My Only Secret (Jealous Butcher Records / Beacon Sound)
Blue Cranes
Released August 11. 2023
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
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About:
Keeping a band together, particularly among the mercurial community of jazz musicians, is no small feat. Other gigs beckon. Life outside of making art takes precedence. It’s a reality that makes the continued existence and progression of Portland quintet Blue Cranes feel so momentous. The ensemble — saxophonists Reed Wallsmith and Joe Cunningham, drummer Ji Tanzer, keyboardist Rebecca Sanborn, and bassist Jon Shaw — has been working together in a variety of formats since 2004, creating a solid body of work that has connected them to both the traditional sounds and the future-minded artists of their chosen genre.
What has kept them together is strong personal and creative bonds. As a collective, their remit has always been to continually push their art further and further outside their comfort zones and to the edges of their abilities. It’s what fueled the group’s last album, 2021’s Voices, which found Blue Cranes recording for the first time with an assortment of vocalists (Laura Gibson, Edna Vazquez, Holland Andrews, Peter Broderick, Laura Veirs). And that desire to stretch even further beyond their previous work is at the heart of their new album My Only Secret. “I felt like I was getting in a rut, harmonically,” Wallsmith says. “I was trying to get out of that. To bring in more complexity and not do the same thing again.”
To that end, Wallsmith brought elements of twelve-tone and through-composition into his writing. “Semicircle” has an ever changing tonal center, while “Forward” keeps shifting and evolving in the manner of cloud formations being pushed along the sky. Cunningham, meanwhile, took on a nonlinear form of songwriting. “Gaviota” evokes the minimalist work of John Adams with its intertwining melodies and an extended coda that brings in some rattling percussion, the flute playing of John C. Savage, and the trombone of James Powers.
Another major shift for the band was to change the way they recorded My Only Secret. Created during the height of the quarantine, Blue Cranes altered their usual way of recording out of necessity, tracking each part separately and in duets across the studio window in Wallsmith’s basement. . With some help from longtime cohorts Jason Powers and Todd Sickafoose, Wallsmith built the songs up using the individual components, usually adding Tanzer last in the process, because, he notes, “Ji is such an expressive player and is so in the moment, reacting to what’s happening. I felt like we’d lose all that otherwise.” Even with this temporal separation, says Cunningham, “it was like we were responding to each other. There was communication happening in the same space but at different times. And somehow it sounds like we’re playing live in the same room.”
What will always stay the same with Blue Cranes no matter how much they change as people, as players and as composers is the vibrant emotional core within the music they create. Each song on My Only Secret has a core memory attached to it, whether it is the birth of a child (“Sloan”), a parent’s comfort after the death of a beloved pet (“Rhododendron”), or the agony of the 2016 election results (“Forward”). They feel every moment of every song deeply, something which colors every note they play. “We’re a good emotional band,” says Cunningham. “We can go to that place.” The beauty of My Only Secret, like all of the work Blue Cranes has produced to date, is that they want anyone and everyone to join them.
Track Listing:
1. Sloan (Joe Cunningham) 06:31
2. Semicircle (Reed Wallsmith) 04:17
3. Forward (Reed Wallsmith) 07:03
4. Gaviota (Joe Cunningham) 03:48
5. Rhododendron (Reed Wallsmith) 06:17
6. Sandbox (Joe Cunningham) 04:22
7. A Night in Montavilla (Joe Cunningham) 03:20
8. Lonely Coyote (Reed Wallsmith) 04:34
Personnel:
Blue Cranes
Reed Wallsmith: alto saxophone, keys, percussion
Joe Cunningham: tenor saxophone, keys, percussion
Rebecca Sanborn: keyboards
Jon Shaw: bass
Ji Tanzer: drums
with
James Powers: trombone (3 & 4)
John Savage: flute (3 & 4)
Nicole McCabe: clarinet (3)
Timothy Young: guitar (5)
Recorded by Reed Wallsmith at Ekphrastic
Mixed by Todd Sickafoose
Mastered by Jason Powers
Produced by Blue Cranes
All songs published by Lift Music Flown Music (BMI)
Front cover illustration by Kavi Wallsmith
Album design by Rob Jones
Review:
This is not your standard blowing session. Hailing from Portland, Blue Cranes owe as much to noir, orchestral rock as to jazz. The music on My Only Secret, the quintet’s latest release, has the feel of grand ideas, composed with crafty soloing in and around and through — as in through-composed — on this eight-track set. Take, for example, the opening track, “Sloan.” Keyboardist Rebecca Sanborn, bassist Jon Shaw and drummer Ji Tanzer lay down a compelling groove for saxophonists Reed Wallsmith (alto) and Joe Cunningham (tenor) to explore the melody with terrific unison lines before flying off in counterpoint. Tanzer’s drum solo serves the song with fire, rather than simply demonstrating chops. That’s the case for all the musicians on this recording. It’s truly an ensemble record. At its most ambitious, perhaps, are the album’s third and fourth tunes, “Forward” and “Gaviota,” where Blue Cranes bring in extra firepower on flute, clarinet and trombone. The results are fantastic, with rich arrangements that alternately highlight the saxophones and the beautiful flutework of John McCabe. Tanzer’s drum work consistently stands out with interesting rhythm patterns, fills and showmanship. The best example of the group’s ensemble nature might be the lovely, longing closer, “Lonely Coyote.” It begins quietly, just some well-placed synth plinks that give that “are you out there?” sense of communicating with space. Cunningham floats long, beautiful tenor tones with plenty of reverb in response, letting that sound fill the space with just a few notes. When Wallsmith’s alto replies, the conversation becomes lush, beautiful, wailing, then regal as Tanzer drums frenetically and Shaw delivers some soulful arco. These musicians have been working together since 2004, and it shows. This is the kind of togetherness that can only be developed over time by thoughtful, caring artists. It’s great that My Only Secret no longer is one: This is a terrific recording by a wonderfully talented group.
Frank Alkyer (DownBeat)
