Julian Priester :In Deep End Dance

JULIAN PRIESTER
IN DEEP END DANCE

Conduit Records

Julian Priester was a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra during its infancy in the mid-fifties, a member of Max Roach’s groups from about 1958 to 1961, and a member of Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi sextet in the early seventies. He’s also led many of his own groups, yet never achieved the kind of name recognition of trombonists such as Roswell Rudd or Ray Anderson. Yet Priester has been at the forefront of players who have helped keep the trombone an important part of the modern jazz sound with musical ideas that are never clichéd and an expressive, ringing tone that is to the instrument what Charlie Parker’s sound was to the alto saxophone. In short, he is one of jazz music’s abundance of consistently underrated players. If there’s any justice, his latest CD, In Deep End Dance, released by the newly minted Condit Records label, should change that, because it is one of the most excellent small-group releases I’ve recently had the pleasure to listen to.

In his brief but interesting liner notes, Priester points out that jazz music is tied to the spiritual attribute of oneness, as are nature and the environment. The music on In Deep End Dance is programmed as an unbroken suite to demonstrate this idea of oneness. Each of the titles, states Priester, stand “For various areas of environmental concern”, making it perhaps the first jazz album since Sonny Rollins’ Global Warming to specifically address this particularly timely issue. That’s not to imply that the music itself is not enjoyable simply for its own sake (it is). Priester wishes the listener to hear the disc from beginning to end without interruption, and doing so does help to bring to light certain rhythms and cycles within the suite of music.

“In Deep” opens the album with a 6/8 lilt punctuated by the rhythm section’s introduction, and then there it is—Priester’s gorgeous trombone riding the rhythms, taming them, and seeming to quiet the storm. Priester is supported nicely by Dawn Clement’s piano work and pushed relentlessly by Byron Vannoy’s drums and Geoff Harper’s bass. On this first album as a leader in 25 years, Julian sounds as good as he ever has, playing with a melodic weight and sense of sureness that easily places him at the forefront of modern jazz trombonists. On a group improvisation such as “Captured Imaginations” he is simultaneously the inspiration, pushing his cohorts towards more abstract and daring experimentation and the glue that holds everything together. Such leadership ability is not often seen in jazz—Miles Davis comes to mind, and perhaps Dave Holland, with whom Priester has also worked.

Preister’s supporting cast is exceptional as well, a group of expert players with whom many will not be familiar, but whose resumes are impressive nonetheless. Pianist Dawn Clements’ oft-Monkish playing is given lots of play on the tracks “Blues Sea” and “Ecumene”, and one longs for the opportunity to hear more from this talented musician. She’s currently composing and performing in the “Rubin/Clement piano dialogues” with pianist/composer Amy Rubin, and the duo recently toured California premiering Dawn’s piece “Violet Duo.” Drummer Byron Vannoy has worked with a variety of jazz musicians, including Charlie Haden, Dave Peck, Wadada Leo Smith, Vinnie Golia, and Billy Childs, while bassist Geoff Harper has been acknowledged as a leading musician in the Northwest for the past ten years. Each of the ensemble members offers a composition here—Harper the subtle “Thin Seam of Dark Blue Light”, Vannoy the rhythmically adventurous “Mejatoto”, and Clements the introspective and somewhat Herbie Hancock-ish “A Delicate Balance.” A great deal of credit goes to Priester for not only having sharp ears for young talent, but also for allowing new and accomplished musicians to be involved in a project of this nature and to be heard.

While there is free improvisation on In Deep End Dance, it is, overall, a very controlled recording and not one that is intentionally abstract or difficult to listen to. On the contrary, its rhythms and developments seem to flow quite organically and there is a great deal of subtle detail for the careful listener. For example, the way that Vannoy’s brush strokes shift from a loping shuffle to an ebullient swing shortly after Harper’s entrance at 1 minute, 13 seconds into "Thin Seam of Dark Blue Light" and back again towards the tune’s conclusion is precisely the type of gentle but profound effect that is missing from so many small group jazz recordings these days. This is a CD that no fan of open, adventurous improvised music can afford to miss. Conduit Records, the brainchild of Beck Henderer-Peña and Robb Davidson, is off to an auspicious start with this release. Their website states that Conduit Records “has a deep respect for history, and honors history's musical innovators by supporting and giving voice to musical pioneers today.” Let’s hope they succeed wildly.