Up and Coming

Name: Up and Coming
SKU: 72777
Availability: InStock

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

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

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.”