|
contents | jazz | |||||||||||||
| Out Today, April 25 Phil Haynes/Ben Monder + Haynes, Steve Salerno, Drew Gress If there's a single characteristic that could describe the diverse paths that Phil Haynes has traversed over his adventurous four-decade career, it's a sense of forward movement. That idea is captured in the title of the drummer's acclaimed 2023 memoir, Chasing the Masters, which hints at the idea of a constant, searching pursuit; but it's also inherent in a musical life centered on the philosophy of spontaneous, in-the-moment creation that forms the heart of Haynes' work, whether he's revisiting a jazz standard or free improvising. Ever since he committed his story to paper, and in the aftermath of health issues that for a time threatened his ability to continue performing, Haynes has found himself coupling his forward-looking instincts with a compulsion to glance back and reassess his past. The result has been not nostalgia but a wealth of new projects and collaborations that link tomorrow and yesterday in captivating ways. On his latest releases Haynes reconnects with one of his earliest musical passions, the electric guitar, for a pair of combustible new albums, both out April 25, 2025 via his own Corner Store Jazz imprint. "I marinated in the iconic electric guitar sounds of B.B King, Jimi Hendrix, the British Invasion, Broadway's 'rock operas', and eventually jazz greats from Wes to Jim Hall, John Abercrombie, Mahavishnu, and beyond, " Haynes says. That naturally led to a number of collaborations with like-minded guitarists during his decades in New York, but he realized that he'd rarely had the opportunity since leaving the city more than 20 years ago. That meant that not only had he lost touch with one branch of his earliest influences, but had missed the opportunity to enter the studio with some of his favorite collaborators. Haynes more than remedies that gulf in his discography with the simultaneous release of Return To Electric and Transition(s), both of which reunite him with not only the instrument that soundtracked his youth but with two collaborators who have long been absent from his recorded history: Steve Salerno and Ben Monder. Return To Electric fulfills Haynes' long-held dream of releasing a fusion album, though he's quick to assert that his frame of reference dates back to the subgenre's more experimental early days, not its sleek, much-maligned commercial heyday. "I had always been attracted to the early, edgy fusion, when it still had that '60s concept of evolution, revolution and experimentation, " he explains. "Recording this album was a lot of fun and, more than that, it was sort of a victory to be able to go back and reclaim a more visceral, energetic, full force, version of that music." For the occasion Haynes enlisted Salerno and one of his closest collaborators, bassist Drew Gress, who had formed the rhythm section for Haynes' mentor Paul Smoker's Notet during the trumpeter's final decade. The trio takes on fusion classics by composers like Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and George Russell, alongside repurposed Haynes originals and a trio of improvised solo "Cadenzas" by each member of the band. "After playing this music for decades, it's easier to have something to say than at the time I was first inspired by it, " Haynes says. "So hopefully now we can shine a fresh light on these classics and with my own tunes, show how we've developed the music since. We think they'd dig it." Transition(s) marks the long overdue debut of Haynes' duo with the unparalleled guitarist Ben Monder, nowadays best known as a member of The Bad Plus. During Haynes' early days in New York, however, Monder was a fellow seeker, and the two enjoyed semi-regular meetings when they would sit down and just improvise. Inevitably, Haynes recalls, John Coltrane's classic "Transition, " the exploratory modified blues that became the title track of the tenor icon's posthumously released 1970 album with his Classic Quartet. "We would get together four or five times a year, " Haynes recalls, "and we almost always ended up playing 'Transition, ' breaking for lunch, and then go back to work on 'Transition' again." Finally seizing the opportunity to record together, Haynes and Monder met again for the first time in more than a quarter century. Inevitably "Transition" is on the setlist, but on Transition(s) it simply serves as the guiding star for an enrapturing set of airy, spacious mood pieces – at times amorphous and atmospheric, at others tense and urgent or lyrical and weightless. The results were surprising even for the participants, especially when an unexpected standard, a tender "I Fall In Love Too Easily, " drifts into existence from the formless elegance of a late-in-the day-attempt to switch things up by swapping positions – Monder taking a seat, Haynes standing and playing while circling his kit. "There was an ease to it, " Haynes says of working with Monder again after so many years. "Back in the day we really worked hard. When I looked at Ben during the session, he was glowing with this easy, relaxed grin on his face. I think we both realized that maybe we've gotten somewhere. We were after this impossible dream and now we can start to see that more of the dream has formed. We haven't been on the wrong path, and even though we've been on different paths, when we come back to share, we find that we have even more in common than we did back then." One final way in which these two releases look backward is more bittersweet. Both are dedicated to compatriots who have been lost: Return To Electric to Paul Smoker, who passed in 2016 but who brought these three musicians together in the first place; and Transition(s) to the great trumpeter Herb Robertson, who died in December 2024, just as Haynes was preparing these albums for release. Veteran drummer/composer Phil Haynes is featured on nearly 90 releases from numerous American and European record labels. His collaborations include many of the seminal musicians of this generation: saxophonists Anthony Braxton, Ellery Eskelin and David Liebman; trumpeters Thomas Heberer, Herb Robertson and Paul Smoker; bassists Mark Dresser, Ken Filiano and Drew Gress; keyboard artists David Kikoski, Denman Maroney and Michelle Rosewoman; vocalists Theo Bleckmann, Nicholas Horner and Hank Roberts; violinist Mark Feldman; and the composers collective Joint Venture. His outlets include the romantic "jazz-grass" string band, Free Country; contemporary saxophone trio No Fast Food; the classic piano trio Day Dream, featuring Steve Rudolph; and his breathtaking solo project, Sanctuary. In 2023 he published his captivating, wide-ranging memoir, Chasing the Masters: First Takes of a Modern Drumming Artist, hailed by Toledo's WGTE as "an engaging blend of insight, curiosity, humility, and humor." Phil Haynes / Ben Monder – Transition(s) Corner Store Jazz – CSJ 0148 – Recorded December 12-13, 2023 Phil Haynes – Return To Electric Corner Store Jazz – CSJ 0149 – Recorded September 26-27, 2024 Release date April 25, 2025 write your comments about the article :: © 2025 Jazz News :: home page |