Up and Coming

Name: Up and Coming
SKU: 72777
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John Abercrombie Quartet

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Guitarist John Abercrombie – who has recorded as a leader for ECM since 1974 – returns with a second album by his quartet featuring Marc Copland on piano, along with longtime rhythm partners Drew Gress and Joey Baron. Extolling 39 Steps, the group’s 2013 album, the Financial Times said: “The emphasis is on subtle intrigue, flowing lyricism and the interplay between the leader’s warm, cleanly articulated guitar and Copland’s piano… with bassist Gress and drummer Baron equally supple and sinewy companions.” The same virtues of lyrical melody and harmonic/rhythmic subtlety are apparent with the new Up and Coming, though with even more emphasis on the enduring values of song. Abercrombie’s liquid phrasing and glowing tone – enabled by the thumb technique he has honed since eschewing a plectrum in recent years – animate his five originals and the pair by Copland, as well as a take on the Miles Davis classic “Nardis” done in the spirit of Bill Evans. Up and Coming has a twilight atmosphere, with melodic flow the guiding light.

Gitarrist John Abercrombie, der bereits seit 1974 als Leader bei ECM-Aufnahmen in Erscheinung tritt, kehrt nun mit dem zweiten Album seines Quartetts – mit Marc Copland am Klavier und seiner langjährigen Rhythmusgruppe aus Drew Gress am Bass und Joey Baron am Schlagzeug – zurück. Über das Album 39 Steps aus dem Jahr 2013 sagte die Financial Times: "Der Schwerpunkt liegt hier auf Subtilität, fließender Lyrik und dem Wechselspiel zwischen der warmen, fein artikulierten Gitarre Abercrombies und dem Klavier Coplands... mit Bassist Gress und Schlagzeuger Baron als gleichermaßen geschmeidige wie kraftvolle Begleiter." Die gleichen Qualitäten hinsichtlich lyrischer Melodik und harmonischer wie rhythmischer Subtilität stechen auch auf dem neuen Album Up and Coming heraus, allerdings mit noch spürbarer Wertschätzung für die Songs an sich. Abercrombies perlende Phrasierung und glühender Sound – ermöglicht durch die Daumen-Technik, die er seit dem Verzicht auf ein Plektrum in den letzten Jahren kultivierte – beleben seine fünf Eigenkompositionen und die beiden Stücke von Copland, genauso wie die Interpretation des Miles Davis Klassikers "Nardis", gespielt im Geiste von Bill Evans. Up and Coming erscheint sowohl auf CD als auch auf LP.

Featured Artists

John Abercrombie Quartet
John AbercrombieGuitar
Marc CoplandPiano
Drew GressDouble Bass
Joey BaronDrums

Recorded

April-May 2016, Avatar Studios, New York

Original Release Date

13.01.2017

1Joy
(John Abercrombie)04:09
2Flipside
(John Abercrombie)02:50
3Sunday School
(John Abercrombie)07:15
4Up and Coming
(John Abercrombie)05:47
5Tears
(Marc Copland)07:34
6Silver Circle
(Marc Copland)07:04
7Nardis
(Miles Davis)06:17
8Jumbles
(John Abercrombie)05:57

Again the tracks are all Abercrombie/Copland originals, save a single classic – here Miles Davis’s ‘Nardis’, sketched in hints and glimpses until a groove arrives. Abercrombie’s slowly rapturous melody ‘Joy’ has something of the storytelling lilt of a Nino Rota theme, and on tracks such as the bass-walking ‘Flipside’ and ‘Silver Circle’ (the best here), they swing while hitting hardly any accent hard, though the guitarist’s yodelly low notes and quietly snarly passing notes get almost aggressive on the latter. The whole album is the quintessence of jazz power in reserve.

John Fordham, The Guardian

There is a compelling groove on Copland’s ‘Silver Circle’ which illustrates just how funky this band can still get while still maintaining the meditative aspects to the music. Their mutual support systems are second to none. Catchy tune too. […] ‘Up And Coming’ is an understated gem with a subtle glow that shines deep.

Peter Bacon, London Jazz News

The range of the great guitarist’s playing […] – from ferocious electrics to soft-spoke acoustics – is astonishing, but it has always been underpinned by the same self-effacing musical intelligence that can be heard in every note here. […] ‘Up and Coming’ is the sound of four musicians with nothing to prove getting out of the way of the music.

Cormac Larkin, Irish Times

It is clarity of communication that is of the essence here and on that criteria alone, the John Abercrombie quartet score highly.

Tim Stenhouse, UK Vibe

There is a lot of shared playing experience to draw on, along with considerable group chemistry. They ease into the program with the gentle ’Joy’ (clearly not the exuberant kind), while the up-tempo ‘Flipside’ is built around a classic Abercrombie melody line. The same could be said of ‘Sunday School,’ a long winding line which the band takes its time exploring. The title tune's lyrical swing provides space for a fine bass solo from Gress. Miles Davis' ‘Nardis’ is the one cover in the set. They ease into it slowly, playing the well-known theme rubato at first. Once in tempo they maintain the same easy, conversational approach. While it is not a radical rearrangement, the group makes this classic their own.

Mark Sullivan, All About Jazz

Im Alter wird man nicht langsamer, sondern genauer: Nachzuhören ist dies auf dem neuen Album des John Abercrombie Quartet […] Schlagzeug und Kontrabass geben den Groove vor, Gitarre und Piano breiten sich in freundlichen Duellen darüber aus. Ihre Suche nach den Tönen lässt die Musik transparent schimmern. So eignet sich ‚Up and Coming‘ als Schleifgerät für die Sinne: Sie werden schärfer.

Oliver Creutz, Stern

Abercrombie plays jazz that is both brainy and emotionally engaging, structured and spontaneous. ‘Flipside’ and the title track swing as hard as any jazz lover could want; others build at a leisurely pace. Copland shares Abercrombie’s feel for harmony and dynamics, and interacts with the guitarist in a way that feels effortless, but comes from playing together and developing a musical rapport. Gress and Baron bring that same level of understanding and sensitivity to the eight tracks of Up and Coming -- music by four musicians exquisitely attuned to each other.

Joseph Taylor, Soundstage HiFi

Guitarist John Abercrombie returns with a second album by his quartet featuring pianist Marc Copland, along with longtime rhythm partners Drew Gress and Joey Baron. Extolling 39 Steps, the group’s 2013 album, the Financial Times said: “The emphasis is on subtle intrigue, flowing lyricism and the interplay between the leader’s warm, cleanly articulated guitar and Copland’s piano… with bassist Gress and drummer Baron equally supple and sinewy companions.” The same virtues of lyrical melody and harmonic/rhythmic subtlety are apparent with Up and Coming, though with even more emphasis on the enduring values of song. Abercrombie’s liquid phrasing and glowing tone animate his five originals and a pair by Copland, as well as a take on the Miles Davis classic “Nardis” done in the spirit of Bill Evans.

As they did for 39 Steps, the foursome convened for Up and Coming at Avatar Studios in New York City with producer Manfred Eicher. Befitting the free-flowing, lambent mood of such highlights as “Joy” and “Sunday School,” the sessions were especially relaxed and congenial, with “not only a lot of playing but also a lot of listening going on,” Abercrombie says. “As players, we’ve all known each other such a long time. Also, Manfred and I have worked closely together in the studio for so long – since 1974 – that we don’t have to say too much. We can just do what we do.”

Abercrombie’s connection to Copland goes back even further than the guitarist’s ECM connection, back to when they were both playing in Chico Hamilton’s band in the early ’70s. “Marc was still playing the alto sax when we met – he hadn’t yet decided to concentrate on the piano,” the guitarist recalls. “As players, we’ve always related. I respond to his touch at the piano – it’s smooth and blends with my sound, fluid rather than percussive. He floats over bar lines and abstracts things, while still respecting the form. And his key influences – Bill Evans, Paul Bley – are right up my alley. He also never plays just what I write on the page. He expands the tune, making it better, adding ‘Copland-isms,’ things that I love but would never think of myself.” Noting that the pianist wrote the dark-hued “Tears” and the fetching “Silver Circle” for Up and Coming, the guitarist says: “Marc is an interesting composer, who writes differently than I do – it’s always a nice contrast. His writing is more classically oriented in a way, polychordal without being dense.”

Abercrombie met Baron in the late ’70s, when the younger musician subbed for the regular drummer on one of the guitarist’s gigs at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California. “Joey has always been able to swing his ass off,” Abercrombie says, “whether he was playing with Carmen McRae or John Zorn.” Gress first partnered with Baron for Abercrombie in the quartet that recorded the guitarist’s 2012 ECM album Within a Song, with saxophonist Joe Lovano. “Joey and Drew are just so good together, with this loose but rhythmically accurate way of playing,” Abercrombie says. “And with Joey holding it down – he’s our anchor – Drew can take risks, as he likes to do.”

This band’s penchant for form contrasts with Abercrombie’s more free-minded quartet with violinist Mark Feldman that made four ECM albums from 2000 to 2009 (with Baron also a member of that group). “It’s a bit more natural to play free with just one harmonic instrument in a band,” the guitarist explains. “With both guitar and piano, there’s inevitably more emphasis on harmony. That said, we like to play the form but keep it a bit open, do something with it. There’s an elastic quality to this band’s playing, nothing is ever too on-the-nose – and that’s the way I’ve always liked things.”

The key sonic signature of Up and Coming, of course, is Abercrombie’s guitar playing, the style of which has evolved over the years. The mellow, almost autumnal sound he has been getting over the past decade and a half can be traced to him no longer playing with a pick, preferring to strike the strings with his thumb. The fluidity of his phrasing – always there – has only become more pronounced, with his tone warmer and more limpid than ever, allied to a characteristically incisive improvisational sense. “I play less fast than I used to, less ‘technical’,” he says. “My playing is also more to the point, with melodic lines clearer. The softer attack suits this music, which has a more meditative quality at times. I’ve been doing this long enough that I just follow my muse, do what feels right.”