#matt brewer

[jgthirlwell]

05.03.26 Saxophonist/composer Steve Lehman and his long-running trio – featuring bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Damion Reid – are joined by special guest tenor saxophonist Mark Turner for The Music of Anthony Braxton, commemorating the 80th anniversary of Braxton’s birth. At Theatre for a New Audience at Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn for Bang On A Can’s Long Play Festival

[dustedmagazine]

Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner — The Music of Anthony Braxton (PI)

Anthony Braxton’s reputation precedes him. His records can be experimental, bold, weird and sometimes all at once. He’s written scores for orchestras to play on two different planets at the same time, illustrated others with almost inscrutable drawings, and filed his work under a clinical numbering system that uses numbers instead of names: “composition #34."

They run into the 400s now, nearly as high as the number of records he’s released. For anyone new to him, it can be a challenge to find an entry point. Which makes records where other people interpret his music so valuable: they’re something of an easy gateway into a complex labyrinth.

Usually, they don’t veer too far astray: Tzadik released 2012’s Play Braxton in which three Braxton alumni (Marilyn Crispell, Gerry Hemingway, and Mark Dresser) played several of his tunes. In 2020, Cuneiform brought in the Thumbscrew trio, another set of alumni, for The Anthony Braxton Project. Now Pi Recordings has its own: Steve Lehman’s The Music of Anthony Braxton. It’s a different approach to some well-trod music, which is a good thing.

Here altoist Steve Lehman leads a quartet of drummer Damion Reid, bassist Matt Brewer and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. This group plays through a set of mostly Braxton themes in front of a boisterous crowd in Los Angeles but also slips in two originals and a Thelonious Monk tune. In some ways it’s a very different approach to Braxton: there’s nothing here that plays chords, for one. And in Braxton’s music, a piano or a guitar is almost always at hand. And secondly, they approach the music in a straight-ahead manner, not one that gives it odd little flourishes.

The record opens with “Composition 34a” and the two horns playing a circular motif while the rhythm section swings. It opens into a fast tune where the players work around the theme and play in tandem giving the music a nice, punchy edge. Both horns take nice solos before the tempo slows down for the finish. The band also gets to stretch out on “Composition 40b,” too. Brewer opens the tune with a bass solo before leading the band into the theme. It’s another one that benefits from two horns and allows both Lehman and Turner to play lines that twist around each other before coming together for a few bars. And the tricky, stop-start rhythms of “Composition 23c” show this band opening in sync.

The two Lehman originals slot in nicely next to Braxton’s pieces. “L.A. Genes” lets the horns play complimentary lines before opening up room for solos. “Unspoken and Unbroken” starts with some playing by the horns before Reid moves into a quick, hip-hop rhythm. Both cuts are informed by Braxton’s music, but also hold their own. The set closes with the two horns dueling on opening of Monk’s hard-swinging “Trinkle, Tinkle,” which aside from showing off some nice playing helps put Braxton’s music in a context: suddenly his odd rhythms and phrases don’t feel so out of the tradition. 

Throughout this record, the band’s in good shape but Reid’s playing is one difference that stands out. When compared to Play Braxton, he keeps things simple: his drumming is precise without being esoteric, swinging while staying true to Braxton’s knotty rhythms. Hemingway, by contrast, has a tendency to tap at cymbals with his fingertips and to use a light touch to create gaps in the music, making him more of an acquired taste.

But all over the record this music is played like straight-forward jazz, with a blue chip approach that never feels cold, experimental or sterile. Instead the band swings and makes Braxton’s themes come alive in a way that Halvorson, Crispell, and sometimes even Braxton himself struggle with. Recommended.

Roz Milner

[ceevee5]

[ceevee5]

[diyeipetea]

"Big Foot" [Tigran Hamasyan StandArt (Nonesuch, 2022)] Por Pachi Tapiz. JazzX5 #502 [Minipodcast de jazz]

“Big Foot” [Tigran Hamasyan StandArt (Nonesuch, 2022)] Por Pachi Tapiz. JazzX5 #502 [Minipodcast de jazz]

“Big Foot” (feat. Joshua Redman) Tigran Hamasyan StandArt (Nonesuch Records, 2022) Tigran Hamasyan, Matt Brewer, Justin Brown, Joshua Redman. El tema es una composición de Charlie Parker. ¿Sabías que? StandArt es el primer disco de standards del pianista armenio Tigran Hamasyan. El disco es en trío, le acompañan Matt Brewer y Justin Bown, aunque cuenta con colaboraciones de postín: Mark Turner y…

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[nonesuchrecords]

Tigran Hamasyan performs Elmo Hope's "De-Dah" from StandArt, his upcoming album of American standards, with his band, bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Justin Brown. The video features paintings by Gaguik Martirosyan animated by Robert Edridge-Waks.

[mostlymonk]

Eronel

Mike Moreno

Mike Moreno – guitar Matt Brewer – bass Jochen Rueckert – drums

[ceevee5]