Out March 29 – Dan Weiss, Miguel Zenón and Matt Mitchell in Even Odds

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Whether it's strategizing a game of rock, paper, scissors, engaging in a friendly game of poker, or taking the musical risks that have made him one of the most lauded drummers in modern jazz, Dan Weiss relishes a game of chance. On his latest album, Even Odds (out March 29, 2024 via Cygnus Recordings), Weiss debuts a brand-new trio with an unorthodox recording process. For this captivating session, Weiss enlists alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón and pianist Matt Mitchell, both longtime collaborators, to navigate his intricate compositions and to engage with the drummer in novel ways.

Even Odds features two distinct approaches to the delicate balance of composition and improvisation, both offering their own unique challenges to the trio. Six of the pieces are "traditional" compositions – traditional in the sense of providing written material that the trio played and improvised upon together, less so in their reflection of Weiss' singular blend of influences, which draws on rhythmic concepts from jazz, Indian classical music, contemporary classical, West African music and extreme metal and a cinematically influenced sense of emotion and atmosphere.

The remaining pieces were crafted as game-like provocations, gauntlets thrown down from Weiss to his bandmates. They began life as brief drum exercises or grooves that Weiss recorded solo. He then presented these fragments to Zenón and Mitchell and asked them to improvise over them. These knotty miniatures, many of them clocking in under a minute or two, force the players to think in focused, densely packed bursts to realize fully formed statements as they traverse these rhythmic dares.

"I love games, " Weiss explains. "I'll make bets with people over the silliest things. On Even Odds, there was always a chance that these tunes could go a lot of different ways. I'd never recorded that way before, so it felt like a bit of a gamble." The title of Even Odds reflects that gamesmanship, but it also suggests the dichotomies that so enliven the album – the odd-numbered trio of masters making coequal contributions to a group sound; meeting on an even playing field even as they contend with material designed to throw them off-kilter.

Weiss assured that challenge would be answered in thrilling fashion by inviting two of the most gifted, virtuosic and adventurous voices in modern music. Miguel Zenón is a multiple Grammy nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists and composers of his generation. Hailed by the New York Times as "a pianist of burrowing focus and an indispensable fixture of the contemporary vanguard, " Matt Mitchell is a pianist, composer, and electronic musician interested in the intersections of various strains of acoustic, electric, composed, and improvised new music. He has played extensively in the ensembles of many major figures in improvised music, including Tim Berne, Dave Douglas, John Hollenbeck, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Linda May Han Oh, Jonathan Finlayson, Mario Pavone, and Darius Jones.

"Matt and Miguel had free reign to do whatever they wanted, " Weiss explains. "It was true improvisation, with the only form being what the drums were playing. It was challenging, but of course they're incredible musicians and they did amazing and very contrasting things – some were dense and busy, some were atmospheric and minimalist, some were loud and aggressive, some were really tender."

"The collaboration involved in making [this record] represented for me a feeling of great trust from Dan, " says Mitchell. "His singular dedication to a creative path encompassing both extreme discipline and unfettered expression and openness is a continual personal impetus for my own work, and I believe it has a particularly unique realization with this record."

"The three of us have been playing in this trio format for the past few years, so the recording felt pretty free and organic, " Zenón adds.

As a demonstration of the process, compare "Recover the Mindset" with "M and M, " the poker-inspired "Too Many Outs" with "Runner Runner, " or "Bribes and Ultimatums" with "Royal Beatings" – the former in each case is Weiss' unadorned drum track, the latter a reprisal with Zenón's and Mitchell's darting inventions parrying with the original. The pairing of "Horizontal Lifestyle" and "Vertical Lifestyle" reverses the process; "Vertical" features the full trio, while "Horizontal" strips away Weiss' rhythmic foundation to spotlight the intricate sax-piano duo that it inspired. The mesmerizing "Conversing with Stillness" takes a similar approach, beginning with the full trio and then excising Weiss' drums midway to leave behind a gossamer, free-floating ballad.

These concise experiments are interspersed with the half-dozen new compositions that Weiss penned for the album. They include the agitated, insistent opener, "It Is What It Is, " where the sustained nervous tension seems to contrast with the laissez-faire tone of acceptance suggested by the title. It's followed by the mournful tribute "The Children of Uvalde, " which was written in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 school shooting, when this latest round of horror was still raw.

"Sometimes I don't really know how to respond to these events except to go write a tune to express the pain, " Weiss says. "That one came out of me pretty quickly. Hearing the news of a school shooting has always been horrific, but now that I have a kid it really hits home. I can't imagine what those parents go through or how they bounce back."

The tender "Fathers and Daughters" illustrates the more joyous aspects of parenthood. "Five to Nine, " like the improvised "Nineteen to the Dozen, " is a play on the complex meter of the respective tunes. And both "Nusrat" and "Ititrefen, " along with the improvised "Bu, " continue Weiss' longstanding habit of paying homage to his inspirations.

"Nusrat" is named for the iconic Pakistani Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and transplants a Qawwali tabla rhythm onto the drum set. "Max Roach" and "Bu, " the nickname of Art Blakey, both build on rhythmic ideas gleaned from those legendary drummers. "Bu" isolates a Blakey pattern and reimagines it in the tradition of a tabla composition, while "Max Roach" elaborates on Roach's famed contribution to Charlie Parker's "Klactoveedsedstene." "Ititrefen" is "Nefertiti" spelled backwards, and was written with Wayne Shorter's brilliant composition in mind.

The game of rock, paper, scissors depicted on the cover of Even Odds is a perfect encapsulation of this trio's inventive music: equal parts bold and assertive, keen and incisive, and expansive and encompassing; three ideas expressed at once, at times overlapping, at times in conflict; and constantly, gleefully unpredictable.

Dan Weiss
Dan Weiss has been hailed as one of the top five drummers in jazz by The New York Times. His innovative drumming and forward-thinking compositions have been pushing musical limits for decades. Weiss's intense study of jazz, classical Indian, contemporary classical, West African, and metal sets a musical platform that creates a sound that transcends conventional style or genre. Weiss has studied tabla under Samir Chatterjee for 25 years. His trio with Jacob Sacks and Thomas Morgan has released four albums (Now Yes When, Timshel, Utica Box and Dedication) and he also leads a unique 16-piece large ensemble featuring some of NYC's most gifted musicians. His band Starebaby (with Matt Mitchell, Craig Taborn, Ben Monder and Trevor Dunn) blends metallic jazz, prog and post rock, melding deep sophistication with visceral impact. As a sideman, Weiss has played/toured with Lee Konitz, Chris Potter, Sylvie Courvoisier, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Linda May Han Oh, John Zorn, and others.

Dan Weiss – Even Odds
Cygnus Recordings – CR104 – Recorded Sept. 19-20

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