Technically Acceptable Ethan Iverson

• 1 Conundrum 01:31
• 2 Victory is Assured (Alla Breve) 02:39
• 3 Technically Acceptable 04:18
• 4 Who Are You, Really? 03:25
• 5 The Chicago Style 02:37
• 6 It’s Fine to Decline 02:58
• 7 The Way Things Are 03:50
• 8 Killing Me Softly With His Song 03:50
• 9 ‘Round Midnight 04:22
• 10 The Feeling is Mutual 04:15
• 11 Piano Sonata: Allegro Moderato 06:30
• 12 Piano Sonata: Andante 04:10
• 13 Piano Sonata: Rondo 04:42
• Total Runtime 49:07

Info zu Technically Acceptable

Der Pianist und Komponist Ethan Iverson hat die Veröffentlichung seines zweiten Blue Note-Albums Technically Acceptable angekündigt, ein weitreichendes neues Projekt voller Wendungen, bei dem Iverson an der Spitze von zwei verschiedenen Trios steht - mit den Bass-/Schlagzeugteams Thomas Morgan / Kush Abadey und Simón Willson / Vinnie Sperrazza - und eine Reihe von beeindruckenden neuen Originalen sowie einzigartige neue Versionen von Roberta Flacks »Killing Me Softly With His Song« und Thelonious Monks »'Round Midnight« spielt, letzteres mit Rob Schwimmer am Theremin. Das Album schließt mit der Uraufführung von Iversons Klaviersonate, die von Iverson selbst mit Bravour gespielt wird.

»Ich bin daran interessiert, diese fast archaischen Formen auf eine moderne Art und Weise zu interpretieren«, sagt Iverson. »Wenn ich mit Thomas und Kush einen 12-Takt-Blues spiele, klingt das nicht im Geringsten nach 1944. Es klingt wie 2023. Aber gleichzeitig ist es ein echter Rückschritt. Das ist der Punkt, an dem ich mich mit jemandem wie Jaki Byard verbinde, der die aktuellste kreative Musik mit Eric Dolphy spielen oder hinter einem Bluessänger spielen konnte und sich dabei völlig wohl fühlte. Und wenn er solo oder im Trio spielte, kam alles auf einmal heraus.

Die geschichtsträchtige Fülle an Einflüssen und Epochen, die Iverson als Pianist, Komponist und Kritiker erforscht hat, taucht in Technically Acceptable auf oft überraschende und reizvolle Weise auf. In der Vergangenheit hat Iverson seine Auftritte als Leader genutzt, um mit Älteren wie Billy Hart oder Jack DeJohnette in Kontakt zu treten und von ihnen zu lernen. Letzterer war 2022 auf Iversons Blue Note Debüt Every Note Is True zu hören. Hier arbeitet er ausschließlich mit jüngeren Musikern zusammen, die selbst in den prägnanten Formen dieser kurzen Stücke, die in ihrer poppigen Präzision an seine Zeit bei The Bad Plus erinnern, reichlich Raum für freilaufende Erfindungen finden.

Mit einem Repertoire, das auf spielerische und doch erfindungsreiche Weise unzählige Punkte auf der Zeitachse von Jazz und Klassik beleuchtet, erlaubt sich Iverson das Zeugnis, das dem Album den Namen gibt. »Wenn ich meine Arbeit an mir selbst messe, bin ich auf einer Reise: Ich befinde mich auf einer Reise, aber ich glaube nicht, dass sie schon zu Ende ist. Mein erstes Album hieß School Work; vielleicht werde ich in weiteren zehn Jahren das Album Flawless Masterpiece machen. Im Moment bin ich technisch akzeptabel.«

Ethan Iverson, Klavier
Thomas Morgan, Bass
Kush Abadey, Schlagzeug

Ethan Iverson
(composer, arranger, piano) was a founding member of The Bad Plus, a game-changing collective with Reid Anderson and David King. The New York Times called TBP “…Better than anyone at melding the sensibilities of post-60’s jazz and indie rock.” During his 17-year tenure, TBP performed in venues as diverse as the Village Vanguard, Carnegie Hall, and Bonnaroo; collaborated with Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, and the Mark Morris Dance Group; and created a faithful arrangement of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and a radical reinvention of Ornette Coleman’s Science Fiction. Iverson also has been in the critically-acclaimed Billy Hart Quartet for well over a decade and occasionally performs with an elder statesman like Albert “Tootie” Heath or Ron Carter. In 2017 Iverson co-curated a major centennial celebration of Thelonious Monk at Duke University, and in 2018 premiered an original piano concerto with the American Composers Orchestra and released a duo album with Mark Turner on ECM.

Larry Grenadier
As one of the most admired, accomplished bassists working in jazz today, Larry Grenadier has created an expansive body of work in collaboration with many of the genre’s most inventive, influential musicians – from early days playing with sax icons Joe Henderson and Stan Getz to what has been decades performing alongside pianist Brad Mehldau, from extended experiences working with the likes of Paul Motian and Pat Metheny to co-leading the cooperative trio Fly (with Mark Turner and Jeff Ballard) and quartet Hudson (with John Scofield, John Medeski and Jack DeJohnette).

Jack DeJohnette
Widely regarded as one of the great drummers in modern jazz, Jack DeJohnette has a wide-ranging style that makes him a dynamic sideman and bandleader. He has played with virtually every major jazz figure from the 1960s on, including Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, and Abbey Lincoln. His versatility on the drums is accented by DeJohnette's additional accomplishments as a keyboardist: he studied classical piano for ten years before taking up drums.

In his early years on the Chicago scene, DeJohnette was active with the premiere musician organization, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, whose members included Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, and Joseph Jarman. In 1966, he drummed alongside Rashied Ali in the John Coltrane Quintet. However, he became more widely known as a member of Charles Lloyd's band, where he first began playing with pianist Keith Jarrett. In 1968, he recorded his first album as a leader, The DeJohnette Complex, on which DeJohnette doubled on melodica.

The second major association of DeJohnette's early career spanned the years 1969-72, when he performed with Miles Davis' first fusion band. Davis gave a nod to DeJohnette in his autobiography, Miles: "Jack DeJohnette gave me a deep groove that I just loved to play over." Besides allowing him to play alongside such stellar musicians as Dave Holland, Chick Corea, and John McLaughlin, the Davis years also increased DeJohnette's session work.

DeJohnette began leading several groups in the early 1970s, including Compost, Directions, New Directions, and Special Edition, featuring a diverse gathering of musicians including David Murray, Eddie Gomez, Chico Freeman, John Abercrombie, and Lester Bowie. Since the 1980s, while continuing to lead his own projects and bands, DeJohnette has also been a member of the highly acclaimed Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette trio. DeJohnette has continued to record and perform on keyboards, releasing albums such as Zebra, a mesmerizing synthesizer/trumpet duo with Lester Bowie featuring African music influences. He further explored his interest in African music in a 2005 duet with noted Gambian kora player Foday Musa Suso.

In 2005, DeJohnette launched Golden Beams Productions, an independent record label "as an outlet for the broad range of creative projects." The label garnered DeJohnette a Grammy Award for Peace Time, on which he is both featured artist and co-producer. He has composed soundtracks for both television and video, and has received numerous awards including the French Grand Prix du Disque in 1979. In 1991, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from the Berklee College of Music. DeJohnette is the winner of numerous DownBeat magazine "Drummer of the Year" critics' and readers' polls, and JazzTimes magazine's reader polls for "Best Drummer."

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet