STEVE SLAGLE - Dedication
Panorama Records: 007
Steve Slagle (alto and soprano sax, flute) Lawrence Fields (piano) Scott Colley (bass) Bill Stewart (bass) Roman Diaz (conga, percussion) with special guest Dave Stryker (guitars) Recorded, July 27th 2017 at Trading 8’s Studio, Paramus, New Jersey.
Following last year’s highly successful `Alto Manhattan` release, which I enthusiastically included in my records of the year list, Steve Slagle is back with another winning set of modern jazz that will tick all the boxes for those like their music to connect with the tradition whilst providing sufficient contemporary frisson to deliver sounds (to paraphrase Whitney Balliett) that have the capacity to stimulate and surprise.
With essentially the same band but with the excellent Scott Colley on bass and guitarist, Dave Stryker guesting on six of the tracks Slagle offers a suite of interestingly diverse and mainly original pieces that are unified by a single concept, each tune being dedicated to either a person, place or mood that has significance for him. The presence of congero Roman Diaz on most tracks, working in close rapport with Bill Stewart’s finely nuanced drumming produces an exciting rhythmic complexity that is captured to perfection by the recording engineers at Trading 8 and draws the listener into the music’s internal dynamics which are every bit as important to the overall result as the instrumental voices they support and drive.
Of these, Slagle’s is inevitably the most powerful and here the characteristics of his style are captured and reproduced with stunning clarity; a tart attacking edge on alto that comes out of Jackie McClean (an acknowledged inspiration) but possessing a reedy resonance that is all his own and finds expression in the intervallic slurs and multiphonic climaxes that spice up the familiar hard-bop progressions he references, without straying into anything overtly avant-garde. Set alongside his distinctive voicings, Stryker’s soft focus guitar – no rock licks here, just gentle bop and blues figures – and the lyrical piano of Lawrence Fields, the band achieves a perfectly balanced and integrated sound.
The music is both questing and reverential opening with a `St Thomas` Caribbean` type romp dedicated to Sonny Rollins and ending with a blues composed by Wayne Shorter taking some driving bop oriented swingers and a couple of more reflective pieces making for a thoroughly satisfying recital of contemporary jazz that we have come to expect from a musician who has emerged from his role as an accomplished sideman to become one of the leading solo voices of the day.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Panorama Records: 007
Steve Slagle (alto and soprano sax, flute) Lawrence Fields (piano) Scott Colley (bass) Bill Stewart (bass) Roman Diaz (conga, percussion) with special guest Dave Stryker (guitars) Recorded, July 27th 2017 at Trading 8’s Studio, Paramus, New Jersey.
Following last year’s highly successful `Alto Manhattan` release, which I enthusiastically included in my records of the year list, Steve Slagle is back with another winning set of modern jazz that will tick all the boxes for those like their music to connect with the tradition whilst providing sufficient contemporary frisson to deliver sounds (to paraphrase Whitney Balliett) that have the capacity to stimulate and surprise.
With essentially the same band but with the excellent Scott Colley on bass and guitarist, Dave Stryker guesting on six of the tracks Slagle offers a suite of interestingly diverse and mainly original pieces that are unified by a single concept, each tune being dedicated to either a person, place or mood that has significance for him. The presence of congero Roman Diaz on most tracks, working in close rapport with Bill Stewart’s finely nuanced drumming produces an exciting rhythmic complexity that is captured to perfection by the recording engineers at Trading 8 and draws the listener into the music’s internal dynamics which are every bit as important to the overall result as the instrumental voices they support and drive.
Of these, Slagle’s is inevitably the most powerful and here the characteristics of his style are captured and reproduced with stunning clarity; a tart attacking edge on alto that comes out of Jackie McClean (an acknowledged inspiration) but possessing a reedy resonance that is all his own and finds expression in the intervallic slurs and multiphonic climaxes that spice up the familiar hard-bop progressions he references, without straying into anything overtly avant-garde. Set alongside his distinctive voicings, Stryker’s soft focus guitar – no rock licks here, just gentle bop and blues figures – and the lyrical piano of Lawrence Fields, the band achieves a perfectly balanced and integrated sound.
The music is both questing and reverential opening with a `St Thomas` Caribbean` type romp dedicated to Sonny Rollins and ending with a blues composed by Wayne Shorter taking some driving bop oriented swingers and a couple of more reflective pieces making for a thoroughly satisfying recital of contemporary jazz that we have come to expect from a musician who has emerged from his role as an accomplished sideman to become one of the leading solo voices of the day.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
