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The Gleaners

Name: The Gleaners
SKU: 72560
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Larry Grenadier

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Larry Grenadier’s The Gleaners is a profound and highly creative album, harvesting influences from many sources, its title inspired by Agnès Varda’s film The Gleaners and I. In between his own pieces here, including a dedication to early hero Oscar Pettiford, Grenadier explores compositions by George Gershwin, John Coltrane, Paul Motian, Rebecca Martin and Wolfgang Muthspiel. “The process for making this record began with a look inward,” Larry writes in his liner note, “an excavation into the core elements of who I am as a bass player. It was a search for a center of sound and timbre, for the threads of harmony and rhythm that formulate the crux of a musical identity.”

The result is an important addition to ECM’s series of distinguished solo bass albums. The Gleaners was recorded at New York’s Avatar Studios in December 2016, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Larry Grenadiers The Gleaners ist ein tiefgründiges und höchst kreatives Album, das seine Einflüsse aus vielen Quellen bezieht. So ist sein Titel von Agnès Vardas Film „The Gleaners and I“ inspiriert. Zwischen seinen eigenen Stücken, einschließlich einer Widmung an den frühen Helden Oscar Pettiford, erkundet der Star-Bassist hier Kompositionen von George Gershwin, John Coltrane, Paul Motian, Rebecca Martin und Wolfgang Muthspiel. „Der Entstehungsprozess dieser Platte begann mit einem Blick nach innen“, schreibt Larry in seinen Liner Notes, „ein Graben in den Kernelementen dessen, was ich als Bassspieler bin. Es war die Suche nach dem Zentrum von Sound und Klangfarbe, nach den Fäden von Harmonie und Rhythmus, die den Knackpunkt der musikalischen Identität ausmachen.“ Das Ergebnis ist eine wichtige Ergänzung in der Reihe herausragender Solobass-Aufnahmen bei ECM. The Gleaners wurde im Dezember 2016 in den Avatar Studios in New York eingespielt und von Manfred Eicher produziert.

Featured Artists

Larry GrenadierDouble Bass

Recorded

December 2016, Avatar Studios, New York

Original Release Date

15.02.2019

1Oceanic
(Larry Grenadier)02:26
2Pettiford
(Larry Grenadier)03:41
3The Gleaner
(Larry Grenadier)02:10
4Woebegone
(Larry Grenadier)03:23
5Gone Like the Season Does
(Rebecca Martin)04:29
6Compassion / The Owl of Cranston
(John Coltrane, Paul Motian)09:08
7Vineland
(Larry Grenadier)03:06
8Lovelair
(Larry Grenadier)03:39
9Bagatelle 1
(Wolfgang Muthspiel)01:49
10Bagatelle 2
(Wolfgang Muthspiel)01:48
11My Man's Gone Now
(George Gershwin)05:35
12A Novel in a Sigh
(Larry Grenadier)00:48

Überall fasziniert hier besonders eines: die erzählerische Kraft des Musikers. Packend, wie Larry Grenadier die Hörer in diesen Stücken mitnimmt in immer neue Stimmungen und Nuancen. Er streicht und zupft den Bass, liebkost und fordert ihn – und spricht durch ihn. Und es entsteht ein bezwingend schöner Fluss von Gedanken und Klängen, die sich Zeit nehmen. Die Raum haben. Und ihn – ohne jede Artistik, ohne jedes Vorzeigen von Tricks oder Kniffen - wie selbstverständlich füllen, weil hier ganz großes Können in Substanz aufgeht. Kein einziger hektischer Ton – aber Stücke, die in ihrer ruhigen Unaufdringlichkeit eine eigene Magie entwickeln. Der Elefant unter den Saiten-Instrumenten: Wie fein, wie beweglich, wie elegant kann er sein! Und wie er singen kann und sich dabei selbst begleiten – ohne, dass irgendetwas fehlen würde. Ein musikalischer Hochgenuss.

Roland Spiegel, Bayerischer Rundfunk

The music […] feels complete in itself, and aglow with an integrity of purpose. The Gleaners relies on chamber-esque arco arrangements as well as sculptured pizzicato statements, always with a smart and self-contained air.

Nate Chinen, WBGO

Despite its narrow instrumental focus, The Gleaners presents a captivating study in sound, texture and compositional ingenuity.

Brian Zimmermann, Jazziz

The Gleaners proves to be worth the wait. […] it's illuminating to hear Grenadier as he executes on beautifully orchestrated ballads, spare vignettes and improvisations. As intelligent, clever and technically gifted as he is, Grenadier always puts the song first and it makes for great listening.

Karl Ackermann, All about Jazz

There is unlikely to be another solo bass record that tops this one for a long time.

Fritz Balwit, Audiophile Audition

[The Gleaners] is so sensitive, creative, and stylistically diverse that it presents perhaps the first real opportunity for such a recording [a solo double bass recording] to engage an audience beyond the standard confines of aficionados and other musicians. The Gleaners is an inner exploration articulated with uncommon generosity, disciplined artistry, and a poet's gift for illumination.

Thom Jurek, All Music

Seine erste Solo-Produktion kommt spät, doch mit ihr reiht er sich in die Tradition von Bassisten wie Dave Holland, Barre Phillips und Miroslav Vitous ein, die bei ECM legendäre Selbstgespräche herausgebracht haben. Und Grenadier muss sich vor ihnen keineswegs verstecken. […] Sieben eigene Stücke von Grenadier enthält diese splendide Aufnahme, hinzu kommen Auftragskompositionen von Wolfgang Muthspiel und je eine Herrlichkeit von Gershwin und Coltrane. Wer jetzt noch denkt, Bass sei etwas von und für Brummbären, wird hier herzhaft belehrt.

Manfred Papst, NZZ am Sonntag

The mixture of compositional aesthetics, as well as a thoughtful blend of playing techniques, make the ‘solo bass’ idea work […]. […] for listeners who love the upright bass and are willing to listen with care, this recording is a gem. It is an album for careful listening—which practice repays the effort. […] The Gleaners is a worthy addition to ECM's history of music for upright bass alone. In fact, I like more than its predecessors. It stands on the shoulders of those records and keeps reaching.

Will Layman, Popmatters

The tracks all have a certain sense to them, veering away from atmospherics more towards a strong rhythmic jolt and sense of momentum. Above all Grenadier knows how to harness tone in this cause. A handsome record, the sound production is excellent, it has a rootsy flair as well as serious intent and is a must for all students of jazz bass.

Stephen Graham, Marlbank

Das Album atmet aus dem Geist der Geschichte und verströmt gleichzeitig den eindringlichen Duft von Gegenwart. Die Arco-Stücke, häufig im tiefen Bassbauch gestrichen, sind von klassisch-lyrischer Schönheit, wobei das rasante ‚Vineland‘ als virtuoses Meisterstück und ‚My Man’S Gone Now‘ brillante Ausnahmen bilden. Dass die pizzicato gespielten Songs weitgehend auf Groove verzichten und die Musik fast ohne Overdubs auskommt, beweist die Klasse dieses Bassisten. Ein sinnliches Album.

Steff Rohrbach, Jazz ‚n‘ More

Thanks to wise architectural ideas and a dedication to pith, ‘The Gleaners’ is one of those records you’ll keep returning to. Assurance, comfort, expression, vulnerability—a manifold approach to emotion makes Grenadier’s recital an irresistible excursion. […] The bowed pieces augment the album’s textural breadth. Finding kinship in Trane’s ‘Compassion’ and Paul Motian’s ‘The Owl of Cranston,’ the bassist crafts a medley that drifts while it whirls. The title track works a facile theme the same way that Jenny Scheinman’s ‘The Lucky Hum’ or ‘Albert’ created their artful folksiness. Both string improvisers know the allure of a simple melody, and Grenadier’s savvy regarding catchiness—with a cinematic flair here and there—makes ‘The Gleaners’ all the more mesmerizing.

Jim Macnie, Jazz Times

The upright bass might not be an instrument we’re used to hearing at front of the mix. But ‘The Gleaners’, Larry Grenadier’s bold, poetic contribution to the solo bass genre, leaves no doubt that his bass belongs there. It’s a purposeful artistic vision – at points melodic, athletic and gut-wrenchingly vulnerable – that explores not only the full range of the instrument’s technical possibilities, but also the emotional range of a deeply sensitive jazz artist. […] A testament to one of our generation’s true bass craftsmen, ‘The Gleaners’ offers a pathway into a brilliant mind taking a rare and well-deserved turn into the spotlight.

Alex W. Rodriguez, Downbeat

Hier ist nichts überflüssig, und man kann Grenadier gleichsam beim Denken zuhören, ohne dass es jemals ‚verkopft‘ anmutete. Großes Kino!

Klaus Nüchtern, Falter

Though rarely featured as a solo instrument, in the right hands, the double bass is capable of an expressive range that belies its menial role as a foundational bedrock in an orchestra or group. Of available recordings in a jazz or improvised music context several of the most important examples have already appeared in the ECM catalogue possibly as a result of the label’s founder, Manfred Eicher, being a bass player before he became a record producer, indeed it is said that this album by Larry Grenadier came about as a direct result of his prompting. […]In his choice of material Grenadier proves to be something of a gleaner himself, indicative of a musical intelligence that is always searching for new sources of inspiration to turn into vessels for the expression of his command of an instrument that doesn’t readily yield its range of possibilities. As I said earlier it takes the `right hands` and when these are attached to a fertile imagination we can expect something special, like the music delivered in this intriguing recording.

Euan Dixon, Jazz Views

In die Galerie der ECM-Solobassisten gehört seit neustem Larry Grenadier, berühmt als Mitglied der Combos von unter anderen Brad Mehldau, Paul Motian, Pat Metheny, Wolfgang Muthspiel. Dass er in der Lage ist, sein tückisches Instrument zur gleichwertigen Stimme zu emanzipieren, hat er in all diesen Gruppen bewiesen. Jetzt gelingt ihm das Kunststück, ‚all alone‘ während mehr als vierzig Minuten auch Nicht-Bassisten keine Sekunde zu langweilen. Gezupft wie gestrichen ist Grenadier ein großer Geschichtenerzähler und Dramaturg, einer mit einem großen Atem, der über alle virtuosen Schnellfingerkünste in der Nachfolge von Scott LaFaro verfügt, ebenso aber über die Kunst der Pause […] Dabei ist ‚The Gleaners‘ (‚Die Ährensammler‘) kein narzisstischer Exzess, sondern ein Manifest der Bescheidenheit. Er selbst sei ein Sammler, der auflese, was in allen Windrichtungen von anderen übrigbleibe. Nur: was macht er daraus!

Peter Rüedi, Weltwoche

The first thing to say about this album is that you don’t need to be an aficionado of the double bass to enjoy it. The warmth of the recording, along with the wonderful musicality of Grenadier’s playing, make it a surprisingly accessible and rewarding 42 minutes of listening. There’s a rhythmic flow to the whole album that captures the imagination, with the bassist providing a luminous, creative soundscape of melody, texture and colour.

Mike Gates, UK Vibe

ECM Records has a long history relating to solo bass recordings. Among the artists who have gone it alone for the label are Dave Holland, Gary Peacock, Miroslav Vitous, and Barre Phillips (whose ‘Journal Violone’ from 1968 - predating ECM – is reportedly the first jazz solo bass album.) It’s a prestigious group of courageous virtuosos, and Larry Grenadier has joined their ranks. Judging from ‘The Gleaners’ he deserves the privilege.

Steve Futterman, Jazzed

Whilst many of the pieces here are extremely brief, each is fully complete in itself and there is nothing remotely extraneous across the album’s 43 engrossing minutes. Brilliantly conceived and executed from start to finish, ‘The Gleaners’ offers an exploded view an artist at the peak of his powers and makes a worthy edition to ECM’s prestigious library of music for solo bass.

Fred Grand, Jazz Journal

It’s nothing less than a masterclass in the art of double bass playing.

Charles Waring, Record Collector

The opener features sumptuous bowed lines, and the pieces then alternate, more or less, between plucked and bowed sounds, with a little of both on the multi-tracked ‘Woebegone’. There’s plenty of variation within the format, the plucked bass sometimes folksy, sometimes swinging relentlessly, the bowed work exploring all registers. Throughout there is the feeling Grenadier mentions in the notes, that solo bass music precludes excess. It’s stripped down, tightly focussed music. But there is nothing ascetic about it. This recording is as sensuous as dark chocolate melting on the tongue or sipping a glass of fine Saint-Émilion. […] Beautifully recorded by James Farber, the sound of the instrument is drop dead gorgeous throughout, and so is the music Grenadier fashions from it.

John Turney, London Jazz News

More than an album of bracing insight and invention, but one of the finest solo bass albums ever produced.

Tyran Grillo, New York City Jazz Record

With decades of outstanding work alongside some of the greatest figures in music—most notably as a part of pianist Brad Mehldau's trio—Larry Grenadier represents the gold standard of modern jazz bass, his ample discography showcasing his exemplary finesse, indefatigable swing, and purposeful support with every project. For all that, his first date as a leader is an utter revelation, a dramatic artistic statement for solo bass that rewards repeated listenings […] Much like the juxtaposition of a tree bursting with life amid a cityscape on the album's cover, ‘The Gleaners’ is a robustly organic model of sophistication and the majestic summation of a remarkable career to date, one that heralds outstanding possibilities for this now all-the-more accomplished musician.

James Keepnews, Chronogram

Over the decades, ECM has released a line of inventive albums showcasing solo double bass by such virtuosos of the instrument as Dave Holland, Barre Phillips and Miroslav Vitous. Now the label presents The Gleaners, the first album of solo bass by Larry Grenadier. As one of the most admired, accomplished bassists working in jazz today, Grenadier has been praised as “a deeply intuitive” musician by The New York Times and as an instrumentalist with a “fluid sense of melody” by Bass Player magazine. His personal tone has made him a bassist of choice for such artists as Paul Motian and Pat Metheny, not to mention some 25 years of deep, ongoing work in pianist Brad Mehldau’s widely influential trio. For ECM, Grenadier has featured on two albums as part of the cooperative trio Fly (alongside Mark Turner and Jeff Ballard), as well as three records led by guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel. The Gleaners includes a brace of originals by Grenadier, along with distinctive interpretations of numbers by George Gershwin, John Coltrane and Motian. There’s also a pair of pieces written especially for Grenadier by Muthspiel, plus an instrumental interpretation of “Gone Like the Season Does,” a song by the bassist’s wife, and frequent collaborator, singer Rebecca Martin.

Grenadier recorded The Gleaners at Avatar Studios in New York City with Manfred Eicher as producer and James A. Farber as engineer; the album was mixed at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France. In his liner note, Grenadier wrote: “The process for making this record began with a look inward, an excavation into the core elements of who I am as a bass player. It was a search for a center of sound and timbre, for the threads of harmony and rhythm that formulate the crux of a musical identity.” Reflecting on the gestation of his first solo album, he talks further: “For years, I had been satisfied by collaborating with other artists, feeling that I had room for my own voice in the music. But Manfred planted the seed of making a solo album, and I cultivated it as an artistic challenge. Manfred is a former bassist, so he understands the instrument and its history, both in jazz and classical. Few people truly know how to treat the double-bass sonically in the studio, but Manfred concentrates on bringing out its special qualities. In making The Gleaners, he was vital in the editing and the mix, really helping me shape the album.”

Those previous ECM albums of solo bass by Holland, Phillips and Vitous were key inspirations for Grenadier. “But other instrumentalists playing solo were also a big influence, such as Sonny Rollins,” he says. “I looked to them to help answer the question: How do you develop something solo over a long span with cohesion and clarity? Joe Henderson also used to play these substantial solo intros before tunes like Monk’s ‘Ask Me Now’ that were inspiring. There were other things, too, when it came to solo string playing. I’ve always loved solo cello music from Bach and beyond, and Manfred introduced me to violist Kim Kashkashian’s solo Hindemith recordings, which I fell for. As all those influences swirled in my head, I began thinking about a solo album conceptually, how to make it interesting over 45 minutes or so – and not just to other bass players. I experimented with various tunings and scordatura, like the 17th- and 18th-century violinists used, to get a full range of sounds – and that gave the instrument a whole new vibration for me, a feeling of real sonic potential to explore.”

Grenadier’s title of The Gleaners was inspired by a documentary film from 2000, The Gleaners and I, by the French director Agnès Varda, who was in turn influenced by the 19th-century painting by Millet called The Gleaners, of women harvesting in a field. “For me, as a musician, you glean things from the people you play with and the music you listen to, but it takes work to get the most out of everything, to harvest the things you can use yourself,” Grenadier says. “I’ve always felt something like that as an artistic credo – working to get to the good stuff. Even in the middle of a gig with, say, Brad Mehldau – just trying to be truly in the moment, alive to the best of what’s happening.”

Richly conceived, beautifully played and recorded with a sensuous blend of warmth and detail, The Gleaners includes seven original pieces by Grenadier – starting with the deeply melodic arco opener “Oceanic.” Next comes the grooving pizzicato homage “Pettiford,” about which Grenadier says: “That track is my tribute to Oscar Pettiford, one of the first jazz bass players I really dug, when I was a teenager. My piece is based on the chord changes of his tune ‘Laverne’s Walk.’ I’ve also played ‘Pettiford’ in a trio version with Fly.” The album’s other originals range from the arco lyricism of “Vineland” and “The Gleaners” to the pensive pizzicato of “Lovelair” and “Woebegone” (with the latter capped by some artfully overdubbed arco). The interpretations on The Gleaners include touchstones for Grenadier: “Another musical hero of mine has always been Miles Davis, for his sound and the way he thought about music, as well as the bands he put together. I love the Miles and Gil Evans version of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, so including ‘My Man’s Gone Now’ is my nod to that inspiration.”

The Gleaners also includes a medley of Coltrane’s “Compassion” and Motian’s “The Owl of Cranston.” Grenadier says: “‘Compassion’ comes from Coltrane’s Meditations suite, an important piece of music for me. It flows into Motian’s ‘Owl of Cranston,’ which I used to play with Paul. His tunes are just fabulous – they’re so melodic, but the flow of the rhythm, often out of tempo, is the thing. I love Paul’s approach to composition and his approach to music in general – his influence is so strong among my generation. I got to spend more than a decade with him onstage and in the studio, which meant that I could absorb this long history of music, from his days with Bill Evans and then Keith Jarrett to his albums as a leader on ECM and that great trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano. Throughout all that he did, there is this open approach, where you hear time beyond strict metronomic time, free but with a flow. He could play so loose because he was so rooted in the tradition. As he might say, to play out you have to be able to play in. The great musicians I’ve played alongside – from Joe Henderson and Paul Motian to Brad Mehldau and Pat Metheny – all teach the same thing: know your instrument really well, listen closely and be open to the moment and its possibilities.”

Born in 1966, Grenadier grew up in San Francisco, his family a musical one. At age 10, he began learning the trumpet, which was father’s instrument. His dad taught him how to read music, and he was soon given his first electric bass, which enabled him to play cover tunes in a trio with his two brothers. After being introduced to jazz at home, Grenadier had his passion for the music stoked at age 12 by witnessing a live performance by bass kingpin Ray Brown. That pivotal event led him to explore the work of such bass greats as Pettiford, Charles Mingus, Paul Chambers and Wilbur Ware. “The more I got into jazz, the more I gravitated toward the upright bass as my main instrument,” Grenadier recalls. “I was drawn to the acoustic instrument’s subtlety and its physicality. I liked how the double-bass produces its sound naturally. The instrument still holds mystery for me – I remain fascinated by it all these years later.”

About his prime influences as a bassist, Grenadier runs down those players and qualities that have meant the most to him: Brown (“such a huge beat, such clarity of sound – what he played on bass offered so much information that you had to pay attention to it”); Pettiford (“for his clarity, melodicism, swing-to-bop values, the way he dug chamber music, too”); Mingus (“huge technical ability on the bass, along with his incredible composing and bandleading”); and Scott LaFaro (“his incredible technique and his individuality – he was sui generis, like Jaco Pastorius”). Along with those figures, and Holland and Vitous, Grenadier’s key bass influences also include Charlie Haden, Eddie Gomez, George Mraz and Marc Johnson. “All these players have been about developing a distinctive voice on the bass, with the technique to convey their ideas with real lucidity,” he says. “Obviously, Charlie was a very different player than someone like Miroslav, but they both rank as advanced speakers on their instrument. It’s about pushing yourself technically so that you can get across what you’re trying to express. Among my peers, you can hear that in the playing of Ben Street, Eric Revis and Rodney Whitaker – they’ve inspired me, too.”

The art of music “remains a learning experience for me, above all,” Grenadier concludes. “I’m always working on the technical aspects of my playing, but at the same time, I know that what happens onstage isn’t all about that. The level of intuition that exists in music, especially in jazz, is a constant reminder to me of what humans are capable of, both in music and beyond. I always want to keep a bit of that mystery at play in the music, so as not to over-intellectualize the magic. That’s why I think you have to balance a studied approach to how music works with a primal, instinctual understanding of the way music feels. Having access to technique is essential for being able to communicate and express yourself musically. But, ultimately, music is about emotion. The most vital quality in making music at a heightened level is empathy, the ability to listen and feel.”