Both Are True (Greenleaf Music)
Webber / Morris Big Band
Released April 3, 2020
New York Times Best Jazz Albums of 2020
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2020
YouTube:
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About:
In 2015, Anna Webber and Angela Morris brought together their arsenal of skills as composers-performers-conductors to form the Webber/Morris Big Band, an ensemble of eighteen stellar New York improvisers who bring their combined artistic vision into reality.
While the band’s instrumentation – trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and rhythm section – may be seen as typical, the music is rooted in minimalism, noise, pop, and the sounds of today. Integrating improvisation and composed material in unorthodox ways and using extra-musical sources – such as poetry or mathematics – here the traditional big band sound mutates into something unpredictable and exciting.
The album features nine original compositions by Webber and Morris, including a piece that integrates a text from Maya Angelou. This is big band music for the here and now from a band at the top of their game.
Track Listing:
1. Climbing On Mirrors (Anna Webber) solo: Charlotte Greve 10:44
2. Duo 1 (Angela Morris / Anna Webber) 00:48
3. Both Are True (Angela Morris) solos: Jay Rattman, Anna Webber, Patricia Brennan 10:16
4. Rebonds (Anna Webber) solo: Dustin Carlson 03:21
5. Coral (Angela Morris) solo: Adam O’Farrill 10:06
6. And It Rolled Right Down (Angela Morris) solos: Adam Schneit, Reginald Chapman, Jake Henry 06:36
7. Foggy Valley (Nathaniel Morgan / Angela Morris / Anna Webber) solo: Angela Morris 03:47
8. Duo 2 (Angela Morris / Anna Webber) 01:25
9. Reverses (Maya Angelou / Anna Webber) solo: Kenny Warren 11:39
Personnel:
Angela Morris: conductor, tenor saxophone, flute
Anna Webber: conductor, tenor saxophone, flute
Jay Rattman: alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute
Charlotte Greve: alto saxophone, clarinet
Adam Schneit: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Lisa Parrott: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet
John Lake: trumpet, flugelhorn
Jake Henry: trumpet, flugelhorn
Adam O’Farrill: trumpet, flugelhorn
Kenny Warren: trumpet, flugelhorn
Tim Vaughn: trombone
Nick Grinder: trombone
Jen Baker: trombone
Reginald Chapman: bass trombone
Patricia Brennan: vibraphone
Dustin Carlson: guitar
Marc Hannaford: piano
Adam Hopkins: bass
Jeff Davis: drums
Recorded on Nov 27, 2018 by Stephe Cooper at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, NY except tracks 2, 7, 8 recorded on October 20, 2019 by Nathaniel Morgan at Buckminster Forest
Executive Producer: Dave Douglas
Produced by Angela Morris, Anna Webber, and Nathaniel Morgan
Edited and mixed by Nathaniel Morgan at Buckminster Palace
Mastered by Brent Lambert at The Kitchen
Art and design by Brian Henkel
Review:
It is almost staggering to consider the commitment necessary to lead an 18-piece big band in the 21st century, especially in North America. Enter Canadian-born, N.Y.C.-based-saxophonists and composers Anna Webber and Angela Morris. They assembled this group in 2015 in New York, and have nurtured and developed its identity ever since. The Webber/Morris Big Band don’t follow traditional precepts from the big-band tradition. Instead, they employ thoroughly modern compositional techniques, ranging harmonic and dynamic concepts, and present new tonal and sonic possibilities that expand the definition of what a big band is. When improvisation occurs, it’s carefully scripted in. The way these women compose and arrange, they make room for various bandmembers to shine.
Both Are True is this band’s recorded debut. Given the various players’ busy individual schedules, it was cut in four sessions between November of 2018 and October of the following year. Morris and Webber split composing and conducting duties, making the band’s appeal kaleidoscopic. This is slippery music. In the opening Webber composition “Climbing on Mirrors,” three layered horns offer a potent minimal phrase in conjunction, as the rhythm section offers a repetitive yet off-kilter pulse. When the rest of the band enters, drummer Jeff Davis cuts loose to drive it with accents, fills, and popping kickdrum; bassist Adam Hopkins temporarily holds it down before the music shifts again as the three frontline players return in their minimal merrymaking until altoist Charlotte Greve delivers a sweeping solo. Morris’ title track is busier, it meanders across a wide swath of harmonies and rhythmic interplay with warm humor. Lines get staggered, inverted, and turn in on themselves before the ensemble creates room for solos from Webber’s and Jay Rattman’s saxophones and Patricia Brennan’s gorgeous vibraphone playing. The tonal inquiry in the tune’s center is striking, urgent, and utterly engaged. “Coral,” also composed by Morris, opens with brass and flutes commingling in droning reeds and brass, including Reginald Chapman’s bass trombone in a shimmering intro that recalls moments of Wolfgang Rihm’s Canzona Per Sonare. Gradually separating and offering brief and inquisitive statements before the rhythm section unites behind Adam O’Farrill’s trumpet break, stripping away the edges, the tune ends the way it began. Webber’s 11-minute-plus “Reverses,” closes Both Are True. After a contemplative intro, the band swings playfully as the different instrument sections appear to exchange roles with expansive harmonic interplay and rhythmic invention. Trumpeter Kenny Warren offers a bluesy solo that ties it all together, especially when engaging in brief call-and-response with Hopkins before the entire band returns and ramps up in intensity and before a climax where several voices offer a layered contrast with a text by Maya Angelou. Throughout, Both Are True dazzles with musical fireworks, humor, a wildly creative harmonic palette, discipline, and delight. This is a groundbreaking work that establishes a unique, present-future identity for the Webber/Morris Big Band.
Thom Jurek (AllMusic)
