In Common 2 (Whirlwind Recordings)
Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens
Released May 15, 2020
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ktC3TuuNFNdPBP-kkK5NdOhj_iU2rXqWY
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6rqaQfnytck7hyYcwMi8u6?si=eKlISqt4Ru2RNhtkFnCYfA
About:
Long time musical associates Walter Smith III and
Matthew Stevens perform in a multiplicity of projects at the vanguard of the
international jazz & improvised music scene, touring and recording with
Esperanza Spalding, Ambrose Akinmusire, Christian Scott, Terence Blanchard,
Dave Douglas, Terri Lyne Carrington, Bill Stewart and Roy Haynes as well as
their own respective groups.
They first collaborated in 2017, gathering a wish-list band of musical peers,
booking a studio, and presenting them with compositions written for the
occasion. The resulting album was widely praised for its freshness and
spontaneity and they’ve returned with ‘In Common 2’ to explore the same
parameters, adjusting the personnel to produce an intriguingly different but
equally dynamic album. “We loved the way it turned out” says Smith “We had the
opportunity to do something different together: what I like to call ‘One Page
Songs’ – simple forms, so that we can just show up and get to the music
quicker.” As in the first project, Smith and Stevens picked a selection of
their favourite rhythm section players of mutual acquaintance – Linda Oh on
bass and Nate Smith on drums – plus a player from a different generation, so
that rising piano star Micah Thomas takes the place of Joel Ross’ vibes. The
material was specially written to suit the character of the resulting band,
favouring short, concise statements of melody – ‘We’re trying to do something
different from what we’d do on our own. We’re going off what we imagine the
band will sound like, and continuing to focus on being direct, melodic and
interactive.”
‘Roy Allan’, the only non-original was included as a homage to its composer,
the late lamented Roy Hargrove, performed as a brief heartfelt duet. ‘Lotto’ is
a collective improvisation from a theme by Stevens with a thrilling dialogue
between him and Smith that ends in a fortuitous perfect unison. ‘Cowboy’ was
humorously explained by Stevens to Nate Smith as an ‘open, cowboy feel’ and the
name stuck. A loping bass groove provides a trance-like backing for textured
and expressive playing by all. Smith’s composition ‘Clem’ derives its central
imagery from his love of super- immersive, character driven video games: Clem
herself is an orphan child who grows up into a fearless zombie-killing adult
over the course of the game Walking Dead, and the song maps the arc of her
journey from innocence to kick-ass. Video games also provided the inspiration
for ‘Van De Linde’, written by Smith for a character from Red Dead Redemption –
‘a nefarious guy who works on many levels. It’s written in 5/4 with 5/8 cycles
hidden within it – kinda like the character’s secret agenda!’ – while ‘Little
Lamplight’ is inspired by the post-apocalyptic game scenario of Fallout 3 –
starting with a simple, muted statement and building into a towering climax.
‘General George Washington’ was constructed by Smith around a nagging two-note
riff that suggests a playground taunt, reflecting his ambivalence towards the
slave- owning Father Of The Nation. Stevens wrote ‘Provinces’ to evoke his
childhood in Canada through its carefully paced melody, exploring both remembered
and imagined landscapes from his past. By contrast, he wrote ‘Opera’ while on a
recent tour with Esperanza Spaulding: “I wanted to write something piano-driven
and dramatic, and what’s more dramatic than opera?” Smith drew his inspiration
for ‘Type Rider’ from Brad Meldhau’s video for ‘Highway Rider’ – a vision of
driving down a California highway into a limitless freedom.
In Common 2 manages to be at once free and highly structured, melodically
accessible yet thoroughly contemporary. With many of the songs recorded in a
single take, the album highlights the inventiveness and immediacy of a shared
vernacular spoken in a vital corner of New York’s music community.
Track Listing:
1. Roy Allan 01:06
2. Lotto 04:27
3. Cowboy 05:38
4. Clem 05:16
5. van der Linde 03:35
6. Provinces 05:52
7. General George Washington 04:04
8. little lamplight 02:05
9. Opera 03:42
10. type rider 03:21
Personnel:
Walter Smith III: tenor saxophone
Matthew Stevens: guitar
Linda May Han Oh: double bass
Micah Thomas: piano
Nate Smith: drums
Recorded
May 14 – 15, 2019, at Atomic Sound
Engineered by Fernando Lodiero
Mixed by Zach Brown
Mastered by Joe Laporta
Produced by Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens
Executive Producer: Michael Janisch
Photography by Jati Lindsay
Graphic Design by Monika S Jakubowska
Inside original artwork by Macie & Carter Smith
Review:
The cover for In Common 2 is identical to its predecessor, except the outsized heads of pianist Micah Thomas, bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Nate Smith are photoshopped onto the bodies of the first album’s rhythm section. In other words: same concept, slightly different players. Like its predecessor, 2 starts with a duet between the principal members, guitarist Matthew Stevens and tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III. But instead of a collective improvisation, this time they deliver a sweetly elegiac rendition of the late Roy Hargrove’s “Roy Allan,” an intro that underscores how 2 emphasizes writing. But a more structured approach to rhythm is what distinguishes the two recordings: “Cowboy” rides in on a groove built on a bass ostinato, which Oh continues to allude to even as the playing gets freer. “Type Rider” is similarly ostinato-oriented, although this time it holds even as Smith solos against the band. All that structure doesn’t box the music in, though. If anything, it seems to energize the rhythm section, which in turn brings out the best of Stevens and Smith. Listen to how the itchy pulse beneath “General George Washington” sparks a taut solo from Smith and churning lines from Stevens’ acoustic.
J.D. Considine (DownBeat)