 BUY NOW AmazonUK AmazonUS |
JESSE RYAN BRIDGES |
FWÉ CULTURE [38:51]
Jesse Ryan (Saxophones, Composer, Percussion - track 2): Joanna Majoko (Voice tracks 3, 6): Lucian Gray – (Guitar tracks 6, 7): Sean Clarey (Guitar tracks 2, 3): Andrew Marzotto (Guitar tracks 1, 9): Ewen Farncombe (Piano, Fender Rhodes): Marc Rogers (Bass): David Richards (Drums): Nicolas Frangini-Salvo (Congas track 7): Mt. Cullane Tambrin Band (tracks 1, 5, 9)
1. Big Ole' Shoes (Featuring Mt. Cullane Tambrin Band)
2. Bridges
3. Zambian Offertory (Featuring Joanna Majoko)
4. Right To Be Wrong Prelude (Featuring Brainerd Blyden-Taylor)
5. Right To Be Wrong (Featuring Mt. Cullane Tambrin Band)
6. The Way (Featuring Joanna Majoko)
7. Seeds
8. S.O.T.S Prelude (Featuring Ewen Farncombe and Mt. Cullane Tambrin Band)
9. S.O.T.S (Featuring Mt. Cullane Tambrin Band)
Saxophone player Jesse Ryan was born in Port of Spain and studied at Berklee and is currently based in Toronto where this, his first album, Bridges, was recorded. The bridges of the title are musical and relate to the jazz and Afro-Caribbean traditions that he embodies and wishes to share. There are six original compositions in this debut disc and one arrangement of a Zambian folk melody called Zambian Offertory, which seems to me to echo the kind of thing Monty Alexander would do in his exploration of jazz, religious and Caribbean influences.
As well as being a communicative composer he is a stylish sax player, his sinuous, darting runs on the opener, Big Ole Shoes (not apparently a play on Ellington’s famous comment that he liked ‘Big Ole Tears’ when his soloists, like Artie Whetsol, played ballads) possessing admirable mobility over the rich bass line and Caribbean percussion. The title track offers ‘tribal sophistication’ notes its composer and embodies West African roots. The three against four rhythms, the plangent bass line and Ryan’s dancing eloquence offer a full complement of rhythmic and timbral interest, decidedly ‘bridging the gap’.
There are two bipartite pieces with preludes, an increasingly familiar trope on the jazz scene as is the use of Interludes; I happen to be unconvinced by either approach but that’s neither here nor there. Right to be Wrong has a spoken prelude and the song itself is a mid-tempo ballad, with vocalised melodic lines over a Fender Rhodes wash.The Way features vocalist Joanna Majoko – she also sings on the Zambian Offertory – and is a lightly funky piece, evoking Tony Williams.
On four tracks we can hear the playing of the Mt Cullane Tambrin Band, a welcome sonic enrichment and once again evidence of the cross-pollinating nature of Ryan’s musical explorations. The hook of Seeds is especially attractive and this straight-ahead swinger, light and dancing, Latin-infused and full of spirit and warmth is one of the very best things in this album. Ryan’s soprano makes a fine impression on the final track, S.O.T.S (Sons of the Soil) which sends the Caribbean vibe onwards in a fulsome and exciting way.
This is a welcome introduction to Jesse Ryan on disc – a communicator and collaborator with a mission.
Jonathan Woolf