Category: Reviews

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Lucid Culture covers Sarah Manning’s concert at the I-Beam Brooklyn…

http://lucidculture.wordpress.com

Sarah Manning’s Quintet Airs Out a Great Album’s Worth of Tunes at I-Beam

When she was invited up to the McDowell Colony last year to compose, alto saxophonist Sarah Manning was not in a good place, she alluded between songs at her show Saturday night at I-Beam. But her time in the New Hampshire woods turned out to be exactly what she needed to reboot, and she showed off several of the kinetic, sometimes achingly intense compositions she’d come up with there, taken from her brilliant new album Harmonious Creature. Onstage, Manning’s tone is less brassy and more nuanced than it tends to be in the studio; attackwise, she went from a wail to a wisp and often back up again, precise and purposeful. For whatever reason, maybe because she has an album release show coming up at 8:30 PM on Feb 20 at Cornelia St. Cafe, this gig was more about tunes than pyrotechnics or jousting.

Bassist Rene Hart’s hypnotic, pulsing circular lines often held the center as drummer Allison Miller ornamented the songs with a misterioso, John Hollenbeck-like pointillism. What’s it like to watch Miller play quietly? Infrequent, let’s say – but she finally hit a long cyclotron rumble which was just plain classic, and worth the price of admission all by itself. Meanwhile, guitarist Jonathan Goldberger and violist Fung Chern Hwei alternated between resonant atmospherics and incisive solo passages. Goldberger used his sustain pedals for almost clarinet-like tone that built with the viola to a magical, enveloping mist on the night’s elegantly waltzing opening number, Copland on Cornelia St. Then Manning led the band with a hypercaffeinated drive through the bitingly catchy Don’t Answer to the Question.

Grey Dawn Red Fox worked a similar dynamic, Miller’s insistent implied clave paired with Manning’s dancing lines against a lingering grey-sky backdrop. Tune of Cats saw Manning airing out her lower register, Miller matching her unease, throwing elbows everywhere versus the rest of the band’s resolute calm. Thy worked a tight push-pull on the acerbic Radish Spirit and then backed away through a considerably more acidic reworking of Neil Young’s On the Beach. The enigmatic, brooding Three Chords for Jessica was a highlight, as was the second set’s closing number, What the Blues Left Behind. Manning explained it as an illustration of the flush of contentment – hopefully without your ears ringing too hard – that you get after a good set or a good night watching somebody play one. The long series of false endings at the end wound up this eclectic and intriguing evening on an aptly reflective note.

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Critical Jazz reviews Tom Tallitsch “Ride”…

http://www.criticaljazz.com

Tom Tallitsch shows exponential growth both as a performer and a composer and is certainly a name to remember!
Brent Black / www.criticaljazz.com
Ride is the sophomore release from Tom Tallitsch on Posi-Tone Records. The stellar cover art is an excellent representation of a release that is evocative, energized and delightfully eclectic. This quintet is firing on all cylinders with all star drummer Rudy Royston keeping everyone on the rhythmic straight and narrow with pianist Art Hirahara and bassist Peter Brendler rounding out a formidable rhythm section that shift dynamics on the fly providing a solid base from which Tallitsch can work. Joining Tom is all star trombonist Michael Dease and the artful manipulation of swing has Ride carefully walking that fine line between the typical cerebral/visceral releases that dot the straight ahead landscape.
Covers…These can be the equivalent of tap dancing in a melodic minefield and taking on tunes from David Bowie and Led Zeppelin are certainly not done without some natural trepidation. Bowie’s “Life On Mars” is dialed down to an exquisite ballad while the reharm of the iconic Zeppelin standard “Ten Years Gone” puts a fresh coat of paint on an album rock classic long assumed hiding out in the rock and roll witness program by many. From the opening swing of “Ride” to the slightly odd metered gem ” Rubbernecker” the tone is open, warm and above all relaxed. While Ride is a release with subtle nuances hidden within a lyrical sense of purpose and a textured rhythmic sense of drive. There is not an ounce of pretentious pyrotechnics to be found and perhaps it is this inner confidence that translates a relaxed virtually live feeling to this recording. Michael Dease provides the counterpoint that makes tunes like “Knuckle Dragger” and “Turtle” somewhat reminiscent of Wayne Shorter’s early Blue Note work yet Tom Tallitsch is doing a riff on no one but himself.

I once made the statement that Posi-Tone may carry the best stable of saxophonists working the straight ahead side of the street and Tom Tallitsch more than proves this point. 

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Midwest Record reviews Steve Fidyk “Heads Up!”…

http://midwestrecord.com/MWR759.html

 

STEVE FIDYK/Heads Up:  As much as we really love a real original that knows
how to work an original, we have a soft spot for leaders that can take a chestnut
and put a whole new spin on it, much like Fidyk, Stafford, Warfield and company do
here on “I Can See Clearly Now” as well as several others.  Original, creative and
somewhat visionary, Fidyk has loads of live and recorded flying time to bring to
this session making a seamless set from start to finish of pure, contemporary jazz
that’s sure to open your ears.  Whether speeding it up and swinging or slowing it
down to give every one a breather, Fidyk never gets complacent.  Just when you think
this is going to be a set of TV show big band, whoomp, there it isn’t.  A really
solid set for the jazzbo looking for a good time.8119
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Music and More reviews Sarah Manning’s new CD “Harmonious Creature”…

http://jazzandblues.blogspot.com

Sarah Manning is an alto saxophonist and composer, whose new album, Harmonious Creature features her in the company of Eyvind Kang on viola, Jonathan Goldberger on guitar, Rene Hart on bass and Jerome Jennings on drums. The album was recorded in Brooklyn about one year ago and consists of several original compositions, and some interesting covers, particularly “On The Beach,” the title track of one of Neil Young’s finest and most neglected albums. Under Manning’s control, the song is alternatively brooding and scalding, allowing the musicians to really stretch out and play with a lot of room for textural development. Some of the tracks develop a dreamy feel like the Gillian Welch and David Rawlings country folk song “I Dream A Highway” and the opening original song “Copeland on Cornelia Street.” where the circular patterns for band members slowly evolve into improvised sections. “Floating Bridge” heads in the opposite direction developing an aggressive attack for three short inspiring minutes. “Don’t Answer the Question” engages the full band in developing a fast and potent theme and then sparking off improvised sections from it. The use of viola and guitar on the album offer a larger range of emotions to draw from and Manning succeeds admirably as a composer and arranger in developing her musical vision to match the instrumentation and the players.

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Sarah Manning Takes a Sensationally Successful Shot at Chamber Jazz

http://lucidculture.wordpress.com

Sarah Manning is to the alto sax what JD Allen is to the tenor: even in a world of rugged individualists, she stands out. Lots of artists doll themselves up, tone themselves down and smile sweetly for the camera for an album cover shot. Manning scowls at you from the inside of the cd booklet for her new Posi-tone album, Harmonious Creature. Her bright, defenestrating, Jackie McLean-esque tone, angst-fueled crescendos and stunningly uneasy tunesmithing also set her a step ahead of the pack. Her previous 2010 Posi-Tone release, Dandelion Clock, was that year’s underrated gem. It may be early in the year, but her new album Harmonious Creature threatens to be the best of 2014. Her chromatically-fueled edge brings to mind Kenny Garrett; her moody compositions compare with Garrett and Allen as well. This new quintet session is an ambitious and slashingly successful move into the increasingly crowded chamber jazz arena with Eyvind Kang on viola, Jonathan Goldberger on guitar, Rene Hart on bass and Jerome Jennings on drums. Manning is playing the album release show at I-Beam at 8 PM on Jan 25 with a slightly altered lineup featuring the reliably electrifying Alli Miller on drums.

The opening track, Copland On Cornelia Street, starts as stately waltz, brings the guitar in, lingers on the turnaround and then Manning works some morose magic over Goldberger’s brooding resonance. It picks up with a sunbaked Goldberger solo over a dancing, whirling rhythm. Did Aaron Copland find his epiphany in the West Village? He was a Queens guy – it’s not out of the question.

Tune Of Cats echoes a famous Coltrane riff before the group takes it over Jennings’ careful, tumbling pulse, Manning’s utterly casual phrasing contrasting with the relentless intensity of the melody, her tone more smoky than usual. Floating Bridge, an austerely bright jazz waltz, has Kang echoing Manning’s kinetic lines, the bandleader teasing the listener with flitting motives over Jennings’ imperturbible washes….and then sax and viola go back at it.

Reharmonized jazz versions of rock and country tunes can leave you gasping for oxygen, but Manning’s cover of Gillian Welch’s I Dream A Highway stakes out atmospheric, Frisellian big-sky territory. Goldberger’s pointillisms against gently unfolding sax and viola fill the vast expanse up to a ridiculously psychedelic, ambient outro that pans the speakers. Later in the album, they take a similar approach to Neil Young’s On the Beach, but at a glacial tempo that Manning finally cuts loose and blasts straight through once the final “get out of town” verse hits, the band following her searing lead to the point where any atttempt to get back into ballad mode would be pointless.

The naturalistic Grey Dawn, Red Fox blends allusions to the baroque and simmering exchanges of voices into a precarious narrative that grows more anthemic as it shifts course: this animal is on the lookout for something far more dangerous. If Manning is to be believed, the Radish Spirit guards its ground closely, with a tight, somewhat frosty cameraderie from the whole group, Manning and Goldberger taking it into the shadows before Hart rises to the foreground and pulls it back. The enigmatically titled Three Chords For Jessica emerges from Hart’s solo chromatics to a haunting, elegaic, gorgeously Middle Eastern-tinged grey-sky theme. Don’t Answer To The Question returns to waltz tempo with some understatedly wicked push-pull between Goldberger, Jennings and Kang. The album ends with a counterintuitively warm guitar feature, What the Blues Left Behind.

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Burning Ambulance interviews Sarah Manning and discusses her career and her latest release “Harmonious Creature”…

http://burningambulance.com

“I’d Rather Say Too Little Than Say Too Much”: An Interview With Sarah Manning

sarahmanning

Alto saxophonist Sarah Manning‘s fourth album, Harmonious Creature, is out now on Posi-Tone (buy it from Amazon). Manning’s patient, thoughtful phrasing—reminiscent of Charles Lloyd—is matched on the album (which contains eight originals and covers ofGillian Welch‘s “I Dream a Highway” and Neil Young‘s “On the Beach”) by Eyvind Kang‘s droning, precisely tuned viola, with a rhythm section of guitarist Jonathan Goldberger, bassist Rene Hart and drummer Jerome Jennings keeping things rock steady, whether they’re swinging hard, as on the fiercely boppish “Floating Bridge,” or gently swaying, as on the album’s final track, “What the Blues Left Behind.”

Instrumental tone is crucial to the music on Harmonious Creature. Manning herself has an affinity for long notes and slowly unfolding phrases, and her alto rarely if ever heads into the piercing range popularized by Ornette Coleman; she’s got a mellow, caramel-like sound. As a co-lead instrument, Kang’s viola doesn’t just harmonize with the saxophone, though there are plenty of unison lines that combine jazz and folk into a kind of eerily lonesome music perfect for soundtracking indie movies about murder in the woods; toward the end of the group’s interpretation of “I Dream a Highway,” a soft noise-drone rises slowly beneath Goldberger’s guitar, reminding listeners that Kang has worked with avant-metallers Sunn O))) as well as in jazz contexts. Goldberger can shift back and forth between conventionally jazzy leads and hazily reverbed background chords as necessary. Hart’s bass has a barbed twang; he plays it like he carved it himself. Jennings’ drums are tuned for sharp snapping and metallic ringing, as befitting the sharp edges created by the front-line instruments’ interactions. At times, he adds an almost martial beat to pieces that might otherwise drift away. Everything coheres in a clean and organic manner—no one is drowned out or overmatched.

Harmonious Creature is a unique, even slightly weird album; it’s definitely jazz, but there are elements of hillbilly music, Jewish music, modern classical, and more. It’s a unique statement from a composer confident in her own voice and wise in choosing collaborators to realize her ideas.

Manning answered a few questions about the album, and her approach to music-making, via email; the interview is after the jump.

 

The pieces on this album span a fairly broad range—”Copland on Cornelia Street” feels derived from folk music more than jazz, for example, while the Gillian Welch tune, “I Dream a Highway,” is very bluesy and “Floating Bridge” is pretty aggressive and very “jazzy.” Were these all written together with an eye toward making an album, or are they pieces that came together one at a time and were collated?
I still think of albums as conceptual rather than collections of pieces, and so I definitely wrote the music for the album with the idea of it being a larger work in and of itself. For me, the unifying thread is the instrumentation—the combination of alto, viola and guitar create a myriad of possibilities that do have a bit of a dance into other genres that comes organically. In addition, my studio at the MacDowell Colony, where four of the pieces arose in October of 2012, was in the dense New Hampshire woods. With all sorts of creatures around me as I worked, including a barn owl that swiveled its head at me while I was under its tree, blues and roots and folk seeped in. “Copland on Cornelia Street” was one of those pieces, and had to be written, since I was working in a studio thatAaron Copland himself occupied in 1956! I think he left some bright wide intervals lying around in there.

There are some strong elements of drone in this music—as a composer, are you more of a fan of long tones rather than quick, boppish phrases?
Well, long tones are the foundation of my existence. As a saxophonist, I practice them almost as a meditation, with a tuner set to a foundational pitch and with incense and Oolong tea. As a composer right now I’ve been very focused on texture which lends itself to sonic landscapes without a lot of busy phrases. As a player I do always strive to add more faster lines into my vocabulary, but I don’t want to force them with so many mathematical formulas. When I was younger, when I listened to Charlie Parker or John Coltrane I was drawn to the pyrotechnics, but now I’m drawn to the things they leave out. Rather, how they balance the pyrotechnics with musicality and deep expression. I’d rather say too little than say too much. Clearly, this is contrary to my speaking style. Ha.

Eyvind Kang is based on the West Coast, so obviously this can’t be a working band in the traditional sense. How did these musicians come together, and how much rehearsal and time together did you have before recording?
You know, even if we all lived on the same block it would be just as difficult to have a working band. Everyone needs to put food on the table so with dwindling venues most players are going to work wherever they need to which takes priority over the concept of a band. That said, there are certainly opportunities to tour with musicians, regardless of where they live. For this project, I’d been playing with Rene and Jerome for about a year. Heard Jonathan through a Zion80 show at the Stone and some crazy texture he was creating caused me to play some harmonics I didn’t even know I could play and I thought, this is the right guitarist. I’ve always loved Eyvind’s tone and was writing the music with it in mind until I got to the point where it didn’t make sense not to work together. We had a couple rehearsals and a show and then it was into the studio for a day. This kind of total immersion is cathartic.

The harmonies between your saxophone and his viola are very compelling in a way that two horns might not be. What made you decide that was the sound to go for on this record?
Sound is the major thing that drives me as a player, and the perfected tone of Eyvind’s viola is very similar to my timbre on the alto. When I listened back to studio takes, I almost couldn’t tell us apart a couple of times. So I think it’s an intriguing draw for the ear as if there was another alto made of wood and string. I’ve always been influenced by the sound of Bill Frisell‘s record Quartet which has Eyvind, Ron Miles and Curtis Fowlkes, and so that sound was something I had in mind. But when we started playing together, the extreme accuracy of intonation and purity of Eyvind’s sound brought my own tone to a different place that was really thrilling and challenging to explore.

There are no jazz standards on this album, but you did record a song by Gillian Welch and one by Neil Young. What inspired those choices, and how much work did you do on those tracks to bring them into line with the rest of the disc?
Producer Marc Free always likes the artists on Posi-Tone to include a couple of “standards,” which he defines as a bridge to an audience who may know the tune and as a result find a way to your own compositions. He wants those tunes to be authentic representations of what the artist listens to, and these two songs by Neil Young and Gillian Welch were ones that have obsessively occupied places in my headphones. Both of the “arrangements” of these tunes were more of a loose idea of shape. The results were improvised and so it’s really a question of taking the band sound and applying it to the tunes rather than doing any real “work.” With “On the Beach” we did a take that was more structured and it didn’t really work. Eyvind and Jonathan’s eerie soundscape, coupled with Rene and Jerome driving the rhythm forward, just took on a life of its own and the tune became more of a deconstruction. Though actually, the form is still there and Rene’s referencing the melody in the bass at the very end.

 

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Marc Myers weighs in on Steve Davis “For Real”…

http://www.JazzWax.com

Steve Davis—For Real (Positone). Trombonist Steve Davis has hit a tasteful sweet spot here—a mellow, hard bop configuration that keeps the feel gentle but enveloping. All the songs are Davis originals except for one (that one is by pianist Larry Willis)—and the results are so cohesive and melodic you’d think they were from the Blue Note catalogue. Tenor saxophonist Abraham Burton matches Davis’ easy-does-it nocturnal feel. A gorgeous album. –

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Brent Black reviews Steve Fidyk “Heads Up!”

http://www.criticaljazz.com

Steve Fidyk hits the ground running with one of the finest Posi-Tone releases yet!
Heads up drummers, Steve Fidyk is gaining on you! While certainly not a newbie in the strictest sense, Steve Fidyk’s debut release for Posi-Tone is that of a  highly respected artist, author and columnist that is writing his own story in the upper echelon of improvisational music. The cast of musical co-conspirators here are first rate including perhaps the two finest horn players in Terell Stafford and Tim Warfield. Shawn Purcell is an incredibly under appreciated guitarist and bassist Regan Brough swings deep and hard.
The achilles heel for most straight ahead recordings can be all too predictable covers with arrangements that border on happy hour riffs heard at the local Marriott. Not here, fresh original arrangements join forces with some unexpected covers for a vibrant swing that floats effortlessly throughout this stellar work. Guitarist Shawn Purcell contributes two notable composition including the captivating “Might This Be-Bop.” Everyone seems to be covering a Cole Porter tune and Heads Up! includes an infectious reharm of the classic “Love For Sale” while the re-work of the Johnny Nash “I Can See Clearly Now” actually gives this shop worn tune a second chance at some harmonic life.
“The Flip Flopper” and “The Bender” are two of Fidyk’s finest numbers pulled from the deceptively subtle hard bop showcase. An impressive array of instrumental prowess, fresh arrangements and the uncanny ability to rework a melody with mangling the original finds Steve Fidyk a name to remember and Heads UP! a straight ahead fans dream!
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All About Jazz reviews Steve Davis “For Real”…

www.allaboutjazz.com

For lovers of straight-ahead jazz the Posi-Tone record label is a pretty safe bet, a mark of quality. Label owner and producer Marc Free seems to possess a knack for combining excellent musicians and high quality studios (aided and abetted by engineer Nick O’Toole) to create fresh and rewarding music.

Trombonist Steve Davis is one of those excellent musicians andFor Real is his fourth album for the label. Davis’ long career has seen him produce 16 previous albums as leader, while his sideman credits are extensive and include albums with Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter and Art Blakey. For Realfinds him once again in the company of pianist Larry Willis, bassist Nat Reeves and drummerBilly Williams, who all appeared on Davis’ previous release, Gettin’ It Done (Posi-Tone, 2012). Davis is joined on the front line by saxophonist Abraham Burton, a Grammy winner with the Mingus Big Band. The tenor and trombone combination works beautifully, the instruments complementing each other to boost the richness of the quintet’s sound.

“Blues On Blues,” written by pianist Larry Willis, is a pleasant tune that, unsurprisingly, gives the players a chance to show their bluesier side. The rest of the tunes are Davis’ own compositions.

Mid-tempo groovers such as “For Real” and “Angie’s Groove,” the Latin swinger “Daylight” and the up-tempo, hard bop “Tactics”—which features tight, assertive solos from all five musicians—are irresistible chunks of fun: effortlessly swinging and positive tunes. They’re impressive, as compositions and as performance, but it’s the gentler numbers that really impress. “Nicky D” may have a similar tempo to “For Real” but there’s more space (Burton sits this one out) and Davis’ trombone sound is at its warmest and most inviting. “Days Gone By” finds the quintet in a meditative mood. It’s a ballad that takes its inspiration from pre-bop rather than post-bop, with Burton’s solo and Willis’ comping proving central to its success. The easy-going romance of “I Found You” completes the trio of soulful tunes.

For Real is a superb album, an object lesson in small band jazz and a shining example of the trombonist’s art. It can proudly take its place as one of the Posi-Tone label’s finest releases—as a quick check of the label’s catalog will show, that’s quite an accolade.

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Victor Aaron weighs in on Sarah Manning “Harmonious Creature” for SomethingElse Reviews…

http://somethingelsereviews.com

Four years ago, up-and-coming alto saxophonist Sarah Manning marked her arrival to the NYC scene with her first album with Posi-Tone, Dandelion Clock (2010), and it made waves. She impressed as both a performer and composer with this record, and it led me to believe that even more ambitious things were in store the next time around. Inspired by a fellowship in composition at the McDowell Colony, that promise came to fruition:Harmonious Creature marks real artistic growth for an artist who was already striking her own path.