Set the Alarm for Monday(Palmetto)
Bobby Previte
Released May 13, 2008
All About Jazz The Most Exciting Jazz Albums Since 1969
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nnJyg3M-PIQz57Z5P6-iTdcUluXsbb9ug
Spotify:
About:
For his first release on Palmetto Records, composer and drummer Bobby Previte brings us The New Bump, a logical musical extension of Previte’s original Bump The Renaissance bands. Sonically intriguing and cinematically centered, Set The Alarm For Monday grooves as only Previte can.
Matt Balitsaris says: “To me the best records are those which are conceived as a single work, rather than simply a collection of songs. No one takes a more holistic approach than Bobby Previte. And nobody is more willing to throw out conventions and standard operating procedures to arrive at the sonic landscape he seeks. For that reason alone it’s a joy to work with him, because you have to leave all of your regular processes behind, and learn to live in his world.”
Ellery Eskelin, Bill Ware, and Brad Christopher Jones join Bobby on this release, as well as special guests Steve Berstein, trumpet and Jim Pugliese, percussion.
Ellery Eskelin “continues to be the most inventive American tenor player in creative music,” according to DownBeat Magazine. Eskelin pushes the boundaries of exploring the use of the saxophone in unique contexts.
Vibraphonist Bill Ware is a staple of New York’s downtown music scene. He has played with the likes of Steely Dan, Brad Jones, and E.J. Rodriguez. He also created a side project called Vibes, that specializes in dark, pulsating jazz-funk.
Bassist and composer Brad Christopher Jones has played alongside a wide array of artists including Ornette Coeman, Elvis Costello, Elvin Jones, Sheryl Crow, and Dave Douglas. His solid, inventive, and versatile playing on both the electric and acoustic bass has established him as one of the most sought-after musicians in the business.
The Village Voice calls Bobby, “A serious composer with the heart of a roadhouse rocker.” Jambase.com says, “Like his music, he is hard, cool, indefinable, self-effacing, wryly sarcastic, and flat-out brilliant. Bobby Previte may be the genuine article of complete originality.”
Track Listing:
1. Set the Alarm for Monday (Bobby Previte) 04:28
2. I’d Advise You Not to Miss Your Train (Bobby Previte) 05:39
3. She Has Information (Bobby Previte) 04:32
4. Were You Followed? (Bobby Previte) 03:43
5. I’m on to Her (Bobby Previte) 04:29
6. There Was Something in My Drink (Bobby Previte) 06:06
7. You’re in Over Your Head (Bobby Previte) 05:44
8. Drive South, Along the Canyon (Bobby Previte) 05:08
9. Wake Up Andrea, We’re Pulling In (Bobby Previte) 08:46
Personnel:
Bobby Previte: drums
Ellery Eskelin: tenor saxophone
Steven Bernstein: trumpet
Bill Ware: vibraphone
Brad Jones: bass
Jim Pugliese: percussion
Recorded at Maggie’s Farm, August 2007
Produced by Bobby Previte
Recorded and Mixed by Matt Balitsaris
Photography: Michael Didonna
Review:
A seminal figure in the Downtown New York scene, drummer and composer Bobby Previte resurrected his Bump the Renaissance ensemble for the cinematic Set The Alarm For Monday. Previte’s venerable acoustic group has featured a rotating roster of talent over the years, including Ray Anderson, Curtis Fowlkes, Wayne Horvitz, Lenny Picket, Steve Swallow and Tom Varner. Ellery Eskelin (tenor saxophone), Bill Ware (vibes) and Brad Jones (bass) form the current incarnation, with special guests Steven Bernstein (trumpet) and Jim Pugliese (percussion).
Conceived as a long form suite, the album opens gradually, working through progressions in mood episodically. Narrative song titles like “She Has Information” and “There Was Something In My Drink,” suggest an evocative film-noir atmosphere that unravels like chapters from a pulp novel; each tune is another act in the continuing saga.
An aura of suspenseful mystery permeates the session, which unfolds with foreboding drama, intermittently punctuated by rousing anthems. Book-ended by enigmatic tone poems, the core of the record features simmering ostinatos and driving vamps that conjure scenes of shadowy rendezvous at secret after- hours clubs and frenzied chases down seedy back alleys. Driving these pieces, Previte unfurls a multitude of Latinized polyrhythms, with tasteful syncopated accents provided by Jim Pugliese.
Bill Ware and Brad Jones, longstanding members of the Jazz Passengers, have ample experience in this milieu. Jones’ intricate winding bass lines offer a sinewy foundation for Ware’s kaleidoscopic vibes, which stage effervescent tableaus for Ellery Eskelin and Steven Bernstein to explore.
A singular stylist, Eskelin’s wooly timbre and taut phrases mesh soundly with Bernstein’s highly expressive pre-swing aesthetic, which resounds with smears, growls and buzzing mutes. Together they trade sinuous cadences and soaring intervals, uncoiling circuitous refrains and plangent cries.
As fellow veterans of the fertile Downtown scene, the sextet delivers these stylish urban panoramas with convincing flair, effortlessly shifting from brooding atmospherics to sultry Latin grooves. Previte’s most rewarding acoustic album in years, Set The Alarm For Monday effectively captures the mythic soul of Gotham after dark.
Troy Collins (All About Jazz)
