Reviews

MIDWEST RECORD

TED NASH/Somewhere Else: With the tsimmis building toward the release in fall 2020 of the nu, ethnically correct film iteration coming, this sax led jazz trio is in the right time and place having been at a jazz fest celebrating Leonard Bernstein's centennial when it hit them how they could do something that would leave their own stamp on the proceedings. A tasty, swinging update of the "West Side Story' music that goes it's own, individual way throughout, this set reopens the ears to well worn modern classics that are so much a part of the contemporary musical vocabulary. A winner throughout by some cats that really came to play. (Plastic Sax )

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DR. DEBRA JAN BIBEL

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing Artistry August 16, 2019

The film West Side Story — and its exceedingly familiar music by Leonard Bernstein — is nearly 60 years old (the stage musical began earlier in 1957). After it wildly popular release, jazz musicians tapped its attractive melodies, and soon Oscar Peterson, San Kenton, Dave Brubek, Andre Previn, Cal Tjader, and more recently Dave Grusin and Richie Cole respectively issued their own renditions. The decades have past and while Gershwin's Porgy & Bess continue to be tapped for album selections, West Side Story perhaps has been too engrained to be considered. Until now. Esteemed reedman, composer, and arranger Ted Nash, whose remarkably inventive solo albums supplement his work with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, offers his own flavor in a somewhat minimalistic trio of acoustic bass [Ben Allison], electric guitar [Steve Cardenas], and his own tenor saxophone and clarinet. The album is sequel to their warmly received concert of these tunes at the Havana Jazz Festival. Sans drums, the pieces focus on melody and counterpoint and the bass assumes a stronger role in rhythm. Nash's improvisations are wide open and the blues are always around the corner, as in the first piece Jet Song in which each instrument gives a solo opening statement. The slight dissonance of A Boy Like That becomes a noir reflection. The arrangement for Maria, which is often rendered sappy sweet, is now sprightly and Stravinsky modern in clarinet invention. This track is jaw-dropping artistry. The typical anthem approach to Tonight is also altered: the song is hardly recognized from its prelude and beat until two-thirds in, when it becomes a bouncy frolic. The album keeps the dance spirit of America as staccato swirls. The slow, sketchy beginning to Something Coming conveys anticipation until another dance develops and the trio seems an orchestra, the mark of well- matched musicians. Bernstein's angular writing, as in Jet Song, is heard also in Cool, and the 1950s style of avant-garde, hard-edge visual art is suggested musically. The album closes with two arrangements of the ballad Somewhere. The deceptively simple sound of the trio, when listened intently, transforms into a brilliant colorful garden beautifully structured. I have admired Ted Nash's previous explorations as leader; this is freer, more expansive, and truly special.