Life, at the Village Vanguard (La Reserve)
Gilad Hekselman
Released February 16, 2024
JazzTimes 2024 Year in Review
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For more than a year, guitarist Gilad Hekselman had the final week of March 2022 circled on his calendar. Not only was he going to perform his own music at the Vanguard, but the venue had given him permission to record three nights. “It’s considered the mecca of jazz music,” says Hekselman. “The haunted room that all our heroes played in. To play there with my own band was a dream come true. When they were open to me recording there, it was even more exciting.”
Adding to the stakes: months after booking the dates, Hekselman and his wife found out she was pregnant with their second child.
“Sure enough,” he quips, “the due date was smack in the middle of the week at the Vanguard.”
Hekselman immediately tried to reschedule his run, offering to trade with other musicians on the calendar. He kept getting turned down. Soon, it became clear not only that he would play his date at the end of March, but that “it would be a unique and monumental week for us as a family.”
He and his wife set about planning for all contingencies. Maybe the birth would fall outside the week at the Vanguard. Maybe it would arrive smack in the middle. There was no way to know. As a precautionary measure, he enlisted friend and fellow guitarist Ben Wendel to be on standby in case the birth required missing any performances.
Finally, the week of the Vanguard run arrived, and, baby or no baby, began smoothly. Hekselman and his band sold out the first two evenings. On the third night, they began recording their performances.
On Friday night, Hekselman arrived home late, still buzzing from the energy of the show, and climbed into bed. Just after 1 a.m., his wife tapped him on the shoulder: I think the baby’s coming.
Immediately they jumped into action, beginning preparations for a home birth as they had intended.
“Throughout the night and the morning, everything was going well,” recalls Hekselman, who stayed by her side throughout the entire day. Their doula joined them at the apartment, followed later by their midwife.
“It starts to get into the early evening, and in the back of my mind I’m thinking, am I not playing my own gig at the Village Vanguard tonight?
“I’m texting with my band and the club. I message Ben, are you ready to play tonight?”
After a long night, morning, and afternoon of labor, and less than two hours before Hekselman was due onstage, his wife delivered a girl.
“At 6:09 p.m., the baby is born, healthy, perfect. My wife is doing well. Our doula and midwife are there. Our son gets home and gets to meet his baby sister, it’s the most beautiful moment you can ask for.
“Meanwhile, I’m saying to the Vanguard people, I think I might be able to make it. They’re saying, are you crazy, you just had a baby, how are you going to be able to make it?
“I knew, as long as my wife approved, I had to go. I had just experienced this beautiful moment with my family. My wife is safe at home with the new baby and there are people watching her. I knew it would be the most beautiful thing to document, for me to arrive at the Village Vanguard and make a record with these amazing musicians.
“It was already 7:30, and we were supposed to start playing at 8. I ask my wife, what do you think I should do? She’s like, go.”
With no time to spare, Hekselman jumped into a car, politely asking his driver to step on it. At the club, the band launched into the first set, with pianist Shai Maestro tipping off the crowd as to why their lead guitarist was late.
As the band wrapped up their opening song, Hekselman arrived outside the club, hurried down the front stairway, handed his coat off at the door and jumped onstage to a raucous ovation from the packed house. On the unedited recording of the moment, you can hear the guitarist, his voice calm amid the whirlwind of the moment, say to his band, “I just want to make music now.”
Hekselman describes Life, at the Village Vanguard as an auditory keepsake. Yes, he got to realize his dream of recording in the most sacred of jazz enclaves. But the music from that week tells a far greater story.
“I wanted this record to be a celebration of real life, of the new life that came into the world as we were making it,” he says. “I wanted to celebrate how real and raw the whole experience of that week was.”
Listen close to “Louisa’s Intro.” This is what Hekselman played in some of his first moments onstage after witnessing the birth of his daughter. Lasting two minutes and one second, it is an improvisation, an unadorned gesture of a father’s love that the microphones were lucky enough to catch, and that we are fortunate enough to now hear.
“It starts as a complete blank without any preconception,” he says, “trying to see what sounds come out of my ears, fingers, heart. I wanted to express this crazy elevation of spirit in the way I express things best.
“This record captures a very special moment for our family. To release it was important, in the same way that framing a beautiful picture of your family is.”
Matt Helm
Track Listing:
1. Intro 00:31
2. Rebirth 07:08
3. Equinox 13:57
4. Louisa’s Intro 02:01
5. Far Star 11:33
5. Headrocker 08:33
7. Dark Blue 15:23
8. Urban Myth 09:58
9. Everything Happens to Me 11:20
All compositions by Gilad Hekselman except Equinox by John Coltrane and Everything Happens to Me by Matt Dennis
Personnel:
Gilad Hekselman: guitar
Shai Maestro: piano
Larry Grenadier: bass
Eric Harland: drums
Recorded live March 30 – April 2, 2022, at the Village Vanguard
by Michael Perez-Cisneros
Mixed and Mastered by Dave Darlington
Cover photo by Josh Goleman
Produced by Gilad Hekselman
Review:
Guitarist Gilad Hekselman starts at a low flame on Life, at the Village Vanguard, leading a quintet with Shai Maestro (piano), Larry Grenadier (bass) and Eric Harland (drums). “Rebirth” is gently out of tempo, soaringly lyrical, guided by Hekselman’s crystal-clear reverberating tone. It’s the closing track from his 2022 studio album Far Star, but on Life it works as a prelude, setting up John Coltrane’s much darker “Equinox,” which begins sparse and quiet but builds inexorably. Four expansive originals (“Far Star,” “The Headrocker,” “Dark Blue,” “Urban Myth”) and a closing ballad (“Everything Happens to Me”) give ample space to stretch out. GHex has a warm, room-filling sound, with a legato approach to phrasing and a way of moving fluidly between singing, sustained notes and crowded passagework, ideas flying all the while.
