Space Time Continuum

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longplayrecenzje.blox.pl:
"Nowa płyta 30-letniego amerykańskiego pianisty, kompozytora i aranżera - Aarona Diehla to pięć premierowych kompozycji oraz fascynujące interpretacje tematów: "Uranus" Waltera Davisa Jr (utworu najbardziej znanego dzięki wersji Jazz Messengers Arta Blakeya), "Kat's Dance" Adama Birnbauma, oraz kończąca całość piosenka Cecile McLorin Salvant (Diehl jest pianistą i dyrektorem muzycznym zespołu instrumentalnego wokalistki): "Space, Time, Continuum" jaka posłużyła za tytuł całego albumu. Na "Space Time Continuum" obcujemy z wykwintnie wykreowanym bogatym brzmieniem fortepianowego tria (z Davidem Wongiem przy kontrabasie i Quincy Davisem za perkusją) uzupełnionym o udział w nagraniach zaproszonych gości: kultowego saksofonisty tenorowego Benny'ego Golsona, z którym urodzony w Ohio pianista przyjaźni się już od 2009 roku, szkockiego mistrza saksofonu barytonowego - Joe Temperleya, Stephena Riley (saksofon tenorowy), młodego trębacza Bruce'a Harrisa i wokalistki Charenee Wade.

Wielosegmentowe brzmienie kwintetu z udziałem dialogujących z sobą Golsona i Harrisa zachwyca podczas tematów: "Organic Consequence" i finałowej pieśni tytułowej, rozbudowanej do ponad 10. minut. W ostatnim z utworów partie wokalne Aaron Diehl powierzył doskonałej wokalistce Charenee Wade.

Świetny przerywnik w programie płyty stanowi urocza, kameralna i początkowo, dzięki swej formie robiąca wrażenie akademickiej, zwinna ballada w rytmie walca: "Kat's Dance", zagrana przez pianistę w duecie ze Stephenem Riley - tenorzystą już w 2012 roku dostrzezonym przez opiniotwórczy magazyn Down Beat dzięki albumowi "Hart-beat" (nagranemu z Nealem Caine i Billym Hartem).

Uwagę zwraca wyjątkowy temat "Santa Maria", skomponowany przez Aarona Diehla jeszcze w 2012 roku na zlecenie Fundacji Columbus z Ohio. Ten, w pierwszej części oparty na świetnej partii granej techniką arco przez Davida Wonga (znanego z wspó?pracy z m.in. Clarkiem Terry, Wyntonem Marsalisem i Christianem McBride), porusza swą monumentalną konstrukcją skupioną w ramach brzmienia klasycznego tria fortepianowego i zamkniętą w niespełna 8. minutach.

Innym utworem wykonanym na płycie przez trio jest króciutki temat "Broadway Boogie Woogie", który dzięki synkopom stosowanym przez Diehla, może wywoływać skojarzenia z techniką legendarnego pianisty Buda Powella.

"Space Time Continuum" to doskonały mariaż młodzieńczego geniuszu z nestorami jazzu, do których zaliczyć możemy zarówno Benny'ego Golsona jak i Joe Temperleya, obecnych na scenie już od dobrych kilkudziesięciu lat. Pianista sytuując swe brzmienie i technikę w estetyce nowoczesnej muzyki improwizowanej XXI wieku, w równym stopniu odwołuje się na tej płycie do inspiracji jazzową klasyką spod znaku, wspomnianego wcześniej Buda Powella i Billy'ego Strayhorna.

Aaron Diehl należy dziś do tej niewielkiej grupy pianistów jazzowych, wobec których określenie: "spadkobierca Billy'ego Strayhorna" nie jest nadużyciem. Muzyk dysponuje wyjątkową umiejętnością płynnego przechodzenia z gładkiego subtelnego dźwięku do niemal erupcji dźwiękowej. Płyta porywająca od pierwszego do ostatniego zarejestrowanego na niej dźwięku!"
autor: Robert Ratajczak

Editor's info:
Widely lauded for his 2012 Mack Avenue debut, The Bespoke Man’s Narrative, 29-year-old pianist-composer Aaron Diehl follows solidly with the 2015 release Space,Time,Continuum. On The Bespoke Man’s Narrative, Diehl presented original music drawing on antecedent bandleader-composers like John Lewis and Duke Ellington for strategies that facilitated individualistic performances from his unit of A-list peers. On Space,Time,Continuum, Diehl assembles a pan-generational ensemble of masters. Joining his core trio of bassist David Wong and drummer Quincy Davis, in different configurations, are the iconic tenor saxophonist-composer Benny Golson and the magisterial baritone saxophonist Joe Temperley,
both 85 years young, the 39-year-old underground tenor saxophone giant Stephen Riley, and the rising star trumpeter Bruce Harris.

“It’s important to use both contemporaries and elders as sources of inspiration,” Diehl says. He is particularly pleased at “the opportunity to play and improvise with living legends” Golson and Temperley. Diehl, who chooses words as carefully as notes, sums up his intentions: “I understand the jazz language as a continuum—threading together the evolution of jazz as a continual, interrelated stream of development to create a sound that’s neither old or new, but simply a landscape where we could all communicate.”

The New York Times:
There’s a bias among certain jazz partisans - let’s be honest and include most critics among them - that allows for scant distinction between the terms “traditional” and “conservative.” And in recent years, the pianist Aaron Diehl often seemed like gleaming proof of that idea, an embodiment of jazz historicism at its most earnest and refined.

Scholarly and fastidious, with an honorable sort of rigor, Mr. Diehl has built his reputation on an elegant pianism outside the contemporary mainstream, like prewar stride, Duke Ellington and the bebop classicism of John Lewis. On his 2013 Mack Avenue debut, “The Bespoke Man’s Narrative,” Mr. Diehl led a quartet meant to evoke Lewis’s highly esteemed and frequently tuxedo-clad ensemble, the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Mr. Diehl’s superior new album - “Space Time Continuum,” out on Tuesday - upholds a traditional framework while crisply demolishing the usual notions of conservatism. It’s a jubilant, swinging outing whose only literal throwback, “Uranus,” is a tune from the 1970s repertory of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

And though it finds places of honor for Benny Golson and Joe Temperley, saxophonists in their mid-80s, this album doesn’t treat them with a gingerly deference. Mr. Temperley earns his gallant encomium in the title, “The Steadfast Titan,” an Ellingtonian tone poem with dramatic undertones. Mr. Golson expresses his gruff nobility on a loping, multi-section piece, “Organic Consequence,” alongside a punchy young trumpeter, Bruce Harris.

Mr. Diehl has widened his aesthetic palette, shrugging off the pristine exactitude that sometimes made him appear cautious to a fault. “Broadway Boogie Woogie,” inspired by the Mondrian painting, is a breakneck bop slalom worthy of Bud Powell, “Santa Maria” is a plunge into post-bop modality, with a melody that briefly quotes Chick Corea’s “Matrix.” Both tracks showcase Mr. Diehl’s fine longtime trio with the bassist David Wong and the drummer Quincy Davis, with a prevailing air of discovery.

Remarkably, Mr. Diehl brings the same spirit to his interactions with the tenor saxophonist Stephen Riley, whose breathy sonority recalls vintage Ben Webster. And the album’s episodic title track, featuring a soulfully assured Charenée Wade on vocals, sounds both oldfangled and vibrantly present tense. The lyrics - by Cécile McLorin Salvant, another close associate of Mr. Diehl’s - touch on solitude and wanderlust, with a clear subtext. “Soon enough I’ll find a space,” Ms. Wade sings. “Find a place in time.”

With this album, Mr. Diehl, who once might have suggested an emissary from another time himself, has brilliantly advanced his art under current conditions. He’ll do so again this weekend at Ginny’s Supper Club, with guests including Mr. Golson, Mr. Temperley, Ms. Wade and the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, an acknowledged mentor - and in radical-traditionalist terms, probably a role model.
By Nate Chinen

JazzTimes:
On pianist-composer Aaron Diehl’s fourth album as a leader, his choices of both material and sidemen illuminate his recording’s title: The 29-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, creates an environment in which historic and contemporary styles of jazz, as well as the Western classical tradition, are welcome and integrated. While the album is not especially piano-centric, fans of Diehl’s exquisite touch, precise articulation and meticulous arrangements will be richly rewarded.

The six originals on Space Time Continuum reveal the influence of jazz forebears like Ellington, Bud Powell and John Lewis, an early role model to whom Diehl has been compared. Like Lewis, he draws on classical tradition, one is as likely to hear an echo of Rachmaninoff as of Ellington. As a pianist he’s equally eclectic, reminiscent of Ahmad Jamal, Monk-and, occasionally, classical virtuosi.

The stellar sidemen include Diehl trio-mates David Wong on bass and Quincy Davis on drums, occasionally augmented by two legendary players, Benny Golson on tenor saxophone and Joe Temperley on baritone. The brilliant, breathy-toned tenorman Stephen Riley performs on two tracks, as does the exciting young trumpeter Bruce Harris.

Despite the emphasis on originals, one of the album’s high points is the opener, “Uranus,” a spit-and-polish arrangement of the underperformed hard-bop standard by Walter Davis Jr. (recorded by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in 1976), it sparkles in a crisp arrangement, with turn-on-a-dime phrasing. The noir-ish “Organic Consequence” features an eloquent, world-weary Golson solo. “Kat’s Dance,” written by pianist Adam Birnbaum, is a duo with Riley that begins like a jazz version of a Chopin nocturne, and it becomes a lilting setting for Riley to lean into the harmony in a quietly spectacular tenor solo. The frenetic “Broadway Boogie Woogie,” commissioned by New York’s Museum of Modern Art, is an interpretation of the famously busy Mondrian painting. Overall, a remarkably assured performance.
By Allen Morrison