move to New York and assembly of his Sextet brought the project full circle, as he had a regular outfit for rehearsals and performances where the pieces really began to bloom as he continued to sculpt them with the aid of the other musicians’ specialties.

Many of the compositions are extremely complex, the harmony and voicings meticulously arranged, extending farther and farther into organic abstractions, and balanced relative to traditional forms, as well. Even with this framework, Roberts wanted to maintain the instrumentality of improvisations. He created the materials but gave the performers the opportunity to more deeply clarify and expand their meanings.

The recording begins with “Sat/Sun Pa Tu X,” an amazing expansion of the piece “Saturday/Sunday” from Little Motor People (JMT, 1993) with a controlled added abstraction. “G” is a 14-piece suite of sorts that began as small piece that kept building. The titles reflect the codes that generated the pieces and, occasionally, descriptive elements of the pieces reflected by the performers. Among the many pieces, the leading “The Sharp Peak of The Science of Love” is a fantastic example of the breadth of the suite, with fantastic solos by Sacks and Drye that fit the drive of the music. Dynamic strings and close harmony highlight “Shifting Paradigms in Pre GLC 3,” while the slow “Shuffle of GLC Magnetic Floating Stripper” provides an intriguing dynamism for weaving the ensemble with McGinnis’s soaring soprano saxophone. The delicate “205” concludes the program with tart sentimentality.

A life change allowed Hank Roberts to undertake one of the most meaningful projects in his life. The journey may have begun as a move to New York City, but it evolved into something deeper, the fostering of new friendships and a new, collection of music. Science of Love is a testament to Roberts’s craft, perseverance, and ability to propel the power of love through music. 

1. SAT / SUN PA TU X

2. G - The Sharp Peak of The Science of Love

3. G - Human Circuits

4. G - One Floor Axis

5. G - Equatorial Conductivity

6. G - Earth Sky Realms

7. G - D23

8. G - Levity Village

9. G - Second First

10. G - Story

11. G - Shifting Paradigms In Pre GLC 3

12. G - GLC Magnetic Floating Stripper

13. G - 17

14. G - B45 L

15. G - Circular Rejuvenation

16. 205

Hank Roberts - cello

Brian Drye - trombone

Dana Lyn - violin

Mike McGinnis - clarinet, soprano saxophone

Jacob Sacks - piano

Vinnie Sperrazza - drums

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Mike McGinnis - Singular Awakening (SUNNYSIDE RECORDS April 27, 2018)

Mike McGinnis realized his dream of recording and releasing an album with two of his musical heroes in 2017. The recording, Recurring Dream, featured the saxophonist/clarinetist/composer alongside two legends of jazz and creative music (also his mentors and friends), pianist Art Lande and electric bassist Steve Swallow. Both Lande and Swallow are well known for their compositional expertise, so McGinnis made sure to include original compositions from them both. 

The three musicians also have a penchant for thoughtful and eclectic approaches toward improvisation. McGinnis wanted to capture the both sides of this trio, the formal compositional and the more free, but equally focused, improvisational identities. The trio’s new recording Singular Awakening was culled from the same session as the original recording but features eight brilliant improvised pieces bookended by compositions written by either Lande or Swallow. 

McGinnis’s own musical aspirations began within the jazz tradition; he then moved on to classical saxophone, which led him toward more experimental music. In graduate school, he was introduced to the remarkable music of the Third Stream of the 1950s and 1960s, which blended classical and jazz repertoire. From there, the connections were made with two other musicians of similar temperament who helped McGinnis bridge that divide in his own music, namely, Lande and Swallow. McGinnis was able to get the former collaborators together for a weekend of performing and recording in Brooklyn in 2016. 

Each musician in the trio has a wide breadth of musical interests and knowledge. Their strengths in a variety of genres also have enabled them to make music that goes beyond category. Lande has long provided an ethos of openness and willingness to play anything that McGinnis has witnessed from the pianist and his protégés. Swallow’s career has spanned from the Benny Goodman Orchestra to the avant-garde to fusion via many paths. The range and rapport of the trio is a function of their histories together and apart. 

Going into the session, McGinnis knew that he wanted to begin with some improvisations to get the creative juices flowing. He decided to roll tape through the entire process, which included the free playing to test the room and the eschewing of monitor headphones. Because of each musician’s talent at compositional development, the improvisations took form in a way that many listeners probably wouldn’t be able to tell if the tracks were composed or not. 

The aim was to let each musician play whatever he wanted and the rest would try to make something of it, a freeing process that allows for extreme reaches of creativity and problem solving. The music that came out was inspired and highly listenable, highlighting the purest element of the trio’s identity: creativity. The group played as if they were of one mind and many pieces came out as if they were written. 

The recording begins with a couple of composed pieces from Swallow and Lande to get the program off and running. Swallow’s “Here Comes Everybody” is a compact, jazzy piece that is fun and challenging to play, while Lande’s “Shining Lights” is a ruminating, folk-like piece that moves through sections and is dedicated to his students. 

The eight improvisations each have their own personality and style, showing the vastness of the collective’s comfort level regardless of genre or character. “Insist on Something Sometimes” is a laid back piano led dialog. The quietly introspective “A First Memory” shows incredible restraint, while the slightly more insistent “Mini’s Can-Do Club” highlights a special low-key swagger. “PolterGinnis” has the trio at their most esoteric and captivating. 

“O’Flaherty Decides to Play Jazz” has a slightly Celtic clarion clarinet and a winding rhythm section. Led by a pressing bass line, clarinet and piano weave around each other on the bluesy “Beau Nivea.” The appropriately named “Shockinawe” showcases the far ranges of McGinnis’s soprano saxophone and a pointillistic development. The singing tones of Swallow’s bass and floating piano are dramatic in their simplicity on “Slow Dance in a Whisper.” 

The program concludes with two more composed pieces. Lande’s lovely “For Elise” is an elegy to a friend’s stillborn baby, which is composed of three counterpoint parts working off each other until they extinguish. Throwing down the gauntlet, Swallow’s tricky “Bite Your Grandmother” closes with a bang. 

Mike McGinnis knew that he was putting something special together when he convened this trio with Art Lande and Steve Swallow. On their Singular Awakening, the trio shows their incredible capacity for fascinating, conversational group improvisation.

Great New Releases from Randy Ingram & Mike McGinnis! (SUNNYSIDE RECORDS)

Two Fantastic Releases Out Today (4/21/17)!

Randy Ingram's The Wandering and Mike McGinnis's Recurring Dream!

Stream: "The Wandering"

Pianist-composer Randy Ingram has put himself in a position to reveal more about his musical identity by scaling down to record The Wandering, a sophisticated, personal and enlightening duo album with bassist Drew Gress.

While other instrumentalists can choose a different mouthpiece or effects pedal to modulate and personalize their sound, pianists must develop their identity by how and what they play. Ingram has established his identity through his pianistic touch and sense of orchestration, earning many accolades over the years.  As Kevin Laskey of NYC’s Jazz Gallery says, “It’s hard to make a piano sing. You can’t breathe into it. You can’t slide from one note to another. The piano is a mechanical music-maker, and it takes a real artist – an Ahmad Jamal, a Bill Evans, a Fred Hersch – to make it come alive.  Pianist Randy Ingram is one of those artists. He has an immaculately honed touch and an unforced sense of lyricism.”

Ingram explains, “A jazz pianist’s true identity is defined equally by their tone and by the content of what they play:  the specific shades and colorations of their harmonies, the types of textures they favor and the way they think about orchestrating and stating melodies – especially in the context of ‘standard’ repertoire.”

Ingram’s thoughts were reinforced by the opening of a new NYC venue, Mezzrow, that featured stripped down performances, mainly by pianists and bassists, filling a void created by the closing in the mid-1990s of the famed Bradley’s on University Place. Mezzrow has become an incubator and stage for pianists of all sorts to display their talents with the minimum of dressings, typically in duos with bass.  The duo format resonated with Ingram, as one of the formative experiences in his musical development was a steady gig while at the University of Southern California with bassist Billy Mohler. Says Ingram, “I believe much of my stylistic identity started to form through playing that gig my last two years of college, and my memories of it have always made the duo format a very familiar and welcoming sound.”

As Ingram was developing repertoire for the followup to his previous Sunnyside release, Sky/Lift (2014), he began to feel a pull in a different direction. The music he was writing for his quartet focused on deeper interplay between piano and guitar, becoming more densely orchestrated and heavily structured. Ingram found himself thinking about ways that his pianistic voice could be more clearly and spontaneously be heard.

For Ingram’s debut performance at Mezzrow, bassist Drew Gress was his ideal duo partner.  Universally praised as a master accompanist and soloist, Ingram had long admired Gress’s playing, being familiar with the bassist’s solo recordings and work with Fred Hersch. The duo’s first gig together was exemplary: Gress’s playing was wonderfully supportive but also motivating, pushing Ingram to explore new musical areas.  At the conclusion of the duo’s first performance, Ingram’s friend, the saxophonist Jeremy Udden, described what he had heard as a stripped down, truthful statement on the identity of “Randy the player–Randy the pianist”. 

www.randyingram.com

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Stream: "The Rising"

The romantic dream of many aspiring jazz musicians is to sail into New York City, drawn by the magnetism of the metropolis, and to seek an apprenticeship amongst the heroes and legends of the music. It isn’t often that these dreams come true, but for saxophonist/clarinetist/composer Mike McGinnis they did in his friendship and collaboration, with jazz legends Art Lande and Steve Swallow, showcased on the trio’s Recurring Dream.

Originally from Maine, McGinnis grew up focusing on classical saxophone, leading him to the Eastman School of Music, where pianist Michael Cain introduced him to a coterie of musicians who experimented in melding jazz and classical musical concepts, including what was called Third Stream music in the 1950s and 1960s. Cain also led McGinnis to the music of pianist Art Lande, whose remarkable playing is beyond category on his own far reaching projects and those by his early band, Rubisa Patrol. Both musical conceptions had a big impact on McGinnis.

It wasn’t long before McGinnis met Lande at a friend’s wedding, where the intimidated McGinnis jammed with the pianist. There was an immediate creative spark between the two and they began to correspond, becoming close friends and collaborators for the next 15 years.

McGinnis had seen Swallow’s name tagged to tunes with bizarre titles in the Real Book but it took until this time and really hearing the bassist’s incredible playing for McGinnis to study his expansive oeuvre. In 2006, Ohad Talmor asked McGinnis to sub in his chamber ensemble for a European tour, where, remarkably, Swallow was the featured composer and in the bass chair. McGinnis took quick advantage to develop a relationship with Swallow, savoring his stories, witticisms and generous spirit.

McGinnis was able to finally realize his dream in 2016 as he invited Lande and Swallow to Brooklyn for a weekend of performing and recording. The trio recorded nearly three hours of music at Systems Two Recording Studios, which was winnowed down to the program on the arresting Recurring Dream.

www.mikemcginnis.com

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Upcoming Sunnyside Releases:

May 5 - Romero Lubambo - Sampa

May 19 - Diego Barber - One Minute Later

May 26 - Carlos Franzetti & Allison Brewster Franzetti - Luminosa

June 2 - Dan Tepfer Trio - Eleven Cages

June 2 - Adam Kolker - Beckon

June 9 - Dominique Eade & Ran Blake - Town & Country