Greg Osby: The Invisible Hand (Blue Note Records – 2000)

Greg Osby has come a long way from his beginnings in St. Louis playing funk and R&B. His sound crossed our radar screens after moving to Brooklyn and joining forces with Steve Coleman in the mid-‘80s to form M-BASE, an urban-beat driven jazz. Osby had a very calculated, sometimes emotionless sound. It was if he was working equations in his head as he played. Where his older recordings suffered from a staid studio approach, his recent effort, Banned In New York, a live “bootleg” recording, displays Osby as an emotional quick-witted band leader. His last disc, Friendly Fire, a co-led affair with Joe Lovano proved Osby deserves to be considered as one of the top musicians working today.
The Invisible Hand is further proof that Osby treads comfortably between the past and, importantly, the future of jazz. Joining him are Gary Thomas and Teri Lynn Carrington from his early Brooklyn days and two of the professor emeriti of jazz, Jim Hall and Andrew Hill. Hall is a guitarist that favors a subtle touch; a peculiar feature for someone so associated with cutting edge jazz. He has recorded classic albums with Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, and Paul Desmond. Lately, his Telarc dates have featured his third stream thinking. Andrew Hill’s Blue Note dates of the sixties were cerebral efforts, not quite post-bop and not really free jazz affairs. Early in Osby’s career he was a sideman for the late-‘80s Blue Note comeback of Hill. Likewise, he has recorded on two recent Hall dates. The Invisible Hand trades mathematics for emotion. The slow to mid-tempos presented are fertile grounds for group interplay and interpretation. For instance, they take on Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz,” a tune forever associated with Eric Dolphy. Rather than compete with our collective memories, Osby deconstructs the composition choosing bug parts over the whole, reworking it as an intellectual exercise. Osby’s deference to his esteemed colleagues shows. A stately and exquisite affair.
(All About Jazz)

Tracklist:
1 Ashes
2 Who Needs Forever?
3 The Watcher Osby
4 Jitterbug Waltz
5 Sanctus Hall
6 (Back Home Again In) Indiana
7 Nature Boy
8 Touch Love
9 With Son Osby
10 The Watcher, No. 2

Personnel:
Greg Osby Clarinet, (Alto Sax )
Gary Thomas (Flute, Alto & Tenor Sax)
Jim Hall (Guitar)
Andrew Hill (Piano)
Scott Colley (Bass)
Terri Lyne Carrington (Drums)

Original Release Date: February 29, 2000 – Label: Blue Note Records

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Donny McCaslin: Declaration (2009 – Sunnyside)

 Venturing into unexplored territory, New York-based tenor saxophonist’s third recording for Sunnyside Records is a marked departure from his previous release, the stripped-down trio session Recommended Tools (Greenleaf, 2008). Augmenting his working ensemble with an understated brass section, Declaration showcases McCaslin’s stellar skills as an improviser while demonstrating his mettle as a burgeoning writer and arranger.
Renowned for his Olympian tenor solos, McCaslin’s facile interpretive abilities were honed under the tutelage of George Garzone and Billy Pierce at Berklee, and documented as a sideman in the company of such luminaries as David Binney, Dave Douglas, Danilo Perez and Maria Schneider. McCaslin comes into his own as a composer on this panoramic session, which highlights his creative virtuosity as soloist and writer in a variety of settings.
Joined by pianist Edward Simon and a four-piece brass choir, McCaslin’s augmented quintet interprets these multi-hued compositions with brio. As veterans of McCaslin’s previous Sunnyside dates, In Pursuit (2007) and Soar (2006), guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Scott Colley, drummer Antonio Sanchez and percussionist Pernell Saturnino lend this session a congenial sensibility filled with lyrical panache.
New to this longstanding core line-up, Simon proves as valuable a foil for McCaslin as Monder. Restrained and economical, Simon delivers billowy narrative soliloquies on “M” and “2nd Hour,” offering serene contrast to the leader’s fervid cadences. Whether amplifying McCaslin’s muscular phrasing with scorching fretwork on the appropriately titled “Rock Me,” or unveiling gossamer filigrees on the lush ballad “Jeanina,” Monder’s chameleonic versatility is peerless.
Embracing a wealth of genres and styles, the anthem-like opener “M” showcases the leader’s pneumatic tenor, while “Fat Cat” demonstrates McCaslin and Simon’s expertise navigating percolating Latin rhythms. The opulent harmonies of “Jeanina” and the plaintive Americana of the title track are the inverse of “Uppercut” and “2nd Hour”—labyrinthine post-bop excursions fraught with oblique angles and ingenious arrangements. Indicative of their titles, “Rock Me” is an electrified rave-up, with “Late Night Gospel” one of McCaslin’s most compelling tunes—an ascending blues meditation featuring Simon and Monder’s silver-toned lyricism buoyed by soulful brass accompaniment.
Considered one of the reigning mainstream tenor stylists of the post-Michael Brecker generation, Declaration is a bold new step for McCaslin, proving his abilities as a developing composer and arranger of note and opening new vistas on an already promising career.
By Troy Collins (All About Jazz)

Tracklist:
01 – M
02 – Fat Cat
03 – Declaration
04 – Uppercut
05 – Rock Me
06 – Jeanina
07 – 2nd Hour
08 – Last Night Gospel

Parsonnel:
Donny McCaslin: tenor saxophone, alto flute (1, 8)
Edward Simon: acoustic piano, organ (5)
Ben Monder: guitar
Scott Colley: bass
Antonio Sanchez: drums
Pernell Saturnino: percussion (2)
Alex Sipiagin: trumpet, flugelhorn (1, 2, 3, 5, 7)
Chris Komer: French horn (1, 2, 3, 5)
Marshall Gilkes: trombone (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8)
Marcus Rojas: tuba (3, 5, 7, 8), bass trombone (1)
Tatum Greenblatt: trumpet (1)

Original Release Date: July 28, 2009 – Label: Sunny Side Records

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Adam Rogers: Allegory (2003 – Criss Cross )

Jazz used to be a form of popular music, and indeed a folk music in its own right, before bebop intellectualized it and hard bop institutionalized it. That was a sad development in a way because the music drifted away from the public and ended up holed up in a tiny “art music” niche. When free jazz hit in the ’60s, there was no mistaking that jazz would never really go back.
Guitarist Adam Rogers is committed to making serious music for serious listeners. His debut, Art of the Invisible (Criss Cross, 2002), brought an already active sideman to the full attention of the jazz world, and the new quintet disc Allegory offers music of a similarly high caliber. Rogers is a traditionalist in every sense, whether it be in his playing, his group concept, or his compositions (all originals here), but the state of the jazz tradition is an advanced one indeed at this point. Modern jazz, as a category or just a plain description, works as good as any when it comes to describing Allegory.
Rogers paces his compositions. “Genghis” works through arranged melodic phrases (mostly consisting of his instrument placed carefully alongside Chris Potter’s tenor sax), loose reunions (more flexible and open), and explicit soloing (Rogers swinging bumpily along, almost funky but not quite there). He makes a conscious use of different meters: three, four, five, six, and seven are all featured on the record, sometimes in the same piece. The band sticks together through the changes, hiding them away and maintaining forward motion. “Orpheus” goes from six to seven and back, taking advantage of Rogers’ switch to nylon to reinforce a pensive mood before the piece shifts to a higher gear.
Other than Rogers, the most forward voices on this record belong to saxophonist Chris Potter and bassist Scott Colley. Potter is responsible for most of the edgy feel when the music turns energetic, and Colley has a way of judiciously placing notes into various situations in order to round out harmonies and anchor the music.
The very same seriousness that gives Allegory its heft ironically subtracts from its effectiveness. Melodies are so focused that they rarely stick in your mind, the various changes in the music are abstract beyond ready comprehension, and the playing is so under control that it never really flies free. (Chris Potter provides just about all of the exceptions.)
I guess Adam Rogers has become too sophisticated for his own good. He’s obviously talented in just about every respect, but I just wish he would loosen up and get a little closer to the real roots of the music, a place where regular people can pick up the message without putting on a heavy thinking cap and listening over and over again. Could just be me…
Nils Jacobson  (All About Jazz)

Track List:
1. Confluence
2. Phrygia
3. Was
4. Genghis;
5. Angle of Repose;
6. Orpheus;
7. Red Leaves;
8. Cleveland;
9. Purpose;
10. Angle of Repose –
11. Reprise.

Personnel:
Adam Rogers (guitar)
Chris Potter: (tenor saxophone)
Edward Simon: (piano)
Scott Colley: (bass)
Clarence Penn: (drums)

Original Release Date: September 23, 2003  –  Label: Criss Cross
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