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| 4.796 Ft
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| 1. | Night Jaunt
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| 2. | Revolving
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| 3. | Evil Eye
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| 4. | Celeste's Swing
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| 5. | Lament
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| 6. | Fragment
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| 7. | Ready Fred?
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| 8. | Hurricane Sacha
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| 9. | D.C. Blue
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Jazz
Alex Hoffman (tenor sax)
Dwayne Clemons (trumpet)
Will Reardon Anderson (alto sax)
Peter Reardon Anderson (tenor sax)
Frank Basile (baritone sax)
Will Reardon Anderson (alto sax)
Peter Reardon Anderson (tenor sax)
Frank Basile (bass)
Sacha Perry (piano)
Ned Goold (alto sax)
Keith Balla (drums)
While I've known A. Hoffman for several years, from the time he first came to New York, I don't believe I've ever seen him in direct sunlight. I can prove he exists though. I have photographic evidence from very low light exposures. [See cover, ISO 25,600, f/2.5, 1/40th sec.] Now we also have recorded evidence that he exists, which we've thoughtfully packaged up for you here.
The world A. Hoffman and I both inhabit comes alive after dark. But the dark is full of paradox. Sometimes the darkness sheds light on things. Some things look more vivid in contrast to the darkness, as compared to the flat, even lighting of day. Sometimes you just see better when your eyes aren't being irradiated by so many photons. Sometimes you hear better. So turn out the lights and hear this. This is a strong player coming into earshot.
From the day A. Hoffman got to New York five years ago, you could see how much he lived and breathed the horn. He already knew some of our earlier records well by then, and had picked up lessons from recordings of Frank Hewitt, Ari Roland, Chris Byars, and Sacha Perry. And in this one can see the continuity he feels with one of the golden threads in music as it has lived and evolved in New York for the last fifty years, and with the social threads that it connects to. We don't soon forget that jazz in New York was suppressed by race laws until 1988, and that it lived mostly underground. The modern bop -- and I mean the real modern bop with roots in the New York underground -- is still a very powerful language, dark-edged, and still expressive of that very struggle. It was no small achievement for Hoffman to have picked up this language as authoritatively as he has. And at this point, he often plays with those musicians whose music he once studied and is making a name for himself, as a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition and a member of the Brian Lynch Quintet. It's just the beginning of a great career.
A. Hoffman really impressed me on this record with the way that he digs into the changes without ever slacking off, coasting, or skating by. He does not shy away from the feeling in the music, another indication that he has understood and embraced it's raison d'etre. Contrast this with many players who understand bop as only a technical challenge, or with players who deconstruct bop without knowing how it was constructed in the first place, and you'll understand. There is a subtle thread of social criticism that runs through this music. To hear it, though, you have to imagine this parallel jazz world which lived in near total darkness, yet played music that illuminated. And clearly coming upon this music honestly is the one thing that matters most.
It bears special mention that this record features a long overdue first appearance on record by trumpeter Dwayne Clemons. Some will be surprised at the hard-core bop trumpet sound coming from a player whose name has not been hitherto been hyped by a public-relations team. Clemons came up in the 1980s on the New York underground scene, as someone who absorbed that music to the core. It helps to understand that in the 1980s, if you were really looking for jazz in NewYork, you were looking for people like Clarence "C" Sharpe or Frank Hewitt, musicians whose appearances were never announced. You just had to know which sessions to go to. Clemons made his way around those sessions, picking up the esoteric knowledge that you couldn't get in school or on recordings, and this is reflected in his deeply rooted sound, one which reminds me at times of, among others, the late Howard McGhee. Incidentally, Sacha Perry credits Clemons with introducing the then teen-aged Perry to the New York underground scene nearly 20 years ago, which left an indelible mark on the young pianist, very much in evidence on this record.
Lastly, I'd like to give praise for the horn arrangements and the four top-flight players who came in to perform them. It's hard to think of four better players for that job, all major talents in their own right.
---Luke Kaven January 2011
The artist would like to dedicate the tune "Revolving" to the Heltsley Family, and the tune "Ready Fred?" to Burton and Libby Hoffman.
The producer would like to thank the artists and those who generously contributed to making this album possible. |
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