George Lernis CD Release at Ryles Jazz Club

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Drummer George Lernis celebrates the release of his new CD Shapes Of Nature at Ryles Jazz Club Tue, Nov 22nd 8:30PM with Lefteris Kordis – piano, Mark Zaleski – bass and Scott Boni – sax. Shapes of Nature, the debut recording of the George Lernis Jazz Quartet, introduces the distinctive music of the talented drummer-percussionist-composer to a worldwide audience. Born in Cyprus, Lernis began professionally playing a wide range of music – jazz, rock and world - as a teenager, developing a personal style that fused the influences the many rhythms of the Mediterranean region and those of jazz and the avant garde. Citing the late Tony Williams as a primary model for his modernistic approach to drumming, Lernis expands upon the restrictive role of timekeeper, playing a naturally flowing amalgamation of shifting rhythms that distinguishes his work from more typical mainstream jazz, while maintaining an appealing sound.

A graduate, with a degree in Jazz Performance, from Berklee College in Boston, where he studied with Kenwood Dennard, John Hazilla, John Ramsay, Dave Samuels and Mark Walker, Lernis went on to earn his Masters' degree in Modern American Music from the prestigious Longy School of Music, while studying drums privately with The Fringe's Bob Gullotti. Following his graduation from Berklee, Lernis studied composition and ear training with New England Conservatory adjunct professor Lefteris Kordis, coming under the powerful influence of the Greek pianist. Considering Kordis to be both mentor and friend, as well as an inspiration for his own approach to writing music, the drummer naturally chose him for the piano chair on this, his first recording. His sympathetic presence at the keyboard is an import factor in the success of Lernis achieving his artistic vision.

Filling out the quartet are two of Lernis' fellow Longy graduates, bassist Mark Zaleski and saxophonist Scott Boni. Having played together in various ensembles around Boston, the foursome comes together as a tightly knit unit that perfectly complement each other in the realization of the leader's idiosyncratic compositions. Zaleski's rock solid bass is a vital factor in the drummer's ability to freely shift rhythmic focus without endangering the flowing feel of his music, while Boni's wide ranging chameleonic sound is an important component of the expansive harmonic canvas upon which Lernis's texturally sophisticated drumming comes to life.

The first of the seven original pieces that comprise Shapes of Nature offers a telling insight into Lernis's writing processes, which the leader acknowledges stem from his studies with Kordis. "Early Spring" takes Charlie Parker's "Anthropology" as a compositional model and then reworks the bebop anthem, altering specific parameters, such as replacing the original scales with Arabic maqams (here Hicaz) and frequent change of meters, while subtracting notes to give the music its own melodic character. The combination of Boni's gruff, thick toned alto and Kordis's spare chording give the song a sprawling character that is equally ethereal and earthy. The saxophonist's lyrical horn playing successful transforms the well known melodic line into a memorable variation, while Kordis's piano improvisation, reminiscent of Mal Waldron's flowing idiosyncratic structures takes the song in unexpected directions, complemented by the composer's varying rhythms and tones.

Lernis composed "Squirrel Dance" around his drumming, building the attractive melody from the ground up from various rhythmic progressions. Opening dramatically with an ominous sounding introduction that recalls the groundbreaking Blue Note albums of Eric Dolphy, Jackie McLean and Wayne Shorter, the piece quickly shifts into the appealing song line, which finds the composer swinging straight ahead, propelling lyrical solos by his three bandmates, complementing their voices by interjecting his own shifting melodic patterns. The drummer's solo, played over a vamping piano and bass ostinato, exhibits a tastefully restrained power that is redolent of the musicality of Max Roach.

Atmospheric cymbals and textural malleted drums, indicative of Lernis's hand drumming skills, introduce "Canvas, " an almost forlorn exploration rising out of the mold of Wayne Shorter's "Iris." Here the scope of the drummer's compositional studies come to the fore, as he employs various scales – Dorian, Lydian, Whole Tone and Aeolian – to subtly alter the music's mode, interjecting a tango interlude into the structure in contrasting relief to its overall melancholic mood. The airy character of the piece is suspended beautifully by Boni's brooding alto over the composer's flawlessly delicate brushwork.

Lernis wrote “Rhythm Portals” during his studies at Longy, utilizing George Russell’s well known Lydian Chromatic concept of composition. The song is introduced by a funky New Orleans styled bass line played by Zaleski, that is followed by Kordis’s tinkling upper register piano ostinato prior to Boni’s statement of the soulful melody. Here Lernis’s masterful ability to break up the time with interlocking rhythms, while still maintaining an continuous flow, is glowingly on display.

“Walking In Rhythm”is one of the date’s more traditionally oriented pieces. A radically altered variation on the theme of “There Is No Greater Love,” it offers the composer the opportunity to swing straight ahead, trading off with Boni’s Birdlike alto and Kordis’s Monkish piano, anchored by Zaleski’s walking bass.

Lernis composed “Bending Time” after studying with Dave Bryan, a piano professor at Longy who performed with Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time band. Utilizing a twelve tone row technique. Originally written without any chords to supply a harmonic underpinning that would direct the soloists’ improvisations, the drummer eventually harmonized the head, but directed his colleagues to treat the song as a collective improvisation, thus giving the overall feel similar at times to the sound of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor.

The finale “Feeling Groovy” is a hip blues composed by Lernis specifically for the date. Appealing in its simplicity it allows the band members to “get down” and dig deep into their jazz roots, concluding appropriately with drum solo that marks him as a forward looking player poised to expand upon the jazz tradition.

Building upon the rhythmically complex musical heritage of his Mediterranean birthright combined with important lessons learned during his studies with Lefteris Kordis, George Lernis has gradually discovered a personal sound, which he is still exploring and developing. Splendidly debuting this sound on Shapes of Nature, the drummer impressively indicates his ability to be an important voice well prepared to usher the music into the future.

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