Tom Harrell
Released March 8, 2019
JazzTimes Top 10 Albums of 2019
YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lUPNy-TmxdBQzh0rsH1C1779YWC4rKpZ4
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1u1MSp3R5PMVCk6tYf0ekp?si=t9lyPMVPSq-55ujP0n4mpA
About:
When pianist Bill Charlap featured Tom Harrell at a recent gig with his trio at New York’s Jazz Standard, he summarized the trumpeter’s genius as concisely as anyone could. “It is our honor and privilege,” he announced, “To share the bandstand with a man who is a living, breathing melody.” For this latest HighNote release, featuring a razor-sharp quintet with saxophonist Mark Turner and guitarist Charles Altura, Harrell & company combine complex compositions, seductive rhythms, advanced harmonic concepts, vibrant solos and sheer inspiration in an album which transcends the jazz idiom. This is perhaps Harrell’s most imaginative recording to-date, with the scoring for the piano-less, tenor sax and guitar front line ensemble sui generis among his work.
Track Listing:
1. The Fast (Tom Harrell) 6:39
2. Dublin (Tom Harrell) 9:40
3. Hope (Tom Harrell) 7:30
4. Coronation (Tom Harrell) 6:57
5. Folk Song (Tom Harrell) 6:03
6. Blue (Tom Harrell) 5:40
7. Ground (Tom Harrell) 7:19
8. The Isle (Tom Harrell) 8:26
9. Duet (Tom Harrell) 1:42
10. Taurus (Tom Harrell) 6:02
Personnel:
Tom Harrell: trumpet, flugelhorn
Mark Turner: tenor saxophone
Charles Altura: electric & acoustic guitars
Ben Street: bass
Johnathan Blake: drums
Adam Cruz: percussion (3)
Recorded on September 24 & 30, 2018, at Sear Sound, New York, NY
Produced by Angela Harrell and Tom Harrell
Engineer: Chris Allen
Mixed and mastered by Dave Darlington
Photography by Angela Harrell
Design: Keiji Obata
Review:
A powerful spirituality illuminates Tom Harrell’s work, but that doesn’t mean that there’s anything pretentious or dogmatic going on. An irrepressible sense of play also abounds; trumpeter/flugelhornist Harrell sounds both delighted by his musical quest and enraptured by what he discovers. “The Fast,” this set’s opener, might easily have been titled “The Feast”—it’s a veritable smorgasbord of inspiration, propelled by a surging drive reminiscent of Africa/Brass-era Coltrane. (Johnathan Blake’s drumming, reminiscent of Elvin Jones, accentuates that feel.) Harrell’s solo work summons quickness, precision, and focus along with deep melodicism and tonal surety; saxophonist Mark Turner and guitarist Charles Altura, even when they ramp down the velocity, are no less rigorous in their imaginative flow, and their timbre is likewise sure yet flexible and expressive.
Myriad moods and references enrich this set, from the Celtic tinge of “Dublin” and “The Isle” through the meld of stateliness and improvisational exuberance in “Coronation” to the dexterous postbop intensity of such offerings as “Blue” and “Ground.” “Taurus,” the concluding number, seems to both encapsulate and summarize the gifts Harrell shares with us here, as his muted trumpet skips with precision, dexterity, and brio, his solos so logically constructed that one could almost believe he’s able to fully imagine each note, each run, each statement in its entirety before playing it.
David Whiteis (JazzTimes)
