Mark Turner’s debut date as a leader for ECM – his first major label effort under his own name since 2001’s ‘Dharma Days’ – features the intrepid tenor saxophonist in the pianoless environment he’s recently been exploring with Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard in the cooperative threesome FLY (which has recorded a pair of albums for the German imprint). Here, with trumpeter Avishai Cohen in the frontline, Turner’s harmonic brilliance is on fuller display, along with his considerable gifts as a composer. Each of the date’s six tracks is an engaging sonic exploration, displaying an attentiveness to tonality, with the horns merging their distinctive sounds together into a singular voice as they navigate the shifting rhythmic underpinnings supplied by the agile bass work of Joe Martin and inventive drumming of Marcus Gilmore.
Russ Musto, New York City Jazz Record
This is deeply meditative, intellectual music that defies categorization while at the same time bringing to mind such disparate touchstones as '70s Kenny Wheeler, '60s Ornette Coleman, and the lyrical '50s West Coast cool of the Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan pianoless quartet. Ultimately, in much the same way that the layers of our dreams are stripped back to reveal a deeper, more profound, and at times unsettling truth in Le Guin's novel, with his ‘Lathe of Heaven’ Turner strips back layers of jazz style and language to reveal a sound that is both familiar and utterly new.
Matt Collar, All Music
As cerebral as Turner's music can be and as considered as his compositional constructs are— oftentimes building surprising significance from the smallest of concepts—‘Lathe of Heaven’ manages to stir the soul as much as it challenges the mind. Deep, dark and ever substituting implication for overt expressionism, it's that very tension created by Turner's quartet—more often than not, resolving in the most unexpected fashion—that makes the saxophonist's first album as a leader in 13 years one worth celebrating.
John Kelman, All About Jazz
Wo früher Gitarrist Kurt Rosenwinkel den kongenialen Gegenpart spielte, übernimmt heute der Trompeter Avishai Cohen. Ungerührt lyrisch tragen die beiden Bläser die zweistimmigen Melodielinien vor, mitunter erinnert das an die Moderne des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts, wenn nicht der Rahmen mit Bassist Joe Martin und drummer Marcus Gilmore solide im Jazz verankert wäre. Der Verzicht auf ein Akkordinstrument bedeutet für Mark Turner weniger ein Plus an Freiheit als vielmehr an Verantwortung für jeden Einzelnen. Die wird freudig übernommen – und das Ganze ist mehr als die Summe seiner Teile.
Tobias Richtsteig, Jazzthetik
It’s his best record. It has a group sound, the force of embodied unity. It does something that jazz records used to do more: you might hear it, feel there’s really nothing to add, and decide not to listen to records — including this one — for, say, a week. […] It’s all his own music here: lines and counterpoint written for himself and Mr. Cohen that sound succinct and final, clear and articulate in an almost pre-Renaissance way. Mr. Turner’s long solos in tracks like ‘The Edenist’ and ‘Sonnet for Stevie’ seem to start from zero and contain a great deal of jazz tradition without straining. The band’s sound and the album’s engineering contain plenty of light and open space; at the same time, this remains mysterious music, bordering on dark.
Ben Ratliff, The New York Times
Though the harmonized lines he plays with trumpeter Avishai Cohen bear intimations of Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter, Turner’s compositions and emotional unity of the quartet’s playing, particularly in ‘Sonnet for Stevie,’ have individuality rooted in his fealty to maintaining the purity of the blues. Without being depressing, the music has an attractive atmosphere of melancholia.
Doug Ramsey, ArtsJournal.com
He’s joined on the front line by remarkable Israeli trumpeter Avishai Cohen—who likewise works without a chordal instrument in his trio Triveni—and the pair demonstrate a preternatural bond, playing Turner’s elegant, serpentine themes in unison and slaloming alongside each other in long passages of yin-yang improvisation. Turner’s compositions are melodic but measured — he prefers a simmer to a boil. Luckily, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Marcus Gilmore (best known from the Vijay Iyer Trio) provide plenty of friction and spark, pushing against the supple arrangements.
Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
A mesmerizing album of darkly hued intriguing ambience and intricate, modal harmonies. Contrasting and complimentary musical elements and an expansive yet intimate sound mark these half a dozen originals and give the disc its cohesive structure. […] Turner has created a sublime and utterly fascinating work with ‘Lathe of Heaven’. Much like the novel after which it is named, this CD is simultaneously cerebral and emotive. It is restlessly innovative while avoiding abstruseness. In short, it achieves artistic perfection.
Hrayr Attarian, Chicago Jazz Magazine
Ohio-born saxophonist Mark Turner is the virtuoso everybody in contemporary jazz wants on their albums - but a reluctant star in no big hurry to tell the world his own story. This set represents Turner’s leadership debut on ECM, in a quartet without a chordal instrument, reflecting an Ornette Coleman-like preference for polyphonic interplay. The second horn is Avishai Cohen’s (the New York trumpeter, not the composer-bassist), whose flawless wide-register range makes him the ideal Turner conversationalist. […] The set sometimes sounds like birth of the Cool tunes floated over a 21st-century rhythmic concept, and it’ll be a 2014 polls contender for sure.
John Fordham, The Guardian
Mark Turner’s steady rise to the front ranks of contemporary improvisers is testament to a unique combination of attitude, ability, sound and imagination. […] the saxophonist’s fragmentary, Shorter-ish tunes provide launch pads for a free-wheeling set which crackles with the sort of collective energy one associates with Miles Davis’ 1960s quintet – two horns full of melodic adventure and a scorching rhythm section orchestrating it all. An auspicious label debut from a master musician.
Cormac Larkin, Irish Times
Mit ‘Lathe Of Heaven’ hat Turners Musik jetzt, immer noch mit deutlichem Bezug zu Bop und Blues, an Wärme, Ruhe und Gelassenheit gewonnen. Großen Anteil daran hat der Trompeter Avishai Cohen, dem nicht an der Demonstration technischer Fertigkeiten, sondern an Ausdruck und Gefühl gelegen ist. Hier trifft er sich konzeptionell mit Mark Turner mit dem Ergebnis eleganter Soundfarben beim Unisono- wie im Wechselspiel […] Ohne weiteres Melodieinstrument haben beide Bläser mehr Freiräume, die auszufüllen ihnen scheinbar mühe- und schwerelos gelingt. […] Das Zusammenspiel dieses Quartetts ist ein Wunder an Klangschönheit, Disziplin und Stimmigkeit, überzeugt durch anspruchsvolle Kompositionen ebenso wie durch eine exakt kalkulierte Balance von Wärme und Strenge.
Heribert Ickerott, Jazzpodium
Auf ‚Lathe Of Heaven‘, dem Debut des Mark Turner Quartet, dient der aus Israel stammende Trompeter Avishai Cohen als Reibefläche, an der sich Turners Saxofonspiel aufheizt: In wilden Intervallketten und gewagten Registersprüngen setzt er hier die Pole seiner Musikalität unter Strom: das Zarte und das Harte, das Ruhige und das Aufgeregte, das Emotionale und das Reflektierte. Turner verwandelt seine Musik in ein Gespinst von Fäden, die durch die Geschichte des Jazz gespannt sind und ihn mit einer kollektiven Emotionalität verbinden.
Stefan Hentz, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
With Avishai Cohen on trumpet matching him step for step, Turner gracefully spins out long lyrical phrases of finely wrought counterpoint, which lie in suspended animation above Marcus Gilmore’s fluid drumming and Joe Martin’s cool, understated bass. In this quartet without a chordal instrument there is plenty of space for Turner and Cohen’s delicate polyphony, and as the lines unfold, each consonance and dissonance feels perfectly judged. […] ‘Lathe of Heaven’ is a master-class in melody and control; it develops carefully and slowly, and nothing is wasted - there is no bluster. This is a virtuosic, personal and moving record, which reveals deeper levels of meaning with each listen.
Jonathan Carvell, London Jazz News
Das Mark Turner Quartett begeistert mit Magie, Melancholie und Mysteriösität – ein Meisterwerk. […] Selten hat Turner seinen gänzlich eigenen Tonfall so bezwingend in Szene gesetzt wie auf ‚Lathe Of Heaven‘.
Georg Spindler, Mannheimer Morgen
Without a chordal instrument, great demands are made on all the players, and they respond with remarkable sensitivity. Pianists are not forgotten in Turner's compositions, though: the track 'Ethan's Line' refers to his collaborator, keyboard master Ethan Iverson. Turner's influences are cited as Warne Marsh and John Coltrane, an interesting contrast of approaches (cerebral and passionate) from which he has developed a strongly individual style. The emotional content of Lathe Of Heaven is powerful, and Cohen's trumpet blends well with Turner's softer sound. Another considerable achievement from the saxophonist whose playing has mainly been heard with the group Fly, and the bands of guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and fellow reedman David Binney.
John Watson, Jazz Camera
‘Lathe of Heaven’ – avec six compositions nouvelles – s’affiche de nouveau, sous le nom de Mark Turner Quartet, et, s’il y a une formation que l’on souhaite pérenne, c’est bien celle-ci. Avishai Cohen, à la trompette, est constamment inspiré dans de contrepoints poétiques, Joe Martin pousse la contrebasse vers la mélodie, Marcus Gilmore à la batterie se fond dans une création bouleversante qui fait appel en nous à la plus haute exigence. Bref, un disque à mériter autant qu’à méditer.
Michel Contat, Télérama
Aucun risque! Le nouveau disque de Mark Turner est une merveille d’inventivité mélodique, de puissance tranquille, d’interaction souple et tonique. Le casting y est pour beaucup: un quartette ‘ornettien’dont chaque membre possède un timbre et une pulsation spécifique aussi bien en tant que voix soliste que dans le cadre du son de groupe auquel ils donnent corps avec un art consommé de l’interplay. Ces quatre instrumentistes ne ménagent à l’auditeur ni les surprises ni les moments de beauté, alternant la retenue et la furia creative, croisant leurs discours dans une perspective de narration musicale qui, souvent, laisse pantois.
Thierry Quénum, Jazz Magazine
Alles ist klar, glasklar, gleichsam von cartesianischem Geist geprägt. Musik wie weiße Kreidestriche auf der schwarzen Wandtafel. Cohen ist eine Verheißung mit seiner Diktion, geschult an dem kürzlich verstorbenen Trompeter Kenny Wheeler. Und Mark Turner; er ist, bleibt Mark Turner. Der Musiker hat dem Jazz-Saxofon einst als Innovator das ganz hohe Register erschlossen, und auch auf ‚Lathe Of Heaven‘ spielt er jetzt Staunen erregend virtuos im Stratosphärischen. Da ist auch Turners einmalige Klangkultur. Klassisch kultiviert klingt sein Tenorsaxofon.
Christoph Merki, Tagesanzeiger
