Strange Arts (Slow & Steady)
Ian Carey
Released March 22, 2024
JazzTimes 2024 Year in Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ljAX-aJAqtIB9MuqCBbkxq1svIB__GKgs
Spotify:
About:
Much like one of San Francisco Bay Area trumpeter Ian Carey’s improvisations, the music on his seventh album Strange Arts ends up in a very different place than he initially intended. The debut recording by his Wood Metal Plastic ensemble evolved from a freedom-seeking quartet into a chamber jazz vehicle with three well-integrated string players. Along the way the project became entangled with the extraordinary body of work by his late father, the prolific artist Philip Carey, whose arresting graphics are featured on the album’s front and back covers.
Carey supplements his music with graphic design, and on previous releases such as 2020’sFire in My Head: The Anxiety Suiteand 2013’sRoads & Codeshe created the vivid album art himself. But in sorting, organizing, and digitizing Philip Carey’s vast creative archive after his death in 2022, Ian found a deep resonance between his father’s intricately patterned works and the musical inclinations surfacing in Wood Metal Plastic.
“It was a chance to really look at my father’s pieces closely and appreciate how amazing and dense and full of information they are,” he says. “As I was dealing with all this artwork of his while simultaneously prepping this album for release, I tracked down an interview with him talking about his work, and observing that anywhere you look, something’s going on—he even used the phrase ‘abhor a vacuum,’ which is something I had also said about my composing! I started to see how this could be a kind of dialogue between us.”
A commission from InterMusic SF’s Musical Grant Program provided the initial impetus to expand his Bay Area all-star piano-less quartet featuring alto saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, bassistLisa Mezzacappa, and drummerJon Arkinwith a string trio. Extensive preparation for his first project involving strings included renting a cello to better familiarize himself with the instrument, but the key was tapping into the particular skills of the players, cellist Jessica Ivry and violinists Alisa Rose and Mia Bella d’Augelli.
Track Listing:
1. Rain Tune 10:47
2. I Still Remember Clyfford Still 6:43
3. Set for 7: Chorale 4:36
4. Sink/Swim 9:47
5. Set for 7: Ostinato 5:01
6. Set for 7: Nocturne for Solo Violin 3:13
7. Set for 7: Unforeseen (CGBG) 11:09
8. Set for 7: Alien Anthropology 7:02
Personnel:
Ian Carey: trumpet
Kasey Knudsen: alto saxophone
Alisa Rose & Mia Bella d’Augelli: violins
Jessica Ivry: cello
Lisa Mezzacappa: bass
Jon Arkin: drums
Recorded June 12-13, 2019 at New, Improved Recording, Oakland, CA
Engineered and mixed by John Finkbeiner with additional editing by Dan Feiszli
Mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering, Boston, MA
Design by Ian Carey with original art by Philip Carey
Review:
Bay Area trumpeter Ian Carey highlights his adventurous writing for strings on Strange Arts (Slow & Steady), with a hybrid group featuring alto saxophonist and longtime collaborator Kasey Knudsen, violinists Alisa Rose and Mia Bella d’Augelli, cellist Jessica Ivry, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and drummer Jon Arkin. Steeped in jazz tradition on the horn (hear his brilliant solo on “Sink/Swim”), Carey has expansive ears and a beautiful palette to work with, blending composed and improvised episodes with an authoritative hand. There’s no chordal instrument, allowing him to maximize clarity among the string timbres. The five-part “Set for 7” covers most of it (including a deep “Nocturne for Solo Violin”), but three standalone pieces complete the program, including the free and fractious “I Still Remember Clyfford Still” (for the late American painter).
David R. Adler (JazzTimes)
