Liam Sillery
Released February 16, 2010
DownBeat Five-Star Review
YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kb4epg659D6etujkiZ6HKy_NQPZL9wRQs
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4mvuXE6PRJD0GwZheczHH5?si=YV-9JUkdSTKGylWAOrMlHA
About:
For his fourth album, trumpeter Liam Sillery decided to explore a bit further afield than his previous sets had gone. Walking the line between traditional and free jazz, Phenomenology provides moments of tender melodies and flights of instrumental showcasing alike. The album opens with the title track, starting with nearly but not quite parallel lines between the horns that are at once reminiscent of Miles Davis’ tonal work and Albert Ayler’s multiple-front approaches. As the piece progresses, there are lengthy exploratory bits from both sax player Matt Blostein and pianist Jesse Stacken, both of whom get to show off some interesting ideas along the way. After a slightly self-contradicting round in “Lifecycle,” “Holding Pattern” makes another showcase for outstanding solos from each of the horn players. There’s a slow, ranging ballad of sorts in “Koi” that lets the band flow almost tidally for a period, and the album finishes on a somewhat more banging, thrashing number that focuses almost subtly around Vinnie Sperrazza’s drums, accentuated at each note with some form of punctuation. It’s a fairly short trip from one end of the album to the other, but it’s a fine trip with a bevy of interesting melodic ideas along the way. Free jazz, tonal jazz, and straight-ahead improvisation all make their marks, and do so under the cover of a coherent whole.
Track Listing:
1. Phenomenology (Liam Sillery) 8:57
2. Lifecycle (Liam Sillery) 9:22
3. Holding Pattern (Liam Sillery) 7:40
4. Koi (Liam Sillery) 7:29
5. Intentionality (Liam Sillery) 4:44
Personnel:
Liam Sillery: trumpet, flugelhorn
Matt Blostein: alto saxophone
Jesse Stacken: piano
Thomas Morgan: bass
Vinnie Sperrazza: drums
Recorded December 9, 2008 at Knoop Studios, River Edge, NJ
Produced by Liam Sillery
Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Manfred Knoop
Group photo by Jan Marie Sillery
Artwork by Greg Amend, “Since Then” 2009 Oil and Acrylic on Linen
Cover design by John Bishop
Review:
Trumpeter Liam Sillery’s Phenomenology is so natural that only one word can be used to describe it: perfect. Hearkening back to the great outside-leaning Blue Note recordings of the midand late-’60s, Phenomenology gets better with each listen, as details and intricacies continuously come to light that were missed previously. The music’s textures, rhythms and sonorities continuously morph, but not in a distracting, overbearing, or contrived way. There’s freedom and a relaxed ease in Phenomenology’s every facet, giving the listener a sense that what is heard is the only possible solution given the group’s vision. The title track, which opens the album, establishes the record’s aesthetic. After running through the jaunty, bitonal head, Sillery thoroughly interrogates a melodic fragment based off the tune. As the background texture thickens and shifts, bassist Thomas Morgan and pianist Jesse Stacken add statements based on Sillery’s ideas. Stacken’s slowly intensifying piano pedal-point stokes Matt Blostein’s probing alto solo, and after a quiet beginning Stacken’s solo evolves into a shimmering wall of sound, built with plenty of tremolos and sustain pedal. Think of Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto For Left Hand. Then, as if coming out of fog, the head emerges. Blostein’s key-lime tart alto sound is the perfect foil for Sillery’s warm, lush, trumpet tone, which is best seen on the beautiful ballad “Koi.” Sillery, who abstains from high-note pyrotechnics in favor of more nuanced and lyrical middle-register playing, begins the piece with plaintive solo lines. As he continues Stacken adds quiet arpeggios, Morgan plucks out sparse bass notes and Vinnie Sperrazza softly splashes radiant cymbals. Enter Blostein, who adds sensitive countermelodies that weave in and out of Sillery’s lines. The end result is sublime.
Chris Robinson (DownBeat)
