With Providencia, Danilo Pérez’s first outing on Mack Avenue, the pianist adds at least two new colors to his compositional palette. One is the trenchant alto saxophone of Rudresh Mahanthappa, fulfilling melodic and solo roles on the gutsy second track “Galactic Panama” but featured more heavily during the album’s latter half. It’s a world away from the dulcet woodwind quintet augmenting Pérez’s two-part composition “Bridge of Life,” spread across tracks four and eight. (Both movements rely on Margaret Phillips’s bassoon for rhythmic propulsion, a nice touch.)
Pérez seems intent on maximizing the contrast, as the second woodwind cut leads straight into the fast, bare-knuckle riff of “The Maze: The Beginning,” one of two alto/piano duets. During this and “The Maze: The End,” one could be forgiven for recalling Mahanthappa’s Raw Materials duo with pianist Vijay Iyer, though Pérez’s harmonic language is of course nothing like Iyer’s. The woodwind music is closer in spirit to Wayne Shorter, Pérez’s longtime employer.
Bassist Ben Street and drummer Adam Cruz lock in beautifully throughout the disc, not least on the trio cuts, Carlos Eleta Almaran’s “Historia de un Amor” and Avelino Muñoz’s “Irremediablemente Solo,” both songs from Pérez’s native Panama. Percussionist Jamey Haddad and conguero Ernesto Diaz add yet more layers. So does Cruz with steel pans on the opening 10-minute epic “Daniela’s Chronicles,” a parade of tempestuous themes and virtuoso ensemble work, steeped in romanticism.
Mahanthappa adds a ferocious jolt on “The Oracle,” dedicated to the late Charlie Banacos. Elsewhere the wordless vocals of Sara Serpa lend a rounder, softer quality — certainly when she’s doubling Matt Marvuglio’s flute on the title track, but also when she matches Mahanthappa note-for-note toward the end of the rousing “Cobilla.”
Pérez’s recent collaborations with Claus Ogerman (Across the Crystal Sea) and Jack DeJohnette (Music We Are) were worthy in their way, but Providencia outstrips them. It’s also richer, emotionally and texturally, than Pérez’s “21st-Century Dizzy” venture, a recent Gillespie-themed live project that featured Mahanthappa and Haddad among others. In fact, Providencia is Pérez’s most compelling effort since 2000’s Motherland. The man’s ears are simply formidable, and this is some of the best evidence yet.
I have a brief news-oriented piece on Fred Hersch in the September 2010 JazzTimes. It struck me long after submitting the story that the word “gay” does not appear in it, despite the fact that Fred has been out for well over a decade. At first I thought I should have corrected this, but ultimately I’m glad that it didn’t even occur to me while writing. Gay artists don’t exist in some category apart, or at least they shouldn’t, and I’ll wager that Fred agrees. What does bear directly on the subject, however, is Fred’s recent battle with AIDS, which is a main focus of the article. And Fred’s willingness to deal publicly with his near-death experiences in “My Coma Dreams” is of a piece with his decision to come out and set a courageous example back in 1994.
Given the space, I would also have mentioned that Fred’s Whirl album and Paul Motian’s Lost In a Dream both contain versions of Motian’s ballad “Blue Midnight,” giving us a chance to hear the same tune played by Hersch and Jason Moran. Hersch and Moran, we should also add, are both disciples of the late Jaki Byard. On Whirl, Hersch pays tribute with Byard’s “Mrs. Parker of K.C.,” while Moran, on his latest disc TEN, offers Byard’s “To Bob Vatel of Paris.” Tributes within tributes. Hersch told me during our interview that he’s played the Bob Vatel piece as well.
My review of Guillermo Klein’s brilliant new album Domador de Huellas, in this week’s Time Out New York. Klein and his group Base de Nave are at the Village Vanguard August 17-22.
Below, from the August 2010 issue of All About Jazz-New York. (Check the new AAJ-NY website, the result of its split from AllAboutJazz.com.)
—
There was one sure way for tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger to heighten the freewheeling melodic onslaught of his quintet gig at Smalls (July 1st): add alto saxophonist Loren Stillman to the frontline. Ornette Coleman’s music was a recurring theme, and Stillman and Preminger brought to mind the rough-hewn wail of Coleman and Dewey Redman on the opening “Toy Dance” (from New York Is Now!) and the penultimate “Law Years” (from Science Fiction). But guitarist Nir Felder approached Ornette from another angle, with Frisellian chordal clouds that lent harmonic dimension to a music not easily harmonized. Just as the free vibe became established, however, Preminger threw a curve and called two straightforward ballads, “Until the Real Thing Comes Along” and the closing “Then I’ll Be Tired of You.” Drummer Ted Poor began the former with sticks — not brushes as one might expect — and gave it a propulsive feel throughout. Bassist John Hébert took his only solo on the latter and brought forth the kind of lyricism he’s employed so effectively with Fred Hersch. Preminger knit these divergent pieces together with the force and insouciant command of his tenor, bringing out caustic dissonance even in tender passages, making every risk feel natural and necessary. With Stillman as an energetic foil, he kept the band centered, yet productively off-balance, during Felder’s swinging “Old Angels” and his own wistful straight-eighth chart “Today Is Tuesday.” (David R. Adler)
~
Bassist Marc Johnson, with Joey Baron in the drum chair, has backed Italian virtuoso pianist Enrico Pieranunzi on a number of fine recordings (Dream Dance, Live in Japan, As Never Before). But easing into the late Wednesday set at the Village Vanguard (July 7th), Pieranunzi and Johnson faced a very different type of partner in drum legend Paul Motian. Recall that Motian has made a significant mark on Pieranunzi’s catalog, on discs including Special Encounter (with Charlie Haden) and Doorways (with Chris Potter). Incidentally, Motian also played the Blue Note in May with Chick Corea and Eddie Gomez; in late 2008 he played Birdland with Pieranunzi and Steve Swallow. Happily, this Vanguard stint was far better in terms of consistency, focus and fire. “Abacus” gave a taste of Motian’s compositional excellence, and the rugged swing of Pieranunzi’s lines and harmonies didn’t relent on “Jitterbug Waltz” and a highly abstracted “Autumn Leaves.” Motian’s wholly off-kilter approach, his way of articulating the beat by not quite articulating it, can generate all sorts of welcome tension, although there were times in this set when just locking in and burning would have been more welcome still. If one thing brought the trio’s rapport into sparkling relief it was ballads: first a brilliantly harmonized “I Fall In Love Too Easily,” later Pieranunzi’s new “Unless They Love You.” The lively “La Dolce Vita” (from Fellini Jazz) brought the curtain down. (DA)
Blogging these days is slow for many reasons, one being that I’ve accepted a position as adjunct lecturer in jazz history at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College. My course begins August 30, and I’ve been hard at work preparing. Very hard at work. One consequence is the growing stack of new and unlistened-to CD releases near my desk. Sorry, but I’m spending much more time in the 1920s than the 2010s right now. Forget “mossy stone” — I think I might be a moldy fig.
Kidding.
Teaching jazz history is a heavy responsibility, made even heavier by the fact that Queens College administers the Louis Armstrong House Museum (pictured, in earlier days) and the Armstrong archives. I’m thus all the more honored to be involved with the school and its fine jazz faculty.
My textbook for the course will be Jazz by Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux. “Jazz history is in the making,” the authors write, and I can’t think of a better motto to guide us through the coming semester.
