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June 21 – Ryan Truesdell’s Synthesis: The String Quartet Sessions – New Work by 15 Jazz Composers SYNTHESIS: THE STRING QUARTET SESSIONS New 3-CD recording by Grammy Award-winning producer Ryan Truesdell Newly commissioned works by 15 leading large ensemble jazz composers performed by some of NYC’s first-call string players To Be Released on June 21, 2024 via ArtistShare® © Leo Mascaro Multi-Grammy Award-winning producer Ryan Truesdell has spent the last three years scrupulously curating a new project that is finally ready to be shared with the world. SYNTHESIS: THE STRING QUARTET SESSIONS is an epic, 3-CD collection pairing 15 of today’s leading large ensemble jazz composers with the timeless and venerable instrumentation of the string quartet. The album to be released by ArtistShare® on June 21, 2024 (www.SynthesisSQS.com) features nearly three hours of new music commissioned by Truesdell specifically for this project. The experience and influence of the composers Truesdell assembled span several decades. Joseph Borsellino III, John Clayton, Alan Ferber, Miho Hazama, John Hollenbeck, Christine Jensen, Asuka Kakitani, Oded Lev-Ari, Jim McNeely, Vanessa Perica, Rufus Reid, Dave Rivello, Nathan Parker Smith, and Ryan Truesdell all wrote new works and Truesdell also included a never-before-recorded composition by Bob Brookmeyer. Best known for his Grammy Award-nominated Gil Evans Project ensemble and their critically acclaimed albums Centennial (2012) and Lines of Color (2015), Truesdell found himself barely a year into the pandemic, reflecting on the future of large ensemble composition when gathering 18+ woodwind and brass players in person seemed a distant dream. “I wanted to find a way to inspire and challenge large ensemble composers – myself included – at a time when we were feeling hopeless for the future of our artform, ” Truesdell says. “The idea for SYNTHESIS came from the knowledge that many jazz composers derive inspiration from the string quartet writing of composers like Bartok, Brahms, and Ravel, and the necessity of finding a realistic, yet inspiring way to create music together, safely, in person.” Truesdell gave the composers very few parameters in terms of length or style, with the intention that their singular compositional voices would filter through the string quartet as they expressed themselves with a new palette of colors and textures. “There were many factors in the project’s genesis, but ultimately, I wanted to hear my peers, whom I respect and whose music I love so much, create something new in this idiom.” In laying the groundwork for this artistic collaboration through these commissions, Truesdell provided the composers with a fertile soundscape for exploration and creation. A crucial element of this project is the musicians who brilliantly executed and brought these remarkable new works to life. Some of the top-call string players in New York City, violinists Sara Caswell, Joyce Hammann and Lady Jess, violists Lois Martin and Orlando Wells, and cellists Jody Redhage-Ferber and Noah Hoffeld appear in the various quartet configurations throughout the recording. All vastly experienced string players comfortable in any style of music from Broadway, jazz, traditional and modern classical music, popular music, and film scores. To successfully learn and record each composers’ new work, Truesdell and the quartet adopted the concept of “sessions'' for each new piece: three days of rehearsals and one day in the studio. In the end, SYNTHESIS took 15 days to record over ten months at Oktaven Audio in Mount Vernon, New York. Each session was masterfully recorded by the studio’s co-owner and head engineer, Ryan Streber. SYNTHESIS represents an eclectic but remarkably cohesive collection, with each of the works highlighting the unique strengths and diverse voices of the composers and musicians, woven together with a collective throughline of musical influences and experience. Many compositions naturally reveal the composers’ jazz roots by including improvisation, such as Alan Ferber’s modern approach to a jazz standard, “Violet Soul, ” Christine Jensen’s reflection on our new reality in post-pandemic society, “Tilting World, ” and Jim McNeely’s “Murmuration and Adagio, ” a musical depiction of the murmuration of starlings leading into a ballad he originally penned for Stan Getz. Others chose to retain jazz-influenced grooves within the context of through-composed works, such as Miho Hazama’s “Chipmunk Timmy's Funny Sunny Day” with fully written-out solo moments showcasing the virtuosity of each member of the quartet, Dave Rivello’s “Two Reflections for String Quartet, ” where the opening sonority serves as the foundation for the work’s compositional material and creates an engaging dialog between the quartet, and Vanessa Perica’s “A World Lies Waiting” which reflects her yearning to rejoin the world after enduring the emotional roller coaster of being on lockdown in Australia. Other composers leaned into their classical influences while still retaining jazz-like harmony like John Clayton’s “Tidal Wave, ” which loosely borrows its harmonic and melodic fragments from Chopin’s “Prelude in C minor, ” Rufus Reid’s three-movement “String Quartet #1” which begins with three short vignettes foreshadowing the complete work’s melodic material, culminating in a sonorous third movement, rich with lush, harmonic color, Asuka Kakitani’s “Melt, ” a cinematic expression of the turmoil of climate change inspired by a photograph of a starved polar bear on a slowly melting iceberg, and Bob Brookmeyer’s “Talking for String Trio, a dynamic, free-chromatic conversation between three strings originally composed in 1990. Several compositions defy categorization, like Nathan Parker Smith’s “Where Can You Be?” which uses the strings to capture the percussive drive of a brass band with Baltic-inspired harmony, Joseph Borsellino III’s “Paper Cranes'' with its pre-recorded track creating an eccentric interplay between electronic sounds and the acoustic string colors, periodically propelled by a rhythmic, driving beat, Oded Lev-Ari’s “Playground” which reimagines the role of the composer from dictator into facilitator by bolstering listening and connection between the quartet through guided “games, ” and John Hollenbeck’s “Grey Cottage, ” originally a solo violin etude with each movement exploring a different string technique, now a 30-minute work expanded for string quartet featuring the composer on drums, marimba, and piano. SYNTHESIS producer Ryan Truesdell contributes three original compositions to complete this collection: “Suite for Clarinet and String Quartet'' was begun during the composer’s years at New England Conservatory and completed for this project. It features Israeli-born Grammy-nominated clarinetist Anat Cohen’s signature charisma and expressive virtuosity. “Heart of Gold” is a shimmering, ethereal setting to feature cellist Jody Redhage-Ferber’s bold sound, with legendary bass player Jay Anderson augmenting the quartet, adding his signature melodic interplay to the sonic tapestry. “Dança de Quarto” is a feature for violinist Sara Caswell with a Brazilian choro-like feel which became a dance between four equal partners, passing around the lead and support roles to each other like a group of dancers on a stage. SYNTHESIS challenges old perceptions of the traditional string quartet, extending the limits of its capabilities and drawing fresh, revolutionary sounds from the strings while exploring a new genre of music cultivated at the intersection of jazz, classical, world, and contemporary music. This collaborative venture combining the composers’ distinct, personal voices and the instrumentalists’ mastery across myriad genres, has elevated the art of jazz composition by daring the composers to take on one of the true tests of the composer’s art – a string quartet. With SYNTHESIS, Truesdell has set and accepted the challenge, and once again proven himself to be a unique, innovative, and skilled producer, as his creative endeavors continue to push the boundaries of music. |
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