Tag: Orrin Evans

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Orrin Evans – Faith in action (Posi-Tone, 2010)

Ya un veterano con numerosos discos a su nombre (la mayoría en el sello Criss Cross) que no siempre le hacen justicia, el pianista Orrin Evans debutó este año en Posi-tone, una de las etiquetas más activas en el área del neo-bop.

El disco es casi un homenaje a su antiguo patrón, el saxofonista Bobby Watson (la mitad de los temas son versiones), pero ese es un detalle sin demasiada importancia, ya que cobran nueva vida en sus manos. Aunque la influencia monkiana es palpable en Two steppin’ with dawn, y la huella de McCoy Tyner se deja notar, Evans no se deja clasificar fácilmente y en los temas más vibrantes encontramos semejanzas con el toque percusivo de Geri Allen o incluso de Vijay Iyer (obsérvese el fascinante juego rítmico deDon’t call me Wally o la electrizante tensión de su lectura de Appointment in Milano).

Este estupendo disco confirma que el pianista de Filadelfia es uno de los más destacados del momento, que sea menos conocido que otros nombres más mediocres sólo puede ser achacable a razones de marketing; como en el caso de Mulgrew Miller (otro pianista para pianistas), quizás no ofrezca nada especialmente llamativo con lo que llenar páginas en los medios, sólo música rigurosa e impecable, al fin y al cabo lo más importante.

By Richard Scheinin
…Orrin Evans. “Faith in Action” (Posi-tone). Pianist Evans has assimilated the whole tradition, from Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk through Herbie Hancock and on out. Now in his mid-30s, hailing from Philadelphia, he’s “just” a great piano player, flying under the media radar. Go ahead. Discover someone new. This trio date should grab you by the coattails…

trioriot.blogspot.com

Have you heard Orrin Evans play the piano? With a loaded name like that, try Bill Keepnews, it’s easy to be confused but don’t be – you need to hear him, you should hear him, you will hear him. Making jazz albums since the mid nineties, I’m ashamed to say I’ve only just connected to this piano master born in New Jersey in 1976. Faith In Action is a tribute to the great alto player and composer, Bobby Watson whose tunes make up nearly half the CD. Playing here in the company of Nasheet Waits, drums and Luques Curtis, bass, the trio plays in a straight ahead contemporary style with hints of Tyner, Hancock and Monk at the roots. Evans has remained largely under the radar compared to some of his contemporaries in the US scene like Robert Glasper and Taylor Eigsti – maybe because his approach is totally uncompromising, acerbic and without artifice. He swings hard and unrelentingly;Don’t Call Me Wally, Appointment in Milano, but can also turn corners into reflective exploration and meditations on a mood; Matthew’s Song, Love Remains. I love it when the playing descends (or do I mean ascends?) into the avant garde on the fringes of pieces that seem to fray the edges of near oblivion like MAT-Mat andWheel Within a Wheel. This is as good as it gets and when he launches into the Monk-washed, Two Steppin’ With Dawn, you hear the pedigree loud and clear.

For people who like well conceived hard swinging solos that knock at the doors of perception with no hint of commercial compromise, Orrin Evans and the trio is for you. It’s like sailing in a choppy sea in a sleek yacht with an experienced crew who know how to ride the crest of the wave. Highly recommended – the title says it all.

www.downbeat.com

Orrin Evans

Faith In Action

POSI-TONE 8058

★★★★

“Don’t Call Me Wally,” the three- minute marvel that opens the latest album by the consistently beguiling, elusive pianist Orrin Evans, is a veritable symphony of motion, a wonderfully jagged chunk of Thelonious Monk-like puckishness and rhythmic restless- ness. It also happens to swing like mad. Evans, bassist Luques Curtis, and, especially, drummer Nasheet Waits ferry the piece through end- less shifts, as each player alters melodic patterns and grooves ev- ery couple of bars, forcing their quick-thinking partners to quickly adapt. While the music belongs to New York’s mainstream vanguard, there’s something about it that makes me think of the prankish- ness of Amsterdam’s Misha Men- gelberg and Han Bennink. This opening piece, an Evans original, might be the most perfect and sat- isfying piece of music I’ve heard this year.

Luckily, the rest of the album is almost as good and just as rigorous. This beautifully recorded session captures his muscular, angular side as well as his tender character bet- ter than anything he’s ever done. That he’s able to accomplish this while paying homage to one of his former mentors—saxophonist Bobby Watson, who penned half of the tracks here—indicates the pia- nist’s ability to get inside any piece of music and remake it his own.

—Peter Margasak

Faith In Action: Don’t Call Me Wally; Faith In Ac- tion; Wheel Within A Wheel; Appointment In Milano; Matthews Song; Beatitudes; MAT-Matt; Love Remains; Two Steppin With Dawn; Why Not. (55:36)

Personnel: Orrin Evans, piano; Luques Curtis, bass; Nasheet Waits, drums; Rocky Bryant, drums (3); Gene Jackson, drums (5, 9). ordering info: posi-tone.com

by Paul Zetter

Have you heard Orrin Evans play the piano? With a loaded name like that, try Bill Keepnews, it’s easy to be confused but don’t be – you need to hear him, you should hear him, you will hear him. Making jazz albums since the mid nineties, I’m ashamed to say I’ve only just connected to this piano master born in New Jersey in 1976. Faith In Action is a tribute to the great alto player and composer, Bobby Watson whose tunes make up nearly half the CD. Playing here in the company of Nasheet Waits, drums and Luques Curtis, bass, the trio plays in a straight ahead contemporary style with hints of Tyner, Hancock and Monk at the roots. Evans has remained largely under the radar compared to some of his contemporaries in the US scene like Robert Glasper and Taylor Eigsti – maybe because his approach is totally uncompromising, acerbic and without artifice. He swings hard and unrelentingly; Don’t Call Me Wally, Appointment in Milano, but can also turn corners into reflective exploration and meditations on a mood; Matthew’s Song, Love Remains. I love it when the playing descends (or do I mean ascends?) into the avant garde on the fringes of pieces that seem to fray the edges of near oblivion like MAT-Mat and Wheel Within a Wheel. This is as good as it gets and when he launches into the Monk-washed, Two Steppin’ With Dawn, you hear the pedigree loud and clear.

For people who like well conceived hard swinging solos that knock at the doors of perception with no hint of commercial compromise, Orrin Evans and the trio is for you. It’s like sailing in a choppy sea in a sleek yacht with an experienced crew who know how to ride the crest of the wave. Highly recommended – the title says it all.

www.jazzreview.com

CD Title: Faith in Action

Year: 2010

Record Label: Posi-Tone Records

Style: Straight-Ahead / Classic

Musicians: Orrin Evans (piano), Luques Curtis (bass), Nasheet Waits (drums), Rocky Bryant (drums on one track), Gene Jackson (drums on two tracks)

Review:This is an entertaining and satisfying set by an unusually good piano trio. Veteran Orrin Evans has played for years with Bobby Watson’s group. Here he does five of the saxophonist’s tunes, four of his own and “Why Not” by D. Warren. The moods range widely—from the tropical lushness of Watson’s “Love Remains” to the Monkish “Two Steppin with Dawn,” best of the Evans originals.

Evans is seldom out of the spotlight, but the trio is tightly integrated. Only 27, bassist Luques Curtis is the solid foundation. Nasheet Waits, a drummer who has begun to attract a lot of knowledgeable attention, is more assertive but always in a good cause. Unlike modern drummers who drop odd bombs and solo from the beginning to the end of an arrangement, the active Waits is more partner than competitor. His colorful additions echo the rhythm of Evans’s melodic line or intensify changes in the trio’s dynamics and groove.

The three-way interplay is particularly rich on “Wheel Within a Wheel” and “Matthews Song;” the arrangements display a bit of the intricate sophistication of classical music without losing the swinging freedom of jazz.

A hard-driving version of Watson’s “Appointment in Milano” is another winner. It features Waits at his most aggressive, but Evans and Curtis hold their own, even when the mood is at its wildest. In a good example of album pacing, “Beatitudes” follows. The only piano solo, it is introspective and mildly abstract.

Evans cites a raft of influences, famous and obscure, many of them non-pianists. He has incorporated bits of each in a versatile style of his own, demonstrated here in one of the year’s best trio outings. It’s not easy to attract attention amidst the swarm of veterans and terrific young players like Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer and Luis Perdomo, but this album makes a strong case for adding Orrin Evans to your list.

Recommended.

thejazzbreakfast.wordpress.com

Orrin Evans: Faith In Action (Posi-Tone Records PR8058)
Orrin Evans will probably be best known in the UK as the pianist who took the keyboard seat normally occupied by Uri Caine when Dave Douglas toured here in 2008. He has been heard recently with Jamaaladeen Tacuma. In fact the Philadelphian studied with Kenny Barron, worked a lot with Bobby Watson and with the Mingus Big Band, and made his first trio album in 1994.

This one is a trio disc, too, with Luques Curtis on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums for most of the tracks.

He’s a terrific pianist – warm and solid, able to explore some of those modern hip-hop-nuanced things while still rooted in the grand jazz piano tradition that still finds its sternest testing ground in the clubs of New York – grounds where Evans thrives.

A few of the tracks here are original O Evans credits, but a lot also have B Watson next to the titles, so Evans is happy to keep exploring the material first provided by one of his early employers. And some serious exploring he certainly does in this demanding material.

I’m not sure about the piano sound on the album is all it might be on the more explosive tracks, like Appointment in Milano, but so absorbing is Evans’ playing that one soon forgets any sonic shortcomings. The trio interaction here is electrifying, too.

His treatment of the Watson classic, Love Remains, is rhapsodic and expansive against a strong ostinato from Curtis, with tastily chosen voicings and slow waterfalls down the keyboard, before side-stepping briefly into a soul jazz groove and returning to a bass solo against the brushes. This is timeless stuff.