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Review

Jane Ira Bloom

Wingwalker

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by Ian Mann

February 16, 2011

/ ALBUM

"Wingwalker" is an excellent record and a fine example of imaginative, intelligent contemporary jazz.

Jane Ira Bloom

“Wingwalker”

(Outline Records OTL140)

I must admit that New York based saxophonist and composer Jane Ira Bloom is a musician that has only registered fleetingly on my radar-until now that is. I’d heard her occasionally on Jazz on 3 but never listened to an album in it’s entirety until this latest release dropped through my letterbox. My loss, I think, “Wingwalker” is an excellent record and a fine example of imaginative, intelligent contemporary jazz.

Born in 1954 Bloom has been a professional musician for over thirty years recording for a variety of labels including a stint at one of the majors in the form of Columbia. “Wingwalker” appears on her own Outline imprint and features a stellar band of pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Mark Helias and drummer Bobby Previte, the latter a prolific band leader in his own right. The same quartet also appeared on Bloom’s previous release, the acclaimed “Mental Weather” (2009).

Bloom is one of a handful of musicians to concentrate solely on the soprano sax, as indeed she has done for many years. Bloom is also a pioneer of live looping and other electronic techniques and has also worked closely with dancers and visual artists. A “space” theme also runs throughout her work, she has performed at the Planetarium at the Kennedy Space Center and even has an asteroid named after her! 

“Wingwalker” represents her fourteenth album as a leader but the music sounds remarkably fresh and vital. Bloom has stated that the music was recorded with ” very few preconceptions, and that allowed a certain freedom to open up and move the music in unexpected ways. All we had to do was to let it happen”. This open minded approach has certainly paid dividends, this is vivid music, full of life and vitality. The programme consists of eleven Bloom originals plus a solo soprano saxophone rendition of the Lerner & Lowe standard “I Could Have Danced All Night”.

The opening track “Her Exacting Light” is a fine introduction to Bloom’s soprano sound, pure, clear and sinuous. The arrangement is paced by Clement’s stately piano and the music is enriched by Previte’s cymbal shimmers. The delicacy and attention to detail he deploys here is very different to his more forceful playing with his own group The New Bump.

Despite the emphasis Bloom places on the improvisational elements of the record, much of the success of the album stems from the quality of the compositions she has brought to the proceedings. “Life On Cloud 8” is full of delightful melodic and rhythmic twists and turns with Bloom sometimes treating her sound electronically. Helias and Previte are outstanding, the pair clearly have a great understanding and their colourful rhythmic patterns are consistently engrossing.

The lovely ballad “Ending Red Songs” opens with Bloom duetting delightfully with Clement before Helias’ deeply resonant bass is added to the sound palette. There’s a thoughtful, unhurried solo from Clement but it’s Bloom’s beautifully controlled performance that is the real highlight, maintaining an air of fragile beauty throughout.

Helias begins the chunkily swinging “Freud’s Convertible” as Bloom and her colleagues update the legacy of Thelonious Monk. Appropriately pianist Clement shines here, demonstrating her versatility with a percussive, Monkish solo. But there’s more to this tune than merely paying homage to Monk. During Bloom’s solo the music subtly changes direction as Bloom begins to treat her sound before the quartet swiftly sidestep into spacier, more contemporary territory fuelled by Previte’s busy, but subtle, polyrhythmic drumming. Interesting.

The stop/start “Airspace” is another interesting exercise in composition and improvisation with the rhythm section swinging prodigiously behind Bloom’s serpentine soprano with Clement again weighing with another percussive solo.

“Frontiers In Science” is appropriately wide ranging, opening with another Bloom/Clement duet before arco bass and drums enter the equation. Later Helias’ virile plucked bass lines form the backbone of the track as Bloom and Clement solo at length, the saxophonist making extensive use of electronics to vary her sound.

“Rooftops Make Dreams” also opens quietly with just sax and piano but again it’s Helias’ mighty groove that forms the foundation of the piece. Bloom’s soprano cuts like a scythe through the forest of bass riffs and heavy piano chords.

“Rookie” is perhaps the most conventionally jazzy piece on the record, bright, breezy and swinging with excellent solos from Bloom and Clement. By way of contrast “Adjusting To Midnight” is another beautiful ballad, simple but effective, with the trio of Bloom, Clement and Helias allowing the music plenty of room to breathe.

After the now almost customary sax/piano intro “Live Sports” evolves into a lively shuffle, the most “urban” sounding track on the album with Bloom’s soprano squiggling above Previte’s implacable drum groove. Clement’s chunky piano chording also features strongly and there’s an amusingly abrupt ending on what is probably the most playful piece on the record.

The title track is another example of Bloom’s ballad skills, albeit this time in a more abstract context. Besides the leader’s always delightful soprano there’s also a rhapsodic solo from Clement and a resonant, dexterous statement from Helias.

The album ends with a solo soprano rendition of the Lerner & Lowe standard “I Could Have Danced All Night”, Bloom’s slowed down treatment imbuing the tune with a mix of tenderness and pathos.

The CD also incorporates an MP3 file attachment which condenses the music of the album into a five and a half minute soundscape. I’ve not been moved to investigate this at this stage.

Nonetheless “Wingwalker” the album is a mightily impressive piece of work with a set of strong and consistently interesting original compositions being brought to life by a highly competent and interactive band. Everybody plays superbly and the recorded sound, captured by producer Bloom and her engineering team, is little short of miraculous. The purity and clarity of the mix not only makes for a lustrous soprano sax sound but makes everybody else sound great as well. Bloom may be a long way into her career but the music on “Wingwalker” still sounds as fresh as a daisy.
   

 

 

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