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JANE IRA BLOOM

Sixteen Sunsets

Outline OTL 141

 

 

1. For All We Know

2. What She Wanted

3. Gershwin's Skyline / I Loves You Porgy

4. Darn That Dream

5. Good Morning Heartache

6. Out of This World

7. Ice Dancing (for Torvill & Dean)

8. Left Alone

9. The Way You Look Tonight

10. But Not For Me

11. Primary Colors

12. My Ship

13. Too Many Reasons

14. Bird Experiencing Light

Jane Ira Bloom - Soprano sax

Dominic Fallacaro - Piano

Cameron Brown - Bass

Matt Wilson - Drums

 

American musician Jane Ira Bloom was a child prodigy who began learning the piano at four, alto at eight and the soprano saxophone at thirteen. She benefited from a thorough musical education, both theoretical and practical. From 1980 onwards, she began to perform exclusively on the soprano saxophone. She has led her own groups as well as playing and recording with others, showing herself to be amazingly versatile. She is a composer, a jazz educator at university level in New York and has proved to be a born collaborator, linking up with artists across a wide range of other disciplines. She even founded her own record label and publishing company, Outline.

Since the start of the Millennium she has won many awards, including the Downbeat International Critics Poll for her instrument. She says of her music 'Sometimes I throw sound around the band like paint and other times I play and feel as if I was carving silence like a sculptor.'

For this CD she is joined by Brooklyn - based pianist Dominic Fallacaro, himself a producer as well as a player, New Yorker Matt Wilson who topped the voting for Rising Star Drummer for five consecutive years in the Downbeat Critics Poll, and the veteran bass player Cameron Brown who played in a group with Bloom as long ago as 1988. The album takes its title from some words of Joseph Allen, a US astronaut, who commented that '…you see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets every day you're in space. No sunrise or sunset is ever the same.' (hopefully, that's true of jazz performances, too!). The disc has a nice balance between Bloom's original material and a fine choice of standards, all ballads.

For All We Know , the first track, offers initially a straight rendition of a beautiful tune which moves into some adept improvisation by Bloom, accompanied tastefully by her fellow musicians. What She Wanted sees Bloom at times moody, at times urgent, as she explores one of her own songs. There is fine playing from Bloom, melodic piano from Fallacaro and steady support from bass and drum. Gershwin's Skyline/I Loves You Porgy begins with an evocative but very brief piece by Bloom which segues into Gershwin's Porgy with Fallacaro again expressive and Bloom exploring the tune with tenderness. Darn That Dream has the saxophone never departing too far from the melody but investing it with a proper jazz sensibility, ably supported by the wider group. Good Morning Heartache sounds like a playful and bluesy reprise of the previous track with piano as well as saxophone to the fore.Out of This World proved to be my favourite track, beautifully performed by all concerned but especially by Bloom and Fallacaro. Ice Dancing (for Torvill & Dean) has subtle shades of Ravel's Bolero in the arrangement and the writing on this track, as might be expected given the title. The rhythm section is on form here.

Left Alone is a suggestive, noirish theme. It actually conjured up Edward Hopper's painting Nighthawks in my mind. It is played with feeling by saxophone and piano throughout. There is a fine solo by Cameron Brown and steady backing by Matt Wilson before Bloom's impassioned playing brings the melody home. The Way You Look Tonight doesn't have much by way of improvisation but is easy on the ear. But Not For Me provides inventive variations on the song by Bloom with mellow keyboard work and solid bass and drum accompaniment. Primary Colors marks a departure for the CD inasmuch as this is a recognisable jazz theme and the quartet go to town on it. Rippling piano, in the first instance, becomes more punchy as it proceeds and there is vibrant playing by Bloom, all driven along by Wilson's drums and Cameron Brown's bass. My Ship is very brief and played straight. Too Many Reasons is, for me, a less satisfactory experience than much that has gone before, perhaps too repetitive. Bird Experiencing Light has gentle pensive piano, rich soprano sax and steady support from drums and bass.

Some may feel the soprano saxophone is too ethereal an instrument for their taste, feeling that it is difficult to bring out the gutsy 'down and dirty' sound we might look for in jazz. Jane Ira Bloom and her fellow musicians are well worth an attentive hearing however, if you appreciate quality music, played with sensitivity. If I have one criticism, it would be that the tempos could be more varied but, against that, Bloom's understated style and purity of tone is worth anybody's time.

James Poore

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