Jason Palmer - Places

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 72:23
Size: 166,3 MB
Art: Front

( 9:48)  1. Urban Renewal (For High Point)
( 9:22)  2. Falling In (For Guimaraes)
( 8:49)  3. Berlin
(10:51)  4. Bern
( 9:01)  5. Rising Sign (For Paris)
( 2:10)  6. Silver (For Xalapa)
( 7:55)  7. American Deceptionalism Part I (For DC)
( 8:49)  8. Sprit Song (For Rozzy)
( 5:34)  9. American Deceptionalism Part II

Apart from Mark Turner, none of the musicians on this recording, including the leader, are known to me but I am more than happy to make their acquaintance through the medium of what is another fine release from Steeplechase Records. And what a superb record it is; one that will caress the discerning ear and repay hours of repeated listening being a refined post-modern extension of timeless hard-bop conventions that will stimulate the palate, jaded by too much exposure to so called `cutting edge` eclecticism. Palmer, if you don’t already know, is a top drawer trumpeter whose plangent clarion call is an elegant summation of much that has gone before but whose fervent chromaticism pushes at the boundaries of conventional expression, marking out new territory  without risking the listeners’ alienation. His middle register lyricism occasionally boils over into a higher register but without ever sounding strident or histrionic.

In this recording he has assembled a band of contemporaries, some of whom he first encountered at college and others during subsequent assignments, to perform a suite of pieces that take their inspiration from various cities he has visited during the course of his career. They aren’t strictly jazz impressions in the Brubeck sense of being musical tone poems but rather more personal visions that unite a place and time with the feelings they engender. Many open with extended cadenzas either for solo instrument or two part counterpoint before segueing into either a knotty hard –bop theme or a legato wistfulness reminiscent of `Birth of the Cool` introspection. Ensemble writing is carefully balanced with solo interpretatation and in this context the contribution made by Mark Turner is particularly valuable; his rigorous and sinuous variations recall the almost academic dedication of the Tristano alumni, Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz, but couched in expressive, personal and more contemporary terms All involved ensure music making of the highest quality: there is some superlative bass playing; guitar that moves between scintillating arpeggios and dense vamping and what drumming! Kendrick Scott’s cymbal work is pure sonic poetry almost stealing the show in the way he makes his entries behind the respective soloists, building and releasing tension, judiciously applying accents to gather and drive the forward momentum. If you are a true believer in the power of jazz to renew and build upon its deeply ingrained conventions in a way that doesn’t compromise its core values then this is a record you will what to hear and own. ~ Euan Dixon http://www.jazzviews.net/jason-palmer-sextet---places.html

Personnel: Jason Palmer (trumpet) Godwin Louis (alto sax) Mark Turner (tenor sax) Mike Moreno (guitar) Edward Perez (bass) Kendrick Scott (drums)

Places

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