Blue Soliloquy (Self-released)
Sam Newsome
Released January 1, 2010
DownBeat Five-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nQG9-xxNPJVWdMX6_iYZWMqBtCdWhFPb0
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/1EjDSYudnjZHZzHYqEtGEQ?si=6LKRN-lzRX6QmUV65Z2MJg
About:
The fifteen eclectic pieces on this CD, BLUE SOLILOQUY, not only explore the many sonic possibilities of the soprano, they also take listeners on a blues-inspired, cross-cultural journey from West Africa to the Far East, from Western Europe to the jazz clubs of New York, then all the way down south to the Mississippi Delta.
This project is a follow up to my 2007 solo saxophone release Monk Abstractions. Whereas Monk Abstractions was about using Thelonious Monk’s music to showcase my discoveries of sounds and textures on the soprano, this CD, however, follows the same concept, now with the blues being at its core.
Many people see playing solo saxophone as some type of novelty, but I take it much more seriously. I see it as one of the least developed formats in jazz, worthy of further study and exploration–the body of solo work of Lacy and Braxton being the exception. I foresee a day of when solo saxophone will as viable a format as solo piano. I want people to see this CD not just as a virtuosic display of extended techniques, but as the second installment of a body of work that I plan to record in which I hope will shine a new light on the possibilities of the soprano and on the concept of solo saxophone.”
Track Listing:
1. Blues for Robert Johnson (Sam Newsome) 04:04
2. Blue Mongolia (Sam Newsome) 04:20
3. Blue Swagger (Sam Newsome) 02:48
4. 24 Tones (Sam Newsome) 02:07
5. Blue Beijing (Sam Newsome) 03:29
6. Mandela’s Blue Mbira (Sam Newsome) 03:56
7. Blue Safari (Sam Newsome) 01:44
8. Throat-Singing Blues (Sam Newsome) 04:21
9. Blue Lacy Coleman (Sam Newsome) 05:09
10. Blue Pulpit (Sam Newsome) 04:41
11. Blue Doppler Effect (Sam Newsome) 01:46
12. Blue Sunday (Sam Newsome) 07:48
13. Blue Bamboo (Sam Newsome) 02:13
14. Blue Hum of the Holy Breath (Sam Newsome) 01:59
15. Blue Monk (Sam Newsome) 04:40
Personnel:
Sam Newsome: soprano saxophone
Recorded May – June, 2009, at Avatar Studios, New York, NY
Produced by Sam Newsome
Recording and Mastering Engineer: Katsuhiko Naito
Assistant Engineer: Meg Okura
Reveiew:
Sam Newsome has focused exclusively on the soprano saxophone and last year documented solo moments in Avatar studios. His Blue Soliloquy is another admirable addition to the solo canon, surgically investigating the propensities of the instrument for quartertone colorations, mimicking Hindustani and Japanese flutes, Tuvan throat singing, Doppler effects (swaying the horn) and, with pitched-slap tonguing, the African thumb piano. In helpful accompanying notes, Newsome talks of his debt to Steve Lacy’s minimalist composition and impressionists Debussy and Ravel. Despite a calculating approach, Newsome avoids losing his soul in the machine, and there is a particularly stunning high-register addendum to the circular breathing of the Lacy-esque “Blue Beijing.” Newsome wins out on the star rating, not for nonpareil chops or even unprecedented innovation, but for his succinct survey of the world outside, as well as the world within.
Michael Jackson (DownBeat)
