Archive for the ‘Lage Lund’ Category
Will Vinson: Stockholm Syndrome (2010 – Criss Cross)
Saxophonist Will Vinson performs the oft-attempted but rarely accomplished feat of producing fresh and original music with an open affection for tradition. He carefully walks the tightrope, all the while risking falling—on one side into shallow mimicry, and on the other into art music.
Stockholm Syndrome—Vinson’s first Criss Cross release and an appropriately heady mixture of standards and originals—finds the alto saxophonist developing a distinct and personal lyricism. The album brings together five of New York’s best young musicians, with the express goal of creating a new sound. The product seems to be the grandchild of West Coast jazz, including all of its melancholy, grace, and manner, but leaving out its occasional mawkishness. Perhaps it is no coincidence, then, that Vinson updates compositions by both saxophonist Paul Desmond and pianist Bill Evans.
On Vinson’s originals, serpentine melodies and mesmerizing drum figures quickly draw attention. It is, however, the standards that are the highpoint of this recording. Lage Lund’s acoustic guitar shimmers on the dark and evocative “You Wouldn’t Forget Me,” before an exhilarating rendition of Cole Porter’s “Everything I Love,” which features drummer Kendrick Scott’s impressive technique and exceptional taste. The album closes with a spirited and uplifting take of an obscure Evans composition, “Show Type Tune,” which finds Vinson in a trio setting with just piano and drums.
With Stockholm Syndrome, Vinson continues to prove himself a leading force on his instrument, but perhaps even more importantly as a focused bandleader. He demonstrates the ability to build a commanding narrative with his compositions and with the overall sound of the group. The album is beautifully conceived and seems to say everything it wants to say. As Vinson appears to have chosen brevity over bravado, there are no extra phrases or choruses. He chooses musicality above all else—the simple quality too often spurned by the vanguard of contemporary jazz.
All About Jazz (David Lighton)
01. Squeeze
02. Dear Old Stockholm Syndrome
03. Late Lament
04. Dean Street Rundown
05. Icronic
06. You Wouldn’t Forget Me
07. Everything I Love
08. Party Of One
09. Show Type Tune
Personnel:
Will Vinson (Sop Sax, Alto Sax)
Lage Lund (Guitar)
Aaron Parks (Piano)
Kendrick Scott (Drums)
Recorded on June, 2nd 2010 – Label: Criss Cross
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David Sanchez: Cultural Survival (Concord Picante – 2008)
It’s been almost four years since saxophonist David Sanchez released Coral (Columbia, 2004), the disc which marked the end of an eleven year relationship with Sony Music—and it’s wonderful to have his big, singing, prolix tenor back, on song and kicking.
Sanchez has not been idle since Coral, touring extensively with his own band, on a world tour with singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, and on a US tour with guitarist Pat Metheny. He also gave a few headline performances in the US of Eddie Sauter’s “Focus,” a suite originally written for tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, who recorded it on Focus (Verve, 1961). Sanchez was also Artist in Residence at Georgia State University during the 2005/06 academic year.
Of these experiences, the one that has had the most obvious impact on Cultural Survival, Sanchez’s Concord Picante debut, is the tour with Metheny. Though pianists Danilo Perez and Robert Rodriguez are heard on three tracks, their’s are guest appearances, and it is guitarist Lage Lund—a vibrant in-the-tradition player with an interesting sideline in subtle, textural, digital effects—who is the album’s key chordal player and second soloist.
There are seven originals and one cover—a gorgeous version of Thelonious Monk’s “Monk’s Mood.” Aside from this track and the elegiac “The Forgotten Ones,” the disc is up-tempo, assertive, and fiercely energetic. Most of the music sounds like it must have needed detailed written arrangements—there are frequent shifts in tempo, rhythm and dynamics, the introduction of secondary themes, and tension-building passages centered on reiterated motifs—but it all sounds remarkably fresh and organic.
After four years away from the studios, Sanchez has a lot to say, and he solos vigorously, richly, and at length. But while he is generally tagged as a muscular, freebooting player, there’s a delicate side to him too. This shines through in the more pastoral passages on Cutural Survival, and is enjoyably reminiscent of saxophonist Phaorah Sanders during his astral jazz explorations of the late 1960s. The African-derived drums, percussion and chanted vocals which open and close the twenty minute opus “La Leyanda Del Canaveral,” carry unmistakable echoes of “Upper Egypt And Lower Egypt” from Sanders’ Tauhid (Impulse!, 1967). So, too, do Rodriguez’s trippy note clusters. The bass ostinato that introduces Sanchez’s main theme, however, references Jimmy Garrison’s on “Acknowledgement” from saxophonist John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1964).
Sanchez has been missed. Cultural Survival is a brilliant return to disc.
1. Coast To Coast
2. Manto Azul
3. Adoración
4. Monk’s Mood
5. Ay Bendito
6. Cultural Survival
7. *The Forgotten Ones
8. La Leyenda del Cañaveral
David Sanchez: Ten Sax, percu(1, 2), vocal (8);
Lage Lund: electric guitar;
Danilo Perez: piano (2, 6);
Robert Rodriguez: piano and Fender Rhodes (8);
Ben Street: bass (1-7);
Hans Glawisching: bass (8);
Henry Cole: drums (1, 4, 5, 8);
Adam Cruz: drums (2, 3, 6, 7);
Pernell Saturnino: percussion (2, 8).
Original Release Date: May 20, 2008 – Label: Concord Records
Seamus Blake – Bellwether (2009 – Criss Cross)
Some albums are named for a time, a place, an experience, or even a person. Others have a concept. Saxophonist Seamus Blake takes on concept with Bellwether, a term for leader or trendsetter.
Born in England and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Blake has gained recognition by Down Beat and JazzTimes magazines, and finished first in the 2002 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition. His associations include Mark Turner, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Larry Grenadier and Victor Lewis. For Bellwether, Blake is accompanied by guitarist Lage Lund, pianist David Kikoski, bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Bill Stewart.
“A Beleza Que Vem,” one of five Blake compositions, is an easygoing piece that features the leader on soprano saxophone, playing the melody in duet with Lund. Bass and drums are subtle, rim shots and strategically placed splash cymbals subtly accenting Kikoski’s solo. Blake stretches out plenty on his solo, the music building in intensity, at one pointy, as if to signal the end, but he plays on.
“Subterfuge,” another original, features Blake on tenor. Guitar and sax blend on the lead of a song in 4/4 time but which, because of some creative note placement, often sounds like another time signature. Lund’s solo subtly references Pat Metheny, while Stewart gives the entire kit a workout during his solo.
Some of Bellwether’s selections are symphonic in mood, but whether symphonic or hard charging, the music is always cohesive and expressive. Each musician shines as an individual, but there’s never a moment when the group concept is lost.
Woodrow Wilkins (All About Jazz)
Original Release Date: September 22, 2009 – Label: Criss Cross
Across Rhythm 