www.jazzreview.com

Exploring odd-meters, swirling melodic themes and rhythmically-charged free-form improvisations, the New York-based collective Tarbaby delivers an intriguing set of swing-based jazz with The End of Fear. Along with core members Orrin Evans on piano, bassist Eric Revis and Nasheet Watts on drums, the twelve-track set features the trumpeter Nicholas Payton and saxophonists Oliver Lake and JD Allen.

The use of speech sound bites cleverly enhances shorter, open-ended pieces such as “E-Math” and “Heads.” Such extra-musical add-ons can easily diminish the intent of spontaneous deposition. Fortunately, the overdubs here are used sparingly.

Lake, a legendary figure in avant jazz, perhaps best known for his work with the World Saxophone Quartet, performs with uncompromised creativity on Sam River’s “Unity,” Andrew Hill’s “Tough Love” and his own composition “November ’80.” The alto saxophonist soars with a hard-edged, seasoned lyricism (at times lacking in the bold, over-exuberance of Payton’s trumpet).

For all the spirited blowing from the guest soloists, it is the tunes with trio only that stand out as compelling. The supple, unhurried camaraderie between Evans, Revis and Waits on the Monk-inspired “Brews,” “Jena 6” and “Abacus” has an enticing allure.

The End of Fear is a strong, well-conceptualized release. A disc well worth repeated listening.

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.

www.artsjournal.com/rifftides

Recent Listening: Tarbaby

Orrin Evans, Eric Revis, Nasheet Waits & Guests, Tarbaby: The End of Fear (Posi-tone). Pianist Evans, bassist Revis and drummer Waits comprise a leaderless or cooperative trio who live up to the album’s subtitle. They are not afraid to go wacky, nearly unhinged, in two free pieces, “Heads”—featuring trumpeter Nicholas Payton at his most liberated and chancy—and “Tails,” with the avantTarbaby.jpg garde alto saxophonist Oliver Lake sitting in. Payton and Lake rein in their wildness for the melody choruses in a quintet interpretation of Sam Rivers’ “Unity” but hold back little in their solos and simultaneous improvisation. Tarbaby is not afraid to plumb the romance and lyricism of Fats Waller’s 1932 ballad “Lonesome Me,” with a touching reading of the melody by tenor saxophonist J.D. Allen. In “Brews” Evans is not afraid to skew the good old B-flat blues toward the lamented, half-forgotten pianist Herbie Nichols and a couple of chromatic runs straight out of Teddy Wilson. Nor in his “Jena 6” is he afraid to demonstrate the harmonic individualism that makes him one of the most interesting jazz pianists under 40 (he’s 34).

Enough of the fear gambit. On the Nasheet Waits composition “Hesitation,” Payton covers the range of the trumpet using a spacious tone in all registers and a succession of connected ideas laden with emotion. This is among his best recent work. Payton, Lake, Allen and the rhythm section light up Andrew Hill’s “Tough Love.” Hip-hop aficionados may be able to understand the spoken conversations woven into the opening track, “E-Math,” although I suspect that the chatter was intended not to be understood but to supply atmosphere. It does that, but only the most agile brain will be able to separate the flows of music and voice. Perhaps it’s best to let it just wash over you. At any rate, it lasts only two minutes or so, then the album moves on to the marvelous “Brews” and the rest. Through pieces composed by members of the band plus those by Hill, Waller, Rivers, Paul Motian and—surprisingly—the hardcore punk/reggae group Bad Brains’ “Sailin’ On,” Tarbaby and friends give us an album that seems all but certain to wind up on the year’s 10-best lists.

www.allaboutjazz.com

Virtually every musician deals with fear at one time or another. Perhaps it comes with a first opportunity to perform in an ensemble, or maybe it arrives when first taking flight and leaving the relative comforts of written music, searching for an elusive sound through an improvised medium. Regardless of when it happens, performers have to learn to work through this fear to reach a new level of comfort and artistry in music. The trio known as Tarbaby—pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits—seems to have left fear behind a long time ago: individually, these musicians are at the vanguard of modern jazz; collectively, they present a form of music that lives in the here and now, but gives due credit to who and what has come before. The End Of Fear attests to these facts.

While this crew is more than capable of carrying the load by themselves, three guest horn players add new dimensions to Tarbaby’s music. Rising tenor saxophone star J.D. Allen, alto saxophone guru Oliver Lake, and trumpet titan Nicholas Payton are on hand to lend support and talent to much of this music.

A pair of Revis originals opens the program, and “E-Math” is equal parts hip and ominous. Background chatter—in the same vein as that heard on Marvin Gaye’s classic “What’s Going On”—evolves into paranoid voices as the doom-laden bass and drum team creates some magic behind Payton’s stellar muted lines. The followup, “Brews,” has a bluesy, Monk-ish slant to it, and an inebriated vibe hovers over this song.

Two collectively created miniatures—”Heads” and “Tails”—deal with free play and bombast. Neither track is particularly memorable, despite the caustic saxophone shrieks on the latter, but freedom—not form—seems to be the point of these two pieces. The only other brief episode is a cover of Bad Brains’ “Sailin’ On,” where raging thrash jazz and throbbing, distorted sounds are the order of the day, with Revis the constant upon which everybody relies.

When this group isn’t creating stormy sonic serenades, it produces some wondrous music that follows wide arcs of evolution. Evans’ “Jena 6” starts with a touch of mysticism, making friends with the avant-garde and building around the pianist’s thought-provoking work before moving toward a climax on the shoulders of Waits’ loose-yet-powerful drumming. Waits’ “Hesitation” is a masterpiece, with Payton delivering the best horn performance on the album. Breathy allure, bent notes, one fantastic growl, and a Terence Blanchard-like sense of drama are all in play here.

Other noteworthy performances include Lake’s angular “November ’80,” a straightforward ballad performance of Fats Waller’s “Lonesome Me,” and a ghostly “Tough Love,” from Andrew Hill’s catalog. Tongue-in-cheek toying, musical tantrums and high art are all present in equal parts on the compelling journey that is The End Of Fear.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/music/112467429.html

TARBABY

The End of Fear (Posi-Tone)

YES, it’s a provocative band name, and there is some provocative music in spots, but this CD is great.

At its core is a power trio of sorts in pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Watts, augmented by saxophonists Oliver Lake (alto) and J.D. Allen (tenor) along with trumpeter Nicholas Payton.

The material ranges from Fats Waller to punk band Bad Brains, but it is all energetic, well-written, well-played and simply great music. Powerhouse pianist Evans and superb drummer Watts are highlights of the disc, but Revis and the horns take it to a new level. It may be bit out-there in spots for some fans, but it is an album full of superb playing. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö

— Chris Smith