Category: Reviews

steptempest.blogspot.com

Tarbaby is the collective trio of Orrin Evans (piano), Eric RevisNasheet Waits (bass) and (drums) and “The End of Fear” (Posi-Tone Records) is the their 2nd CD. They’ve invited 3 fine guests to join them, including J D Allen (tenor sax), Oliver Lake (alto sax) and Nicholas Payton (trumpet). This is music that takes plenty of chances, throws the listener plenty of curves, yet never feels forced or contrived. Blending original works by each member, collective improvs and a number of fascinating interpretations, the recording sticks in your mind. There is a vocal sample from Duke Ellington (among others), hard-edged riffing (a la The Bad Plus), echoes of Thelonious Monk while the guests match the fire and invention of the hosts. Lake slams through his own piece, “November ’80”, his angular lines pushed by Waits’ rampaging drums (the drummer has been part of many fine rhythm sections this year besides this one – he’s a regular member of Jason Moran’s Bandwagon and trumpeter Avishai Cohen’s “Triveni.”)
Allen, Lake and Payton add moody voices to the ominous take of Andrew Hill’s “Tough Love” (which he recorded as a solo piano piece on the Palmetto release, “Dusk”) – here, it’s Revis’s rumbling bass and Evans’ jagged piano riffs that open up the piece for the braying trumpet and sharp-edged saxophones. It’s not all rampage – the trio plus Allen do a lovely take of Fats Waller’s “Lonesome Me” with the tenor lines being smooth and blues-drenched. Also, listen to the impressionistic piano of Evans. More impressionism on Paul Motian’s “Abacus” where the lead voice is Revis and his melodic bass lines.
Tarbaby rocks and rumbles, sways and soothes, and makes one pay attention. Take heed.

lucidculture

Intense, enigmatic, often very funny, Tarbaby’s debut album The End of Fear is a jazz power trio of sorts featuring Orrin Evans on piano, Eric Revis on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums along with some welcome guests: JD Allen on tenor, Oliver Lake on alto and Nicholas Payton on trumpet. Darkly melodic, fearlessly spontaneous (hence the title) and bristling with combustible energy, time may judge this a classic. Why? After all, there’ve been a ton of energetic jazz albums this year. Answer: clarity of vision. The group latch onto these compositions, dig deep and find the gems inside, tribute as much to the quality of the songs here as much as the playing. Evans has a well-deserved reputation as a powerhouse player, but his most powerful moments here are in the quietest, gentlest passages. Revis, who’s responsible for some of the best pieces here, is subtle to the extreme, a rare bassist who doesn’t waste a note. Waits adds rare elements of musicality and surprise to everything he touches, and he’s in typical form here. Each of the horn players brings his signature as well: Allen’s terse purism, Lake’s practically iconoclastic flights and Payton’s irrepressibility.

The tracks alternate between miniatures and more expansive works, kicking off with a vignette that pits murky, circular Evans stomp versus Lake’s buoyant explorations. The sardonically titled Brews is the blues after too many drinks – although the sauce hasn’t affected anyone other than the staggering rhythm section. Evans drifts between eloquence and chaos, Revis plays the voice of reason out for a long walk, and then it ends cold. Heads, followed later by Tails, are the freest moments here, brief but potent contrasts between background rumble and Payton going wild shooting targets.

Their best songs are the darkest ones. Evans’ showstopper is Jena 6, a brooding commentary on the recent tragic events in Arkansas that packs a wallop in the darkness, glittering obsidian rivulets growing to a harrowing, gospel-inflected intensity. Hesitation, a long mini-suite of sorts by Waits, grows from funereal, through a bitter chromatic dirge that explodes in freedom and reconfigures with similarly gospel-fueled triumph. Fats Waller’s Lonesome Me is reinvented brilliantly as an austere ballad featuring some warily beautiful, minimalist Allen phrasing. By contrast, the version of Andrew Hill’s Tough Love here is a rapidfire display of deft handoffs and team riffage.

There’s also great humor here. Unity, by Sam Rivers shifts suddenly from the cohesion suggested by the title to a wild battle for the ball between Lake and Payton, Evans a bit later on discovering the song’s inner latin soul while Waits stomps through it in his swim fins. November ’80, by Lake, must have been a hell of a time, Evans reaching to calm things down a bit before handing it over to Revis who cleverly ratchets it up again. And a cover of the Bad Brains’ Sailin’ On establishes these guys as a solid hardcore band, Evans’ furious lefthand maintaining the roar in place of the guitar – and contributing a seriously amusing ending. They close with a rapturous, slowly congealing, starlit version of Paul Motian’s Abacus. Check back here sometime and see where it ends up on our list of the best albums of 2010.

www.nytimes.com

Tarbaby — provocative name, right? — is a trio with the pianist Orrin Evans, the bassist Eric Revis and the drummer Nasheet Waits. As with Ms. Laubrock’s band, the group identity is a little porous; its new album, “The End of Fear” (Posi-Tone), mixes in guest appearances integral to the music, from the saxophonists Oliver Lake and J. D. Allen and the trumpeter Nicholas Payton. Tarbaby does what it wants, mostly with some kind of basis in swing and the tradition of the rhythm section through the jazz of the 1960s and early 1970s, though Mr. Waits warps rhythms through instinct.

You feel they’re in a continuous tradition — you can hear the learning in their hands — and yet they’re all over the place. This has got to be the only record with cover versions of Fats Waller (“Lonesome Me”), the Bad Brains (“Sailin’ On”) and Paul Motian (“Abacus”). They could go down this road for a long time, balancing repertory and originals by all three core members, and balancing 50 years of approaches to the small band in jazz.

www.allaboutjazz.com

A band name that some might see as confrontational—although the band denies this—an album title that could be wildly optimistic, a statement of faith or simply ironic; some of the fieriest jazz players on the scene and a scary Hieronymus Bosch-style cover design. What kind of music might emanate from such a combination? Free form, loud, frenetic, aggressive? Yes, but this magnificent, multilayered album offers much more.

While the packaging—name, title, image—might suggest a set of hard-hitting, confrontational music the reality is very different: The End Of Fear is a wonderfully eclectic collection of tunes. Certainly, there are aggressive and ferocious numbers—”Heads,” “Tails” and a warp-speed version of Bad Brains’ “Sailin’ On”—but there is also great beauty: a straight-ahead take on Fats Waller’s lovely “Lonesome Me” and a restrained and dream-like trio performance of Paul Motian’s “Abacus.”

On this album, Tarbaby is pianist Orrin Evans, drummer Nasheet Waits and bassist Eric Revis. Saxophonist Stacy Dillard, a key presence on the eponymous first album (Imani Records, 2009), is absent. Instead, three special guests take charge of the horn parts.

Trumpeter Nicholas Payton is superb, whether adding a raucous, upper register part to the brief and free-blowing “Heads” or a rhythmic, funky line to Sam Rivers’ tremendous “Unity.” Altoist Oliver Lake leads on his own composition, “November 80,” his tight, tense, sound perfectly complemented by Evans’ piano. J.D. Allen—who also played on Tarbaby—appears on only two tunes, but his tenor part on “Lonesome Me” is a master class in straightforward, emotionally engaging musicianship.

The core Tarbaby trio must be one of the strongest and most innovative of such congregations in contemporary jazz: top quality musicians and talented composers. Revis’ “Brews,” a fractured blues, features some powerful, emphatic playing from all three musicians. By contrast, “Abacus” finds Evans and Revis playing delicately, with Waits dipping in and out of the spaces left by his band mates. Waits’ “Hesitation” is the album’s darkest tune—Payton’s breathy, hesitant, trumpet controls the mood perfectly.

Evans’ own writing credit is for “Jena 6,” where his piano playing takes center-stage for what might be described as a “ballad with an edge.” It’s an excellent example of another of the trio’s strengths—its ability to shift the mood or atmosphere of a tune simply by a change of emphasis among the players.

So, however enigmatic the trio’s choice of name or album title may be, the music on The End Of Fear rings out loud and clear. Tarbaby is one of the most powerful, dynamic and exciting jazz bands around.