The Gleaners (ECM)

Larry Grenadier

Released February 15, 2019

AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2019

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Over the decades, ECM has released a line of inventive albums showcasing solo double bass by such virtuosos of the instrument as Dave Holland, Barre Phillips and Miroslav Vitous. Now the label presents The Gleaners, the first album of solo bass by Larry Grenadier. As one of the most admired, accomplished bassists working in jazz today, Grenadier has been praised as “a deeply intuitive” musician by The New York Times and as an instrumentalist with a “fluid sense of melody” by Bass Player magazine. His personal tone has made him a bassist of choice for such artists as Paul Motian and Pat Metheny, not to mention some 25 years of deep, ongoing work in pianist Brad Mehldau’s widely influential trio. For ECM, Grenadier has featured on two albums as part of the cooperative trio Fly (alongside Mark Turner and Jeff Ballard), as well as three records led by guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel. The Gleaners includes a brace of originals by Grenadier, along with distinctive interpretations of numbers by George Gershwin, John Coltrane and Motian. There’s also a pair of pieces written especially for Grenadier by Muthspiel, plus an instrumental interpretation of “Gone Like the Season Does,” a song by the bassist’s wife, and frequent collaborator, singer Rebecca Martin.

Grenadier recorded The Gleaners at Avatar Studios in New York City with Manfred Eicher as producer and James A. Farber as engineer; the album was mixed at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France. In his liner note, Grenadier wrote: “The process for making this record began with a look inward, an excavation into the core elements of who I am as a bass player. It was a search for a center of sound and timbre, for the threads of harmony and rhythm that formulate the crux of a musical identity.” Reflecting on the gestation of his first solo album, he talks further: “For years, I had been satisfied by collaborating with other artists, feeling that I had room for my own voice in the music. But Manfred planted the seed of making a solo album, and I cultivated it as an artistic challenge. Manfred is a former bassist, so he understands the instrument and its history, both in jazz and classical. Few people truly know how to treat the double-bass sonically in the studio, but Manfred concentrates on bringing out its special qualities. In making The Gleaners, he was vital in the editing and the mix, really helping me shape the album.”

Those previous ECM albums of solo bass by Holland, Phillips and Vitous were key inspirations for Grenadier. “But other instrumentalists playing solo were also a big influence, such as Sonny Rollins,” he says. “I looked to them to help answer the question: How do you develop something solo over a long span with cohesion and clarity? Joe Henderson also used to play these substantial solo intros before tunes like Monk’s ‘Ask Me Now’ that were inspiring. There were other things, too, when it came to solo string playing. I’ve always loved solo cello music from Bach and beyond, and Manfred introduced me to violist Kim Kashkashian’s solo Hindemith recordings, which I fell for. As all those influences swirled in my head, I began thinking about a solo album conceptually, how to make it interesting over 45 minutes or so – and not just to other bass players. I experimented with various tunings and scordatura, like the 17th- and 18th-century violinists used, to get a full range of sounds – and that gave the instrument a whole new vibration for me, a feeling of real sonic potential to explore.”

Grenadier’s title of The Gleaners was inspired by a documentary film from 2000, The Gleaners and I, by the French director Agnès Varda, who was in turn influenced by the 19th-century painting by Millet called The Gleaners, of women harvesting in a field. “For me, as a musician, you glean things from the people you play with and the music you listen to, but it takes work to get the most out of everything, to harvest the things you can use yourself,” Grenadier says. “I’ve always felt something like that as an artistic credo – working to get to the good stuff. Even in the middle of a gig with, say, Brad Mehldau – just trying to be truly in the moment, alive to the best of what’s happening.”

Richly conceived, beautifully played and recorded with a sensuous blend of warmth and detail, The Gleaners includes seven original pieces by Grenadier – starting with the deeply melodic arco opener “Oceanic.” Next comes the grooving pizzicato homage “Pettiford,” about which Grenadier says: “That track is my tribute to Oscar Pettiford, one of the first jazz bass players I really dug, when I was a teenager. My piece is based on the chord changes of his tune ‘Laverne’s Walk.’ I’ve also played ‘Pettiford’ in a trio version with Fly.” The album’s other originals range from the arco lyricism of “Vineland” and “The Gleaners” to the pensive pizzicato of “Lovelair” and “Woebegone” (with the latter capped by some artfully overdubbed arco). The interpretations on The Gleaners include touchstones for Grenadier: “Another musical hero of mine has always been Miles Davis, for his sound and the way he thought about music, as well as the bands he put together. I love the Miles and Gil Evans version of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, so including ‘My Man’s Gone Now’ is my nod to that inspiration.”

The Gleaners also includes a medley of Coltrane’s “Compassion” and Motian’s “The Owl of Cranston.” Grenadier says: “‘Compassion’ comes from Coltrane’s Meditations suite, an important piece of music for me. It flows into Motian’s ‘Owl of Cranston,’ which I used to play with Paul. His tunes are just fabulous – they’re so melodic, but the flow of the rhythm, often out of tempo, is the thing. I love Paul’s approach to composition and his approach to music in general – his influence is so strong among my generation. I got to spend more than a decade with him onstage and in the studio, which meant that I could absorb this long history of music, from his days with Bill Evans and then Keith Jarrett to his albums as a leader on ECM and that great trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano. Throughout all that he did, there is this open approach, where you hear time beyond strict metronomic time, free but with a flow. He could play so loose because he was so rooted in the tradition. As he might say, to play out you have to be able to play in. The great musicians I’ve played alongside – from Joe Henderson and Paul Motian to Brad Mehldau and Pat Metheny – all teach the same thing: know your instrument really well, listen closely and be open to the moment and its possibilities.”

Track Listing:

1. Oceanic (Larry Grenadier) 02:26

2. Pettiford (Larry Grenadier) 03:41

3. The Gleaner (Larry Grenadier) 02:10

4. Woebegone (Larry Grenadier) 03:23

5. Gone Like the Season Does (Rebecca Martin) 04:29

6. Compassion / The Owl of Cranston (John Coltrane, Paul Motian) 09:08

7. Vineland (Larry Grenadier) 03:06

8. Lovelair (Larry Grenadier) 03:39

9. Bagatelle 1 (Wolfgang Muthspiel) 01:49

10. Bagatelle 2 (Wolfgang Muthspiel) 01:48

11. My Man’s Gone Now (George Gershwin) 05:35

12. A Novel in a Sigh (Larry Grenadier) 00:48

Personnel:

Larry Grenadier: double bass

Recorded December 2016, at Avatar Studios, New York, by James Farber

Produced by Manfred Eicher

Mixed by Gérard De Haro

Mastered by Nicolas Baillard

Cover Photo: Ralf Uicker

Design: Sascha Kleis

Review:

ECM is home to some of the finest solo double bass albums in jazz history. Numerous musicians associated with the label have done so, including Barre Phillips, Dave Holland, Gary Peacock, Arild Andersen, Miroslav Vitouš, and Eberhard Weber. Larry Grenadier adds his name to that venerable list with The Gleaners. Grenadier — whose decades-long partnerships with Wolfgang Muthspiel, Brad Mehldau, and the late Paul Motian have established his reputation as one of the finest bassists in jazz — responded to a challenge by ECM founder and album producer Manfred Eicher (himself a former bass player) with The Gleaners, recorded in New York during December of 2016. In his short liner essay, Grenadier writes, “Performing solo music on the double bass precludes excess. The fat is cut away and what hopefully remains of the skeletal essence is direct and nourishing.” The 12-track set, almost equally split between originals and covers, is delivered in arco (bowed) and pizzicato (finger-plucked) techniques.

Each track is performed as to be easily distinguishable from every other. The brief opener, “Oceanic,” is played arco as bowed notes are doubled and offered in harmonic equanimity; it’s a cross between a chamber piece and a folk melody. “Pettiford” is a tribute to bop master Oscar Pettiford. Its fleet bluesy runs are in perfect rhythmic cadences and they swing like mad. The title track is an arco piece inspired by Agnès Varda’s 2000 documentary The Gleaners & I. Its sparse approach focuses on single notes as they bridge proceeding ones, with emotionally resonant yet irregular intervals articulated by harmonics. “Woebegone” is pensive and quietly dramatic in its pizzicato statements of theme, variation, and melody, and it contains elegantly and subtly overdubbed arco and pizzicato layers. “Gone Like the Season Does,” was composed by singer/songwriter Rebecca Martin. It’s outside jazz in its direct and empathetic articulation of the song’s nuances and never sacrifices its tenderness and lyricism — it remains steadfast even during improvisation. Other covers include a gorgeous medley of John Coltrane’s “Compassion” and Paul Motian’s “The Owl of Cranston.” The arco opening is shadowy, spilling with abundant whole notes as harmonics alternate with rumbling phrases that give way to the brighter pizzicato of the other tune — adding balance, yes, but also depth and dimension. Two brief pieces by Muthspiel (“Bagatelle 1” and “2”) offer a compelling contrast of Grenadier’s techniques with the bow and his fingers. It’s answered with a reading of George Gershwin’s “My Man Is Gone Now” that begins with a dramatic and improvised bowed intro before transitioning to the lithe, lyric line; Grenadier balances vulnerability and a commanding authority.

While solo double bass records are usually meant for a very specific group of listeners, The Gleaners proves an exception. It is so sensitive, creative, and stylistically diverse that it presents perhaps the first real opportunity for such a recording to engage an audience beyond the standard confines of aficionados and other musicians. The Gleaners is an inner exploration articulated with uncommon generosity, disciplined artistry, and a poet’s gift for illumination.

Thom Jurek (AllMusic)