On the back of a particularly fertile spell of activity including a recent duo recording with Fred Hersch, the San Franciscan, New York-based trumpeter-composer Ralph Alessi’s stature has grown higher of late. It’s his first time as a leader on ECM, something that’s still considered a milestone in any jazzer’s career. Alessi has primarily been identified with Steve Coleman but has also figured prominently in the bands of Don Byron, Ravi Coltrane, Fred Hersch and Uri Caine. This accounts for his natural versatility and here he leads an A-list quartet of outstandingly creative musicians from New York, the same personnel as appeared on his impressive 2010 CD Cognitive Dissonance. But their collaborations go back further, contributing to the highly concentrated levels of group dialogue here. On a entire set of originals, Alessi on trumpet creates a tension between bristly and angular phrasing and a more broad-toned, lyrical approach, while pianist Jason Moran’s thrilling freeflowing creation of ideas mixes an otherworldliness with a restless, spiky romanticism. Alessi likes to deploy note-stabbing phrases in both his soloing and writing, and on the track ‘Gobble Goblins’ it is the basis of an entire theme. This and the freebop of ‘In-Flight Entertainment’, the playful Ornette-like theme for ‘Shank’, Alessi’s swaying folky lyricism on ‘I Go, You Go’ and the seductively contemporary Miles’ Kind of Blue-ish, ‘Throwing Like a Girl’ all point to its gripping contrasts.
Jazzwise spoke to Ralph Alessi about the album
Do you see this new recording for ECM as a high point for your band?
Well, we’ve had a long, but in many ways short, history as a band. Every time we play (which is not that frequent) it feels fresh and new. Discoveries tend to happen despite that lack of continuity. The experience of making the record with Manfred Eicher’s presence in the studio led to an expansion of what we had done in the past. This record is significantly different than our last record (Cognitive Dissonance) and found new terrain in a way I hadn’t previously imagined.
How do you maintain a flow and balance between what’s composed and improvised?
With musicians like these, there’s nothing to say to them. You know that they have the ears and sensibilities to know how to play the hell out of the music. They know what’s needed whether it’s a moment to open up a composition or play it down the middle. So to answer your question, yes, that balance is important but it’s more important for me to trust the musicians and turn the keys of the car over to them. If things are a bit out of balance, I try to address it in the music as it’s happening rather than with a verbal directive. Controlling the music has never been my thing.
How did your parents’ professions as musicians impact on your work?
Well it certainly didn’t hurt growing up with parents (and a brother and grandfather) who were all great classical musicians playing music in a very expressive and passionate way. And it was a no-brainer that I would also get on that classical music path from an early age and I did so until I was into my twenties. Up until then, jazz was something I did as a guilty pleasure. That’s about the time when I attended California institute of the Arts and started to play music with fellow students like Scott Colley, David Ake, Peter Epstein, Michael Cain, Ravi Coltrane and many others. I got the jazz bug there and music became fun in a way that I had never experienced before. It took a long time for me to break free from the classical mindset and really believe that I should be doing this. But in many ways, I am happy to embrace both sides of my ‘training’ and hopefully create an interesting hybridised sound and style.
Do these themes generally come to you after the music is composed?
I always write the music first and then go to my tune title list, which I regularly maintain and augment. Usually I can find something on that list that suffices as a title for a given composition. Often those titles have nothing to do with the composition. There is one exception on the record: ‘Maria Lydia’ is a reference to my mother who passed shortly after the making of the record. She got a chance to listen to that track and after said her final word to me, ‘gorgeous’. - Selwyn Harris
Tracks
01. Baida
02. Chuck Barris
03. Gobble Goblins
04. In-Flight Entertainment
05. Sanity
06. Maria Lydia
07. Shank
08. I Go, You Go
09. Throwing Like A Girl
10. 11/1/10
11. Baida (Reprise)
RALPH ALESSI trumpet
JASON MORAN piano
DREW GRESS double bass
NASHEET WAITS drums
Music composed by Ralph Alessi
Recorded October 2012 at Avatar Studios, New York
ECM Records – ECM 2321 (Germany)