56 JAZZTIMES SEPTEMBER 2019
ment associated with Lennie Tristano,
Warne Marsh, and Lee Konitz, often
imprecisely categorized as “cool.”
The concert turns them loose for an
hour and a half on rich repertoire like
Tristano’s “Lennie’s Pennies,” Konitz’s
“Subconscious-Lee,” and Marsh’s
“Background Music.” The chordless
quartet contains bassist Putter Smith
and drummer Joe LaBarbera.
The event feels loose and casual. The
format is unapologetically head-so-
los-head. Tracks and solos run long.
Turner has time for a vast five-minute
a cappella cadenza that finally crystal-alto saxophone sound, one of the most
seductive in jazz.
THOMAS CONRADNATALIE
CRESSMAN &
IAN FAQUINI
Setting Rays of Summer
Cressman MusicSome albums arrive without prece-
dent, a world unto themselves. While
bringing to mind the sophisticated,
jazz-infused post-Tropicalia songs
of Brazilian composers like Guinga,
Milton Nascimento, and Marcos Valle,
Natalie Cressman and Ian Faquini’s
unusual duo album Setting Rays of
Summer sounds as fresh and revivify-
ing as a clear mountain stream.
A guitarist, vocalist, and composer
born in Brasilia and raised since child-
hood in Berkeley, Calif., Faquini is re-
sponsible for the voluptuously shaped
compositions and lithe but orchestral
guitar work. He also possesses a pleas-
ingly reedy voice that blends artfully
with Cressman’s bright, translucent
singing. She’s a top-shelf trombonist
who’s worked with such diverse artists
as Peter Apfelbaum and Phish’s Trey
Anastasio, and is utterly at home in
MPB (musica popular brasileira), the
omnivorous Brazilian movement that
emerged out of bossa nova and Tropi-
calia at the end of the 1960s.
Cressman contributes lyrics to three
of the 10 pieces, one in Portuguese
and two in English, including the
wistful title track that encapsulates the
album’s evocation of brief epipha-
nies, fleeting pleasures, and enduring
memories. Iara Ferreira provides
the Portuguese lyrics for four songs,
including the levitating ballad “De-
bandada,” rendered as a delicately in-
tertwined duet, and the surging samba
“Mandingueira.” Rogerio Santos wrote
the lyrics for “Lenga Lenga,” which
has an infectious hook worthy of a
standard, and the dreamy “Uirapuru,”
a lovely sigh of a song. The melody of
Faquini’s instrumental piece “Museu
Nacional” echoes the exquisite mel-
ancholy of Jobim’s “O Amor em Paz,”
delivered with burnished intensity by
Cressman’s trombone.lizes into “Come Rain or Come Shine.”
This album is one long seamless
continuum of melodic theme- and-
variation. Two exceptional impro-
visers derive a remarkable quantity
of attractive spontaneous ideas from
their source materials. The best track
is the shortest. Foster opens “What’s
New?” with a soft cry straight up
from the soul, languidly, shamelessly
caresses the melody, then floats slowly
downriver on the gentle currents of
the song. The audio quality of this
live recording is just good enough to
allow the listener to revel in Foster’sEditor’s PickMATT MITCHELL
Phalanx Ambassadors
PiMatt Mitchell’s vision is a model of wonky brilliance. The magnitude of his personal
and artistic ambition has been stated clearly enough on previous Pi productions and
through many other wildly unique associations, but recordings like this remind us
that he’s always brewing something fresh.
Leading a quintet through hyper-specific hinterlands, Mitchell revels in the act
of creation. There’s a jostling camaraderie at play early on, as the eponymous
ensemble navigates the first three slanted scenes—the knotty “stretch goal” and
miniatures “taut pry” and “zoom romp”—with warped precision. Sophisticated,
intense, and filled with information-dense thickets, the music has gravity that’s hard
to escape.
Phalanx Ambassadors’ centerpiece—“phasic haze ramps,” constituting a solid
third of the album’s 46 minutes—serves as the point of departure from an outpost
that’s already fairly remote. The material that precedes it, idiosyncratic and asym-
metric though it may be, is tightly coiled. This performance, in contrast, appears
to be unwound and unbound through much of its existence. But various points of
cohesion serve as trail markers, indicating a loosely and smartly outlined course.
Clearing the brambles and the uncertainty away, the Ambassadors take a reflec-
tive turn with the absorbing “ssgg.” Then there’s a notable lean toward dynamism
and danger with the parting tracks,
“Be irreparable” and “mind aortal
cicatrix.” While focused on collec-
tive chemistry, Mitchell’s work also
frequently celebrates the individ-
ual. Guitarist Miles Okazaki, mallet
percussionist Patricia Brennan,
bassist Kim Cass, and drummer
Kate Gentile proudly serve as
interpreters, soloists, searchers,
and rebels. Together and apart,
with Mitchell leading the way, they
prove devilishly profound.
“Gravity that’s hard to escape”: (L to R) Kate DAN BILAWSKY
Gentile, Patricia Brennan, Miles Okazaki, Matt
Mitchell, Kim CassJOHN^ ROGERSREVIEWS ALBUMS