JazzTimes – October 2019

Having laid down the backbeats on
Coleman touchstones like 1988’s Virgin
Beauty, Weston is certainly well-versed
in melding both harmolodics and
strings. On Dust and Ash, recorded
with a new group called the Phoenix
Orchestra (including two violinists and
one cellist), the results of that combina-
tion are jaw-dropping. Weston’s intense
love for the dizzying intricacies of John
McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra
comes into play here, as well as the
mangled guitar action of Ribot and the
jam-band organ splatter of sometime
collaborator John Medeski, backed by
sublime string arrangements.
After a dreamy prelude (the min-
ute-and-change opener, “With Open
Wings”), Weston and the Phoenix
Orchestra are on fire. Pulsating beats
and rhythms, elastic bass grooves, and
funk-heavy licks form the foundation
of freakishly catchy tunes like “In-
carnate” and “Dance with Shadows.”
Throughout, Weston—working along-
side keyboardist David Dzubinski—is a
beats beast on the trap set. Nowhere is
that more evident than on the near-sev-
en-minute drum solo stunner, the aptly
titled “Thunder.” You won’t hear a
funkier record than Dust and Ash this
year. BRAD COHAN

SYLVIE

COURVOISIER/

MARK FELDMAN

Time Gone Out
Intakt

Time Gone Out reveals how a 25-year
musical friendship can inspire some
involved musical conversations. Pia-
nist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist
Mark Feldman first crossed paths in
1994, recording their first album a few
years later. Together they reveal a wide
set of influences. Feldman plays with
the clarity of a classical virtuoso who
can stop on a dime and shift naturally
into free improvisation. Courvoisier’s
technique is also staggering, and as an
improvisor she draws on both low end
thunder and upper register lyricism,
often simultaneously.
Five of the eight tracks on this studio
session are credited to both players,

in the background. He invokes chaos

and cacophony again in tracks like

“The Prophet Is a Fool” and “Proverb

of Ashes,” two of the record’s most

politically explicit songs. On “Prophet,”

Mehldau samples chants of “Build that

wall!” from the president’s rallies to

create the emotional starting point for

Mark Guiliana’s crashing assault on the

drum kit and a layer of towering, pow-

er-chord synths that drives Joel Frahm’s

explosive soloing.

The specific political references can

seem ham-handed at first, but they fit

when one listens to them in the context

of the record as a whole and under-

stands them as inspirations for the

composer’s vision. Even when Mehldau

finds Gabriel on the concluding title

track, the pleas that fall on waves of

foreboding choirs and leaping ivories

furnish no clear answers. But, as the

saying goes, the Lord works in mysteri-

ous ways. JACKSON SINNENBERG

BRANDEE

YOUNGER

Soul Awakening

Self-released

Toying with the timeline of her own

output, harpist Brandee Younger

delivers a collection of music whose

completion predates the realiza-

tion and release of her two previous

albums—2014’s Live at the Breeding

Ground and 2016’s Wa x & Wane. Ba-

sically in line with what appeared on

those complementary recordings, Soul

Awakening still manages to stand out

so presumably they were spontaneous

inventions. But without looking at the

credits, a listener would be hard pressed

to distinguish them from the other

three. (Courvoisier’s “Éclats for Or-

nette” appeared on D’agala, a 2018 trio

album.) Pauses between some tracks

are minimal and often last less than

dynamic shifts during the music itself.

“Time Gone Out,” credited solely

to Courvoisier, features a recurring

theme that inspires a series of vignettes,

including pensive duets. Throughout

the entire set, Feldman’s upper-register

wails sound as rich as his mid-range

exclamations or his harmonic scrapes.

Likewise, Courvoisier’s performance is

enthralling, whether she is hammering

chords or reaching into her instrument

to add percussive effects. She employs

such extended technique in the opening

track, “Homesick for Another World,” a

playful tune that balances out the more

album’s more intense moments.

MIKE SHANLEY

BRAD MEHLDAU

Finding Gabriel

Nonesuch

In the beginning, Brad Mehldau plays

a simple synthesizer melody, ringing

with felicity and melancholy, like

church bells celebrating simultaneous

marital and funereal rites. Over the

next seven minutes the song builds as

instruments and voices join the repeat-

ed phrase until the music crescendos

into glorious, frantic chaos. “The

Garden,” the first track on the pianist

and composer’s new album, Finding

Gabriel, establishes the biblical nature

of music at the outset. The record’s 10

tracks take inspiration from Old Testa-

ment verses that Mehldau details in the

liner notes as instructive in reading our

current political and cultural moment.

The palette that Mehldau uses on

“The Garden,” varied as it is, also

informs the sound throughout the

record. On “O Ephraim”—one of three

tracks in which he handles all the music

himself—Mehldau’s piano oscillates

between sunny and meditative as his

voice hovers in ethereality overhead

and a synthesizer hums like a heartbeat