Jason Parker Quartet
Homegrown
Trumpeter and bandleader Jason Parker has proven himself to be a tireless and committed advocate for the jazz scene in Seattle, involved in a myriad of activities (blogging, podcasting, multiple bands for multiple purposes) and always doing his part to help promote and grow the ecosystem. His latest album is logical outgrowth of his work as a scene-maker: An album consisting of music solely by Seattle composers, aptly titled Homegrown. Everything about this album is literally homegrown Seattle, sourced here in town, from the funding and recording/engineering talent right down to the beer selected for the session days (Pike Place Ale if you must know).
Augmenting his regular rock-solid quartet with Cynthia Mullis on tenor sax, Parker kicks off Homegrown in a New Orleans-by-way-of-Seattle groove with the fine “Snickerdoodle Fritz,” featuring some sterling piano work from the tune’s composer Josh Rawlings, who shines throughout the album, along with a typically fat-toned solo from Parker and a harmony-stretching flurry from Mullins.
Other highlights include the floating, moody “Rue Cler” by Marc Seales and the driving “A.C.S.,” with burning contributions from the ubiquitous and multi-talented tandem of bassist Evan Flory-Barnes and drummer D’Vonne Lewis.
Homegrown presents a solid concept for an album, but realistically it will need to be a recurring series to do justice to the breadth of the Seattle scene (and about half of the 10 tunes are by Parker and his bandmates). Homegrown suggests a need for the creation of an ongoing repertory band, to get some increased exposure for all of the supremely deserving local music out there.
– Andrew Luthringer
Rich Pellegrin Quintet
Episodes IV-VI
OA2 Records
Pianist and composer Rich Pellegrin is a somewhat musically elusive figure. During an initial listen to his new album, Episodes IV-VI, I found myself rummaging for reference points, trying to get a handle on how to describe and process his strikingly original music.
Episodes IV-VI can be described with the increasingly ineffective label of “jazz,” yet it contains very few of the typical elements by which the term is usually defined and negotiated. Pellegrin throws his hand in with a new generation of composers drawing from paths of inspiration far from bluesy clichés and the well-trod confines of Tin Pan Alley.
Methodically conceptual but with a spiritual urgency, Episodes IV-VI patiently explores trance-state blocks of harmony and melody as Pellegrin structures his themes to slowly unfold and develop, pedaling and chiming piano tones with shifting textures below, almost like an inverted drone.
A collective sound and spirit permeates the proceedings, with Pellegrin himself acting as the ensemble bedrock, almost a harmonic percussionist, freeing up exploratory roles and turning over much of the solo space to his stellar ensemble: the tandem of Neil Welch on tenor sax and R. Scott Morning on trumpet, with bracing highlights from bassist Evan Flory-Barnes and telepathic punctuation from drummer Chris Icasiano. The band fully inhabits these tunes – phenomenally sensitive and expressive yet contained, never subverting the unity of group structure and Pellegrin’s concept.
Compositionally, the album is very much a suite, something akin to observing the same monument from a variety of angles. Pellegrin is clearly an artist to watch, and we can all look forward to seeing where his journey leads next.
– AL
Sequoia
Sequoia
For the observant and connected music fan in Seattle, it will not be news that the Racer Sessions and the University of Washington have formed a vital locus of genre-bending, creative music in a variety of flavors, inhabiting vibrant intersections of quirky chamber music, avant-garde, jazz and indie/electronic mashups, all played with conviction and commanding standards of technical execution. Sequoia got its start as a part of this scene, and tenor saxophonist and composer Levi Gillis has since refined the 7-piece ensemble’s collective sound, resulting in this assured self-titled debut.
The writing is ambitious and the lines between improvisation and composition are delectably blurred. Acoustic instruments take on the characteristics of electronics, and a synthesizer often behaves like an acoustic element. The trumpet and clarinet textures position the music somewhere between contemporary classical music and jazz, bridging plaintive triadic harmonies and screaming free jazz cries, while seemingly trying to wrestle the term “Americana” away from the clutches of roots music movements.
Album opener “Hand of Dog” is an apt launching point for a journey through Sequoia’s myriad musical worlds: A broken Aaron Copland-esque waltz establishes the mood before being overtaken by spirited free improvisation. The fittingly titled “Wandergleam” lobs elements of free-floating jazz balladry and electro-ambient while venturing into outer-realm harmonic structures over a probing ostinato. The album’s superb closer, the three-part “Suite for Bosnia & Croatia,” deploys mournful, yearning themes while taking the ensemble into more overtly jazz improvisational textures, including some notably flowing work from drummer Evan Woodle.
It’s a testament to Gillis that the disparate directions on Sequoia do indeed hold together as an album, albeit a challengingly varied one, thanks to the assured arrangements and the sensitive and dynamic ensemble work. Highly recommended.
– AL
