J A S O N L I N D N E R
THE DENVER POST
Jason Lindner breaks jazz mold
By Bret Saunders
Article Last Updated: 01/28/2008 09:54:16 AM MST
Jason Lindner's influences range from Ellington to Bad Brains.
The latest class of jazz creators doesn't come out of any one particular established school or style. They've absorbed many facets of history, from '30s swing to the avant- garde. It's all just good music to them, and the list of influences is endless.
New York pianist and composer Jason Lindner, who brings his Now Vs. Now trio to Dazzle on Tuesday, has established himself as a figurehead in this movement of the exploration of infinite possibilities.
"One of my mentors told me to listen to as many pianists as possible," Lindner said on a break from his travels, and when you listen closely, the influences of Duke Ellington, McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett are all there, but not in a direct imitation as much as an absorption of his heroes. The result is the sprawling new "Live at the Jazz Gallery" (Anzic Records), which includes a lineup of collaborators that we'll be talking about in coming years. Remember names like Miguel Zenon and Anat Cohen (saxophones) Omer Avital (bass) and Avishai Cohen (trumpet). Economic realities prohibit Lindner from touring with his long-running big band, but the trio should put his ample talents on satisfying display.
Lindner adds layers of electronic keyboards to his approach, and judging by some YouTube video he's posted with the trio (with bassist Panagiotis Andreou and drummer Mark Guiliana) some of the emphasis of Tuesday's music will be on Herbie Hancock-inspired futuristic sounds. He doesn't really need to rely on sci-fi special effects, but they are attention-grabbing and spacey.
In addition to his own bands, Lindner has been working with funk-jazz artist Me'Shell Ndegeocello, who's had some success in the pop music field and is also having an influence on the pianist. For instance, she recently exposed him to the seminal D.C. punk band Bad Brains, who have taken hold of Lindner's imagination. "Me'Shell is into punk and new wave, and as far as the Bad Brains, well, I'm letting that marinate right now."
So even Lindner doesn't seem to know where the music might take him next, but at the same time he appears to be firmly rooted in the jazz sounds that enchanted him when he raided his father's record collection as a kid.
"One of the records was from John Coltrane and another was by Cannonball Adderley. This was right before high school. I was into metal and rock before that, like AC/DC. But when I heard jazz, it had that kind of spirit that I liked, but it also had something to do with my piano studies," Lindner said.
So if we listen really hard, is there some of the power and abandon of AC/DC in Jason Lindner's brand of all-encompassing jazz?
"I don't know," he says with a big laugh. "There might be some of that in there somewhere."
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JazzTimes Year in Review, 2007:
Jason Lindner’s Live at the Jazz Gallery appears at number 29.
here's the review from the December 2007 issue:
JASON LINDNER BIG BAND
Live at the Jazz Gallery (Anzic)
There’s nothing earth-shattering on Live at the Jazz Gallery, either from keyboardist Jason Lindner or his 12-piece postbop band. That’s important to remember, because this double-disc generates the kind of euphoria that’s usually reserved for something earth-shattering. It’s just that good.
Lindner plays against big-band type by emphasizing the players, not the arrangements (pointedly listing each track’s soloists). It’s almost a shame considering the arrangements’ magnificence; they’re as full as an orchestra twice this one’s size. But the individuals do excite, even astonish, when they play off each other as trumpeter Duane Eubanks and sopranoist Jay Collins do on “Suheir.” After a rapturous ensemble crescendo, they launch into a duel, trading four-bar phrases that begin as meditations and escalate into frenzies, each man pushing the other into bolder, wilder territory.
Over nine glorious tracks, everyone gets to shine, sometimes three to a tune: Bassist Omer Avital and siblings Avishai (trumpet) and Anat (clarinet) Cohen devour the klezmer-ish “Song for Amos.” Unquestionably, the honchos are Lindner and Collins. The former has a juicy, usually gorgeous part on every track, whether for piano (“Inbal”), organ (“Freak of Nature”), pulsating Rhodes (“Rumors”) or what-have-you; the latter is always prominent, even in the ensemble, and delivers a gruff, boozy vocal on the irresistible closer “Poem for You Today.” But everyone shines.
Live at the Jazz Gallery is a strong contender for 2007’s Top-10 lists. The only conceivable liability is its length—but good luck finding something dispensable.
-Michael J. West
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BC Magazine's Music Writers Pick the Best Albums of 2007
Written by Connie Phillips
Published December 27, 2007
Picking a best album from the many that were released in 2007 is a daunting task, especially when you consider all the various genres, but it was a challenge the following nine familiar faces to the BC Music section were up to. Keep reading to see what a handful of our writers chose. Did any of them make your personal top ten list?
Michael J. West: Jason Lindner Big Band - Live at Jazz Gallery
I’m over the moon, shouting from the rafters, and piling love all over Live at Jazz Gallery (Anzic), a two-disc release by the Jason Lindner Big Band. We’re talking 21st-century big band here: adventurous post-bop with complex harmonies and rhythms, and just enough electronica for some spice.
In addition to (phenomenal) piano-playing, (spectacular) composing, and (incredible) arranging skills, Lindner demonstrates that Ellingtonian ability to maintain a group of stellar musicians while keeping all of their egos in check. But then, how do you pick a star from — among others — Omer Avital, Avishai and Anat Cohen, Miguel Zenon, Duane Eubanks, Jay Collins, and Eric McPherson?
The answer, according to Lindner, is to first arrange the ensemble passages such that everyone is on an even playing field, then give everyone in the band a feature solo. The dueling soprano sax and trumpet by Collins and Eubanks on the mighty “Suheir” does make an overwhelming splash, but not to the point of dominating the whole band.
What makes Live at Jazz Gallery, though, is the pure, beautiful ebullience that blasts forth from every note. Even this year’s biggest names and most seismic groundbreakers got nothin’ on this one.
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San Jose Mercury News 12/16/07 by Richard Scheinin
Jason Lindner Big Band. "Live at the Jazz Gallery" (Anzic). A very different type of big band than Schneider's, this one is burning and a little ragged - though Lindner, a pianist, is also a fascinating writer, who gets into the details, drawing on everything from Steve Reich minimalism to McCoy Tyner modalism, world beats and '70s soul. In fact, the blazing energy of this band is a lot like that of the great '70s big bands of Charles Tolliver and Frank Foster. When you start out with this two-disc set, go first to "Suheir" (the subject of an amazing music animation on YouTube, by the way; go to www.youtube.com and search for "Jason Lindner One") and "Rumors," which features the astonishing alto saxophone of Miguel Zenon.
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ALL ABOUT JAZZ - NEWPAPER/WEBSITE
Live At The Jazz Gallery
The Jason Lindner Big Band | Anzic Records (2007)
By Greg Camphire
Keyboardist Jason Lindner has been a staple of the New York jazz scene for some time now, working in a variety of capacities for different projects; but his distinctive musical character shines brightest through his long-running big band, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2005, when Anzic Records’ Live At The Jazz Gallery was recorded.
Evoking the large ensemble works of Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Gil Evans, as well as Randy Weston and Horace Tapscott, Lindner reflects the stellar array of modern instrumentalists at his disposal while showcasing his unique composing, arranging and bandleading skills throughout nine lengthy pieces full of soulful solos, winding ensemble passages and colorful rhythmic inventions.
The latter is immediately evident on many of the album’s tunes, as Lindner makes imaginative use of ostinatos in a highly personalized hybrid of various strains of Afro-Latin and Middle Eastern idioms.
Though many of the tunes are in odd or mixed meters, the players’ rhythmic authority and emphasis on the melodic aspects of the tunes ensure that the pieces are no mere exercises in mathematics, but head-nodding songs drenched in swing, funk and clave. The groove factor is especially indebted to drummer Eric McPherson, who combines low-end anchoring with airy coloration in a way that earned him first-call status for late luminaries Jackie McLean and Andrew Hill.
Despite some tightly orchestrated ensemble passages, Lindner’s writing gives plenty of flexibility, allowing the band to breathe together in a way that makes even the trickiest of changes seem to float by in a natural progression. This elastic quality provides an ample cushion for expert soloists such as Miguel Zenon on alto sax; clarinetist Anat Cohen; trumpeters Duane Eubanks and Avishai Cohen; and bassist Omer Avital, among others.
Each is urged on by textured ensemble backgrounds full of surging brass counterpoint, moody harmonic atmospheres and shifting polyrhythms, as well as Lindner’s interjections on both piano and the multifaceted Nord Electro 2 keyboard.
The breadth and depth of the band’s skill is evident on tracks like the eighteen-minute opus “The 5 Elements and the Natural Trinity,” which twists through an angular, odd-metered beat based on an extended clave pattern and punctuated by ultra-syncopated horn accents. The ensemble’s ability to navigate the lengthy arrangement, while maintaining a sense of improvised surprise chorus after chorus of fiery, outside-leaning solos, is truly remarkable.
Following that tune’s somewhat esoteric tendencies with the blues-drenched R&B backbeat of “Poem for You Today,” featuring the gritty vocals of multi-talented reedsman Jay Collins, is an excellent choice of setlist programming that exhibits the ensemble’s stylistic range.
Working with a wide palette of emotive hues, a profound mastery of dynamics and vast technical facilities in service of a unified expression of lyrical sensibilities, the Jason Lindner Big Band has emerged as a fascinating, internationally-flavored hybrid branch of this music called jazz.
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PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE
CD reviews: Lindner's big band show's the genre's evolution
Sunday, September 30, 2007
'Live at the Jazz Gallery'
The Jason Lindner Big Band (Anzic)
The growth of big bands takes place on varied terrain. It goes from the offspring of concert bands in the early 1900's, through the swing era, into the realm of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra. "Live at the Jazz Gallery" shows another step. The Jason Lindner Big Band is not as big as some with its 13 pieces. Nor does it feature greatly sophisticated arrangements.
But it makes use of its crew in an orchestral way and allows great room for improvisation. On "Suheir," for instance, the harmonies and voicing of the trombones and saxophones create a great background tone. But the life of the track comes through the trumpet solos of Duane Eubanks and the soprano sax of Jay Collins. "Song for Amos" has a serious concert-music-sounding opening before moving into a driving middle section and the individual work of bassist Omer Avital. It also features two of the brightest figures emerging in the music, trumpeter Avishai Cohen and his sister, saxophonist-clarinetist Anat Cohen. That 16-minute work is a virtual suite and, alone, could be a reason for buying the album. The band also features alto sax star Miguel Zenon and fine piano work from the group's namesake. The work of this band is evidence of how big bands at their best are still evolving and not simply imitations of Glenn Miller's.
-- Bob Karlovits
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The New York Sun
September 11, 2007
By WILL FRIEDWALD
It would be nice to say that I often hung out at Smalls, the underground jazz club off Sheridan Square. The tiny room was one of the more happening jazz joints of the '90s, but I always found it kind of forbidding. For one thing, the place had next to no ventilation, and back in those dim dark days before Mayor Bloomberg banned cigarettes indoors, the smoke was inescapable. In fact, 10 years later, there's still some leftover Smalls smoke in my clothes, and even in my hair (and I'm bald as a bowling ball). Further, back in the day, the music never seemed to get started until 10 or 11 p.m. or even later, with the real action getting under way long after midnight. It was great for musicians, who would often show up in the wee, small hours after their gigs at other clubs were finished, but not very welcoming for anyone who had to be in an office at 9 a.m. or filing a story on a morning deadline.
Around the corner on Seventh Avenue, the Village Vanguard has long set the standard for basement clubs in New York; Smalls, thereby, served as the subcellar. If an emerging player made good at Smalls, they would hope to be invited to play at the more mainstream Vanguard: The jazz world must be the only field of endeavor where moving up the ladder of success merely means that you get to do your thing in a slightly better class of basement. The original Smalls closed early in this decade; however, it reopened more recently in a more hospitable fashion, this time with a record label attached.
Ten years ago, I was particularly impressed with the way Smalls attracted so many adventurous and ambitious 20-something composer-arrangers, such as Guillermo Klein, Chris Byars, Jason Lindner, and Omer Avital. Today, they have all garnered reputations that have outgrown the club itself, even though they are all still a long way from being classified as elder statesmen.
Currently, both Messrs. Lindner (whose big band is now 12 years old) and Avital (who last year released the very satisfying "Room To Grow" on the Smalls label) have new releases that are closely intertwined. Mr. Avital plays bass on Mr. Lindner's "Live at the Jazz Gallery" (Anzic), and Mr. Lindner plays piano on Mr. Avital's "Arrival" (Fresh Sound World Jazz). The trumpeter Avishai Cohen appears on both releases, and further, Mr. Avital's composition "Song for Amos" is heard on both as well; additionally Mr. Lindner also contributed a tune, "Middle Eastern Sunset," to Mr. Avital's project.
Yet though the two projects have all these factors in common, the different performances of "Song for Amos" illustrate the strong individuality of Mr. Avital, who comes from Givataim, Israel, and Mr. Lindner, who grew up in Brooklyn. (That is, apart from the obvious visual indications: Mr. Avital has a beard and a lot of hair, whereas Mr. Lindner, with his most shiny head, appears to frequent the same barbershop as myself.) Both versions begin with a somewhat left-field intro and then have the melody stated by the horns with a soprano saxophone lead. But even within those guideposts, the two songs for Amos could hardly be more different.
Mr. Avital's sextet rendition of his own song contains unmistakable indications that this maestro was not exactly born in Brooklyn: He begins with the rattling of an oud, recorded as if to sound somewhere off in the distance, like at the start of a movie. This is followed by what sounds like a Mohammedan chant from all six members of the sextet, which leads into Mr. Avital laying down a basic vamp on his bass. On soprano, Joel Frahm leads the horns in playing their own melody in response to the bass vamp Â-- it's hard to say which of the two lines you hear is the main tune, and which is the countermelody. The main solo is given to Israeli trombonist Avi Lebovich, who soars over the rhythm section like a helicopter over the desert. Mr. Frahm leads the other horns back to the ending ensemble, and Messrs. Lindner and Avital gradually vamp it out.
As played by Mr Lindner's big band, "Song For Amos" begins with the leader's own piano, but emphasizing the low notes so that at first you think you're hearing the string bass. He dwells on it for a full, three-minute solo, as if bent on proving that the piano can be just as dark and menacing as the bass, and further coaxing all manner of decidedly non-Western sounds out of the keyboard. The theme is again played on soprano, this time by Jay Collins, who gives it an even more exotic sound, which is contrasted by the driving brass behind him. Mr. Avital takes a full solo here, considerably longer than he did on his own album, stretching out on his own changes while Mr. Lindner accompanies him with both chords and melody. The composer is followed by the two Cohens, Avishai on trumpet, and Anat on tenor and clarinet. Mr. Cohen gets very high up on the horn playing ever more frantically, while the massed horns get darker and deeper in the background; Ms. Cohen starts in the lower register of the clarinet and plays with more reserve. Traveling through a fast passage that could have come from gypsy music, she gradually brings it back up to a musical and emotional high point so that Mr. Collins can return with the head. The horns reprise the main theme in a manner that sounds like the most aggressive mantra ever chanted; Mr. Lindner ends it with an electrified keyboard simulating an Indian harmonium.
Mr. Lindner uses a similar sound to introduce the double-CD set's longest track, "The 5 Elements and the Natural Trinity," which starts in foreign territory but quickly progresses to a downand-dirty trombone battle between Dana Leong and Joe Fiedler. In fact, most of the pieces begin with one of the leader's two keyboards, from the bright and optimistic "Freak of Nature" to the romantic "Life Light," in which the combination of the leader's piano moving slowly over the horns suggests traditional big band jàzz a la Ellington and Basie, but Mr. Avital's Arco acoustic bass solo moves the action into outer space.
Which makes it interesting that the most far-out sounding piece on Mr. Avital's album is Mr. Lindner's "Middle Eastern Sunset," a brief turn in which Mr. Avital's oud engages in a duet with Mr. Lindner's piano, leading directly in the album's closer, "Lilian in the Big Blue," which contrasts the oud and Mr. Frahm's soprano. By voicing the instruments carefully, Mr. Avital makes his six pieces sound like a whole orchestra, and enhances the feeling by throwing in a layer of wordless chanting by the six men, and achieves a similar effect by having Mr. Lindner play electronic keyboards in the title song, "Arrival."
Both of these instrumentalist-composer-arranger-bandleaders are doing superlative work. I look forward to hearing them again in person, no matter what the hour and especially without the cloud of cigarette smoke around them.
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MIDWEST RECORD
8/23/07
JASON LINDNER BIG BAND/Live at the Jazz Gallery: A downtown cat that doesn't need to wear his hipness on his sleeve, largely because he's too busy with high profile side jobs when not leading his own crew, this double live cd celebrates 10 years of kicking Mondays into high gear at Smalls. These tracks needed a double cd to contain all the stretching out by the keyboard ace and his pals. A fine example of contemporary big band with all the style and none of the cliches, Lindner is one of the bright faces of the future of jazz. You can hardly call him a newbie anymore, but if you want to grab a great comer while he's still bubbling under, check out this jazz extravaganza now.
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August 17, 2007
ROKOVOKO: TUNE HEAD
The Jason Lindner Big Band
Live at the Jazz Gallery
Anzic Records
Double disc sometimes means insufficiently edited. Live disc sometimes means messy.
But sometimes, a double disc of a live recording means twice the pleasures of some fabulous performances. That’s the definition that applies to the Jason Lindner Big Band’s Live at the Jazz Gallery, a wonderful compilation of nine imaginatively arranged and passionately delivered tunes from Lindner’s dodecatet. Keyboardist Lindner wrote most of the numbers.
He assembled the group in 1995 to play Mondays at Smalls, and they’ve clearly developed that wondrous mix of independence and cohesiveness marking the best of recent big-band experimentation, which aims to entertain even as it stretches the boundaries of genre and convention.
“Intro: Song for Jason,” by Avi Lebovich, and “Suheir,” by Lindner, start us off with characteristically invigorating cross-rhythms, rhythm changes, and a delicious layering of big brass, bebop, and funk elements, the last whipped up into a froth with an enticing electric piano solo.
The third number, “Rumors,” features some great introductory Rhodes-sounding reverbed and waved chordal work from Lindner on his Nord Electro 2 keyboard before gyrating into a slow triplet swinger.
“Inbal’”s exotic Middle-Eastern scalar improvisation subsides into a wistfully wobbly group-sax ramble. Then a mellow flute solo fractures into intriguing calculated dissonances before concluding in gospel sighs.
Piano gravitas in the lower registers initiates bassist Omer Avital’s “Song for Amos,” which then sets off on a tambourine-accompanied trot into a sax-introduced bemused theme and variations. Some tough brass contrast with the subsequent fluid bass solo, followed by an ice-breaker of a trumpet solo and a musing clarinet that works itself up into klezmerish high jinx. Sound like quite a ride? Hey, it’s 16-plus minutes long. This band doesn’t skimp on portions.
In “Freak of Nature,” spaced-out synthy organ sounds flower into strange brassy blossoms and end in a weirdly confident joyous space.
I enjoyed the Orientalish bass solo of “Life Light,” but, ironically, found the number overall to be the least lively of the album.
Things pick up distinctly again, though, with the idiosyncratic percussion/organ bubbles of “The Five Elements and the Natural Trinity.” The trombones do some heavy construction, before being overcome by the bickering saxes. The piano segues into a rhythm shift to a slower, more punctuated section, before a final acceleration.
“Poem for You Today” is a relaxed, bluesy ender featuring sax/flute player Jay Collins on vocals. He wrote the song, too. Following a series of meaning-of-life questions, he sings, “I believe I’ll grow and know a little more tomorrow, but until then, this is a poem for you today.”
Sweet, sassy poetry in general, this album’s a real gift that will whet your appetite to hear Lindner and friends live.
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GLOBAL RHYTHM
Jason Lindner
Ab Aeterno
World Jazz/Fresh Sounds
By Tom Orr
Published April 27, 2007
Even if you're not particularly interested in the cultural and/or historical reasons why the music of Africa, Latin America and the Middle East share common ground, feel free to enjoy how expertly Jason Lindner (piano, melodica, mbira), Omer Avital (contrabass, oud) and Luisito Quintero (percussion) bring the three together with a freeflowing jazz feel on Ab Aeterno. Fusion albums of this sort too often fall victim to tedium, the participants doing more noodling about than meaningful playing. Not so here. The players do explore a bit between locked-in moments, but when they're all on the same page they engage in quietly explosive musical dialogue that's truly symbiotic. Lindner’s piano leads the way most of the time, cutting a trail that his collaborators mark with richly realized melodic lines and tart accents. Some of the pieces build slowly before tying it all together, but everything here eventually sizzles. Well done.
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JANUARY 2007: SOUNDS OF TIMELESS JAZZ (www.soundsoftimelessjazz.com)
JASON LINDNER - ARTIST OF THE MONTH
Pianist Jason Lindner made his mark during the 1990s at a young age, primarily leading his inventive big band on a regular Monday night gig at New York's storied Smalls club. He has also performed and recorded with bassist Avishai Cohen. His penchant for Latin music made him particularly suited to play on and write arrangements for Claudia Acuña's acclaimed debut, Wind From the South, and her subsequent 2002 hit RHYTHM OF LIFE. Lindner co-produced Acuna’s stellar offering titled LUNA in 2004 and continues to lend his musical integrity, arrangements and composing skills to such artists as the Grammy-nominated drummer Dafnis Prieto, Jazz At Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra/Arturo O’Farrill, Meshell Ndegeocello, Pharoah’s Daughter, Baba Israel & Anat Cohen. Lindner's big band was featured on the 1998 compilation Jazz Underground: Live at Smalls. The band's own full-length album, Premonition, followed in 2000. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Jason Lindner apprenticed with the great master bebopper Barry Harris and orchestral / harmonic master Chris Anderson, eventually exploring a world of Latin and African rhythms, Funk, R&B (he was Lauryn Hill’s musical director), hip hop, and electronica. Linder has toured the world with Avishai Cohen Quintet, the Roy Haynes Quartet, Claudia Acuna and has arranged for Arturo O’Farrill’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Orchestra. Jason also teaches master classes internationally. A regular performer at the infamous NYC club Nublu, he can often be found fronting his trance-y, electro-jazz projects The J L-ectrik and Progress Report, featuring poet/mc Baba Israel. For more information about Jason Lindner, visit his website at www.jasonlindner.net His recent debut for the Barcelona-based record label, Fresh Sound New Talent titled AB AETERNO hits stores this month.
AB AETERNO - Jason Lindner
Pianist Jason Lindner’s recent debut for Fresh Sound New Talent is among his best work in the world jazz genre. His delicate piano lines are beautifully complimented by bassist Omer Avital and percussionist Luisito Quintero on 10-amazing songs that are sure to bring a new perspective to thirsty ears yearning for more creativity and true trio harmony. Linder wrote or co-wrote eight of the ten songs and plays the piano, melodica and mbira from an expanded consciousness and with exotic mysticism. All of the musicians express their highly developed improvisations through effective soloing as well as collective interplay to give the listener a huge sound that lingers long after each song has ended. The title track opens with Avital’s oud lines complimented by Linder’s melodica expressions and thoughts. Quintero’s percussive taps are mini-gifts that add texture and color. Linder’s solo on “Renacimiento” is filled with Latin grooves and lends itself to a melodic oud and bass duet by Avital and Quintero. All of the songs are beautiful but “Monserrate” surely ranks as one of the most profound. Overall, this great trio brings together three different cultures to create an important genre-defying body of work, fusing African, Latin-American and Middle Eastern music. AB AETERNO excites the senses, gives new life to World Jazz rhythms and provides an excellent vehicle for Linder, Avital and Quintero to shine on both modern and ancient instrumentation. Five stars.
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NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW; MONDAY JAN 15, 2007
JASON LINDNER
“Ab Aeterno”
(Fresh Sound New Talent)
Rhythm provides more than a heartbeat for the pianist Jason Lindner. It also seems to fuel his respiratory functions and digestive activity, and maybe his neurons. So it’s no surprise that Mr. Lindner’s new album, “Ab Aeterno,” makes an argument for pulse as the governing force of music through the ages. Nor is it a shock how naturally that argument resonates at the hands of Mr. Lindner and his peers.
It’s a trio effort, with Mr. Lindner on piano, mbira and melodica; his longtime associate Omer Avital on bass and oud; and the Venezuelan percussionist Luisito Quintero drawing from what sounds like a carload of shakers, bells and hand drums. Their interplay is rich in insinuation and ostinato. Mr. Lindner isn’t afraid to let chords chime, but usually in the service of an incantation. He may spell out the melodies of most of his songs, but the deeper stories tend to come from the ground up, where bass and percussion conspire.
Naturally Mr. Quintero emerges as a lead voice. On “The Gathering,” the first track after a calmly anticipatory overture, his congas bring focus to a slippery odd-metered groove; on “Renacimiento” his fingers thrum against a frame drum while Mr. Avital fashions a prayerful melody on his oud.
Elsewhere, on tracks like “G-Point” and “Song for Amos,” the lyrical traditions of Afro-Cuban music are filtered through the harmonic sensibilities of pianists like Chick Corea. But even on a Bud Powell theme, “Glass Enclosure,” Mr. Lindner seems only partly interested in jazz’s idiomatic customs. What matters to him is groove, however it comes. NATE CHINEN
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12/17/06 Review Courtesy AllAboutJazz.com
Ab Aeterno
Jason Lindner | Fresh Sound New Talent
By Terrell Kent Holmes
The defining track on Jason Lindner’s excellent Ab Aeterno isn’t an original composition, it’s a medley of two Bud Powell tunes: “Sure Thing” and “Glass Enclosure.” Powell balanced bebop and classical idioms wonderfully on these songs and showed that even if the two kinds of music were distant relatives, they still shared a common language. Lindner expands on this idea throughout Ab Aeterno by blending various styles of world music within a jazz context, thus building a complete intertextuality.
The overdubbing and layering of the instruments on “Overture” augurs what will follow on the rest of the disc. Lindner repeats the same brooding piano vamp as the bass and percussion of Omer Avital and Luisito Quintero slowly build toward a melodica/mbira dialogue between Lindner and Quintero. “The Gathering” is an Afro-Cuban delight with bass and piano in perfect sync over the foundation of congas. Lindner plays piano with clear, flowing lines and Avital’s plucking is so vibrant it’s almost vocalese.
“Song For Amos,” a tune forged with classical elements and nicely shifting textures, sounds like something Coltrane’s rhythm section would have played when Trane laid out. Lindner’s Tyner-ish trills set up some dynamic pizzicato by Avital, with the framework highlighted nicely by Quintero’s multifaceted percussion.
One almost never hears a melodica/lute duo on a jazz recording but that’s what Lindner and Avital pull off on the title track and it works. The haunting and hypnotic “Monserrate” is the highlight of the disc, brought together by Lindner’s elegant and daring playing over Quintero’s simple percussion and more of Avital’s robust pizzicato. Avital plays a beautiful flamenco riff on the oud on “Renacimiento,” a tune that builds a bridge between Arabic and Latin music, while seamlessly combining Middle Eastern riffs with a standard blues on “Life Light.”
The disc closes with Lindner playing solo on the ironically-titled “New Church,” whose gospel theme is as archetypal as can be. Lindner is a fabulous pianist and composer, and he, Avital and Quintero bring a bountiful feast of sounds and colors to the table.
Track Listing: Overture; The Gathering; Song For Amos; Ab Aeterno; Monserrate; Renacimiento; Life Light; Sure Thing/Glass Enclosure; G-Point; New Church.
Personnel: Jason Lindner: piano, melodica & mbira; Omer Avital: contrabass & oud; Luisito Quintero: congas, African brush, bells, bongos, frame drum, maracas, cabash, darbuka, finger cymbals & cajon.
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NY PRESS
week of december 14, 2005
COHEN LEAVES THE RESERVATION
Trad-man plays fusion.
By Tim Marchman
Surprise is one of the great pleasures in life. So when two associates and I went to Fat Cat over the weekend and found that the somewhat restrained trumpeter Avishai Cohen and his band, comprised of pianist Jason Lindner, bassist Omer Avital and drummer Greg Hutchinson, had, judging by what they were playing, been listening to Miles Davis’ fusion classic Jack Johnson lately—a lot—it was a great pleasure. I hadn’t seen any of them in quite some time, having been living out of the city, and this evidence that time had not stood still for any of them was cause for good cheer.
All four players are excellent, but Lindner and Avital are especially so, as they are not just superb instrumentalists but also exceptionally promising leaders who aren’t in the least afraid of the challenges and possibilities presented by the big band. The usual comparison is to Charles Mingus, and while unfair, it’s not inaccurate. Seeing heft and scale as virtues in their own right, and cultivating a good feel for the way in which a discursive horn solo can be set against a monolithic, train-like rhythm section while still swinging exuberantly, are Mingusian virtues. Match that up with Cohen’s general predisposition towards sophisticated but essentially straight-ahead bop, and you wouldn’t expect to hear what the four were playing when we saw them.
Lindner was taking full advantage of the electric part of the tone palette offered by his multiple-keyboards setup; Hutchinson was crashing and thumping; and Avital, playing a bass rigged up with guitar strings, was exchanging long, intricate, monotonous solos with Cohen, who was running his trumpet through a wah pedal. It all sounded like being strung out on dirty drugs—not a bad thing, but not what you’d necessarily expect these four to be going for, though seemingly a good fit for the loathsome weekend crowd.
Longtime Small’s/Fat Cat impresario Mitch Borden, looking resplendent in his new-ish Tolstoy beard, wasn’t really having it, and pointedly didn’t protest when a listener invoked Pink Floyd in an attempt to describe what he was hearing. (Speaking of which, in your weekly sign of the apocalypse, Floyd’s unbearable guitarist David Gilmour has just hooked up with legendary scrubs Crosby and Nash.)
Though not given to fusion experiments—the sight of a man with an acoustic-electric bass/guitar, leave alone the wah pedal, would usually send me screaming into the night—I had to disagree. For starters, this was more Donald Byrd circa ‘75 than Genesis of the same era. While I’m not sure that what our four young worthies were going for worked, I’m also not sure it didn’t—I’ll try to stop by this weekend and make up my mind. But I couldn’t be gladder they were doing it.
It’s an awful thing for an artist to be pigeonholed, especially when young, and especially as some sort of traditionalist, with all that word’s ideological connotations. It’s worse for one to pigeonhole himself. There’s a strong and natural tendency on the part of listeners to associate a player or a group of players with one style and sound—usually the first they heard from them—and then assume that any future development will be constrained to the elaboration of that style and sound. Straying for its own sake is a problem, to be sure, but it’s far more common for a musician to cripple himself by refusing to stray away from what feels comfortable.
**(Little did this reviewer know, that Omer Avital was actually not playing with us that night and it was Lionel Loueke on guitar and yours truly, JL, playing piano, keyboard, and keyboard BASS! Fooled him!)
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October 16, 2005
REVIEW: "Live/UK" Jason Lindner | Sunnyside Records
ALL ABOUT JAZZ MAGAZINE
By Thomas H. Greenland
Jazz people like to catch a buzz. Used to be you could grab a quick six-pack and duck into Smalls, a Greenwich Village venue run by Mitch Borden that literally hummed with world class talent-deserving-of-wider-recognition. Amidst this beehive of activity, Jason Lindner was always a contender, and New Yorkers in-the-know knew it was only a matter of time before others caught on. The pianist's latest release, Live/UK, gives out-of-towners a chance to hear what the local buzz is all about.
A veteran of almost ten years of Monday nights at Smalls, playing three sets that would often stretch into the wee hours—later moving to the Thursday night slot at Fat Cat—Lindner has had plenty of opportunity to hone his bandstand chops. Along the way, he’s formed lasting musical friendships with bassist Omer Avital and saxophonist Jimmy Greene, both featured on Premonition (Concord, 2000), his previous release.
Live/UK, a pared down London “blowing” date with Marion Browder on drums, reveals the creative cohesion made possible by all of this shared experience—tight as a heat-dried drum head, the quartet negotiates complex time signatures and phrase structures with a seamless fluidity that makes it sound easy, stretching out on lengthy jams without losing the listener. The date has a strong Latin flavor, peppered with punchy montunos and unusual rolling accent patterns that prolong the rhythmic excitement. Lindner’s comping is sterling; now prompting, now reacting, he engages his compadres with active yet sympathetic counterpoint and his muted string intro on “Suheir” is a funky tour de force.
The soloing is strong throughout: Greene plays percolating flute on “The Five Elements & the Natural Trinity” and a shredful tenor on “Seven Ways,” while Avital lays down some spunkified soul jazz on “Take It To Church.” Lindner’s solo on “Meditation on Two Chords” starts with a slow left hand, continues ambidextrously in doubled octaves, climaxes with high-register tremolos and Tyner-ish filigree, finally winding down to some sparse bluesy phrasing. Browder, meantime, manages to keep it all in the pocket, never missing an accent.
Lindner’s an up-and-comer. Catch him before the big clubs get him—the latest buzz in bee-bop.
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Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2004
JAZZ "More than mere faces in a crowd"
In a busy schedule of new arrivals, here are a few diverse but equally worthwhile jazz CDs
By Don Heckman, Times Staff Writer
Jason Lindner
"Live/UK"
(Sunnyside)
It's hard to understand why it's taken three years for this compelling recording to be released Recorded in London in February 2001, it is the first CD from the talented young pianist-composer since his 2000 album, the large-ensemble "Premonition." This time out, he leads his own quartet (with saxophonist Jimmy Greene, bassist Omer Avital and drummer Marlon Browden), and the playing is filled with passionate musical gems. Lindner is powerful and rhythmic within the 5/4, Latin-esque rhythms of "The Five Elements & the Natural Trinity, Part I," pensive but no less brawny on "Meditation on Two Chords," thicktextured and busy on the wildly expressive "Suheir," and down-home and gospel-driven on "Take It to Church." Still in his 20s, he is a performer to watch.
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All About Jazz - CD Review - March 6, 2004
Live/UK
Jason Lindner | Sunnyside
Following his 2000 little big band recording, Premonition, pianist Jason Lindner took a quartet to Europe, recording Live/UK at the prestigious Pizza Express club in London, England. That it has taken nearly three years for this recording to see the light of day is curious but, regardless, it was well worth the wait.
Lindner, a fixture on the New York scene since the mid-1990s, continues to demonstrate his intriguing take on Latin and Afro-Cuban music by placing these styles into odd-metered contexts. The Five Elements & The Natural Trinity, Part I, for example, breathes new life into a tried-and-true formula by placing the clave into a 5/4 time signature. Saxophonist Jimmy Greene, heard on this track playing flute, navigates the somewhat choppy yet natural-feeling rhythmic landscape, provided by bassist Omer Avital and Marlon Browden, with complete confidence. Browden, an up-and-coming drummer from the Greg Osby circle, is a muscular player who is as at ease with uptempo burners like Suheir as he is with the down-and-funky gospel of Take It To Church. With too few recordings to his credit to date, he is a player to watch.
Lindner is a bold player who exploits the full range of the piano. Premonition established his credentials as a triple-threat composer/arranger/leader of note; Live/UK proves that he is, in fact, a quadruple-threat, with a piano style that is rhythm-heavy without sacrificing a strong sense of melody. The independence of his left and right hands is downright scary; his solo on the modal workout, Meditation on Two Chords, brings to mind a young McCoy Tyner but with a broader reach. He takes simple motifs and gradually, almost painstakingly, develops and enhances them until they take on a completely new shape. Melodic lines ignore bar boundaries and build elliptically.
While Latin music is a strong informer of Lindner's music, it is clear that his harmonic sensibility extends beyond. Information Kiss is based around a relatively simple scalar idea, but with misplaced rhythmic emphasis giving it an odd-metered feel even though it is actually in 4/4. Avital and Browden gradually build it into a funky groove that gives Greene a chance to stretch out on tenor, demonstrating a relaxed approach that takes away some of the tension from the rhythm section.
Live/UK continues to affirm what the New York scene already knows: that Jason Lindner is an emerging force that demands to be heard. With a penchant for rhythmic intrigue and melodic invention, one can only hope that there will be less time between releases, and that Lindner's reputation will continue to build.
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Jason Lindner Quartet
Pizza Express Jazz Club, London
Rating ****
Rachelle Thackray
Saturday February 24, 2001
The Guardian
Jason Lindner produced his latest CD on Chick Corea's Stretch Records, just the right label for a young pianist who likes nothing better than roaring up and down the keyboard with his hands splayed in octaves, often at opposite ends. He hadn't brought his whole big band over from New York's Smalls club, but the pared-down quartet quickly found a depth that fitted the intimacy of the setting. Lindner, still in his 20s, can play very, very well, and his band are a tight-knit but generous bunch who match and spur each other in pace, volume and intensity.
There was no easy way into their first number, a lengthy Latin-influenced piece featuring Jimmy Greene on flute. The music remained stubbornly uncomfortable, Lindner jerky but precise, playing in fingerless gloves that steeped his digits to the required temperature. Soon he had warmed up sufficiently to whip off the gloves during a spot of prepared piano, one hand playing keys and the other piano strings. The band moved into a funkier, faster, more regular section that saw Lindner percussive in his use of hammered-out steps and grand, drunken chords. But he is as happy with dainty little ideas as giant leaps, whether delving into the minutiae of a speedy run or snatching away as if from a hot iron.
A lovely, muted finish to that piece was followed by a serene meditation, which Omer Avital introduced with a poignant melody on double bass. Lindner maintained the poise through the repetition of a two-tone phrase on piano, lulling our ears with persistence and simplicity. Later, Avital seized advantage of a hush to gambol soulfully through the sort of show-stopping solo that most bassists must secretly yearn for. In a slower, bluesy piece, which showed the band at its laid-back best, Greene revelled in ripe low notes on saxophone, enlivened by Lindner's fast trills.
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"How the mighty fall"
A great player out selling tapes on the freezing streets of New York? It's an all too familiar tale
John L Walters
Friday April 5, 2002
The Guardian
I found myself thinking about Jaco Pastorius after my encounter with Abdul on the streets of New York. It was 12.30am and a friend and I were standing in line in the rain outside a tiny club called Smalls. Abdul Zahir Batin was working the queue of regulars, tourists and college kids, a welcome diversion on a cold wet night. He put a Walkman headset on the student in front of me and pressed the play button. "Sounds good," bellowed the college kid. "Is that you?" he added, pointing to the cover picture of the 1980s jazz album that Batin was clutching in a transparent plastic sleeve: "You look much younger."
Batin, a drummer and bandleader who has played with Sun Ra and Archie Shepp, was selling hand-labelled cassettes for $20. I listened: a ragged ensemble over a tasty funk/bop groove. "That's Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet...Curtis Lundy on bass," said Abdul. I told him I had met Curtis in London. "Yeah, he was playing there with his sister, Carmen," he said. The instant rapport of street traders. I had to buy a tape. "I'll give it you for $15," said Abdul. "But I can't break a 20." I handed over a $20 note and he repeated his pitch for the guys in the line behind me.
Before long we were in the club, listening to the rich and complex charts of Jason Lindner's reduced-size big band: three saxes, four brass and rhythm section. The place was jammed right back to the door - one girl had to squeeze right behind Lindner's grand piano. The band was great, stretching two numbers out to a full set. They made an album a few years ago, and you can also hear the leader - who's only in his late 20s - on five tracks of the new album, Rhythm of Life (Verve), by Chilean singer Claudia Acuna.
Volver a los Diescisiete boasts a Lindner arrangement, and the Richard Rogers standard My Romance opens with the same chattering, damped piano sound he used to kick off the second piece at the club. And their version of Nature Boy certainly beats the one in Moulin Rouge.
Mitchell Borden, who runs Smalls, told me that Lindner's band has been resident most Mondays for the past seven years, and are getting better all the time. Borden, a wiry, unsmiling guy in a little hat, sat in the freezing lobby, taking $10 per customer. Another band got ready to play at 2.30am; after that there would be a jam session until eight in the morning. Smalls is open seven nights a week. "When do you sleep?" asked a passing tourist. Abdul Zahir Batin sat on the cold steps, rolling a cigarette. He's a survivor. His tape's not bad.
But I found myself thinking about Jaco Pastorius because there was a time, nearly 20 years ago, when the bassist was himself playing tiny clubs, hustling strangers and annoying friends on the streets of New York - part of the rapid mental deterioration that ended with his awful death in 1987. And now his second solo album, Word of Mouth (Warner Jazz, from 1981), has just been re-released. It's part of a slew of revived Warner Bros Masters that includes Just Family by Dee Dee Bridgewater and albums by Yusef Lateef and Donald Byrd. But the Pastorius album stands out: few world/new music/ jazz records have the all-encompassing ambition of Word of Mouth, and even fewer live up to it.
It's a "widescreen" album that includes expert group improvisation, gorgeous and original orchestral scoring, ensemble playing of the highest order, and sneaky, funky grooves, all built around Jaco's own freakish - but entirely musical - virtuosity and invention on the fretless bass guitar. He was at the summit of a pyramid structure of talented, hardworking musicians like the guys playing for next to nothing at Smalls that night, yet he was something else. Like all the jazz greats, Jaco changed the way people play and hear the music and the instrument. But that didn't help him when he was out there in the cold and the rain.
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TIME OUT NEW YORK
Review
Various artists
Jazz Underground: Live at Smalls
(GRP/Impulse)
Maybe it's time for skeptics to stop asking how Mitch Borden, the proprietor of Smalls, the modest jazz oasis just off Seventh Avenue South on West 10th Street, manages to keep his club afloat. As the city's most relaxed jazz space shambles past three years of age, it'd be easier to just thank the onetime West Coaster for his trouble. From the start, Borden seemed to have done things right: First, he chose a spot smack in the middle of the healthiest piece of jazz real estate in the city (on the strip between the Village Vanguard and Sweet Basil), and then he further established the club by offering bargain-priced music (the cover charge is $10, seven nights a week) while catering to all the night owls still searching for sonic refuge at daybreak (the nightly jam session runs from 2 to 8am). Anyone interested in the recipe for a vital scene need only add fresh talent and stir.
?And lest one think that the club's youthful, bohemian vibe overshadows the musicians who play there, Borden has now set about documenting his favored up-and-comers. With assistance from veteran producer Steve Backer, the club owner has just waxed Jazz Underground: Live at Smalls (GRP/Impulse), a remarkable new compilation that should surprise anyone who still hasn't made a trip to Borden's cozy basement. Since half of the six ensembles represented gig weekly, listeners have even more reason to drop by and get acquainted.
And the highlights abound. It seems as if young pianist Jason Lindner (pictured) may be the cat who's most ready for the world. His rough-and-tumble hardbop sensibility graces four cuts here–two with jam-session chum Charles Owens's quartet and two others with his own clever, sprawling addition to the city's Monday night big-band sweepstakes (check "Hexophony"). Elsewhere, there's a nice chart with snaky harmonies from the Across 7th Street Septet; veteran pianist Frank Hewitt's hip take on the late trumpeter Kenny Dorham's "Prince Albert" and chip-off-the-old-block Zaid Nasser's gorgeous alto rendition of "Everything Happens to Me." It's easy to hear how the club keeps cooking.–K. Leander Williams
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