#noah preminger

[redshift-13]

[dustedmagazine]

Noah Preminger and Rob Garcia Dead Composers Club — The Chopin Project (Connection Works)

Dead Composers Club? Apart from conjuring shades of a certain 1980s film, could a duo have picked a cheekier expression of homage? This seems to be the first in a series of such celebrations of accomplishments past, and fortunately, the music succeeds where the appellation fails. Frederic Chopin did his music something of a disservice when acknowledging Italian opera as a prime influence, causing melody to become a prominently discussed characteristic to the exclusion of so many others. Though he often wrote in miniature, his brand of streamlined Romanticism is as powerful and as chromatically daring as that of Liszt or Alkan, but it also grooves, sways dreamily, soars to nearly unfathomable heights of fancy and imagination to return with an almost understated poetic gesture of aching sweetness. Incredibly, Preminger and company capture the composer’s radical diversity in ways that have made this seasoned Chopin listener hear it all afresh.

As the quartet focuses on preludes and nocturnes, I was curious to see what would be done with the single etude, the seventh from op. 25. It’s one of the more ballady performances on offer; only part of the etude is used, but the arrangement is beautiful, emphasizing the emotional miniature’s counterpoint with pithy unisons and instrumental color. Preminger’s saxophone sounds almost like a clarinet as he takes up the plaintive melody, Kim Cass’s bass and Nate Radley’s guitar so unified as to create overtones like an expertly drilled chorus. Contrast this with the rocking precision of “Prelude no. 2.” Similar to the middle section of Yes’s “Roundabout,” Chopin’s tiny masterpiece doesn’t so much reside in E-minor as sneak around it. Garcia’s malleted and heavily syncopated percussion work drags the arrangement headlong into Ellington-esque exoticism, Preminger’s widely varied vibrato providing lush confirmation as the group glides and swings through the harmonically tensioned groove, rhythm section dropouts already built into the innovative structure.  

That these bebop-chopped and free-blowing improvisers can solo with such fluidity and invention over such changes can be mind blowing! Listen to them on the ninth prelude, the album’s closing track. Yet another simple but gorgeous arrangement masks major and minor juxtapositions and third relations, but Preminger even manages to temper it all with well-placed blues licks as the complex form waltzes buy. Cass’s understated solo is especially effective on the final chorus, a few expertly timed harmonics providing timbral intrigue to an already colorful interpretation, but why do they end on the dominant? Would a strong final resolution have ruined the program? Grumbles aside, this is terrific. Maybe it’s exposure to a mixture of Monk and Ellington as filtered through the freedoms of the past fifty years that gives these players the conjoined vocabulary to succeed on a doubly difficult front where so many others have failed. This is an excellent disc and a wonderful homage, and may all future installments be approached with such obvious affection and consideration!    

Marc Medwin

[dustedmagazine]

Noah Preminger – Meditations on Freedom (Dry Bridge)

Released in digital form on January 20th, or as our newly-christened Bloviator-In-Chief refers to it sans even an iota of self-reflexive doubt, National Day of Patriotic Devotion, tenorist Noah Preminger’s Meditations on Freedom is aural abrogation of the current political status quo. Colleagues Jason Palmer, Kim Cass and Ian Froman join him in the cause, building on and deviating from their earlier two recordings together which focused mainly on Delta blues and folk forms. Here, the prospectus shifts to protest songs with anthems by Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke, George Harrison and Bruce Hornsby joining another five by Preminger. The set-up conveys the same live-in-the-studio immediacy of their previous efforts as well.

Protest and empowerment albums embody a storied lineage in jazz dating back to the 1950s and prior. Drummer Max Roach and altoist Jackie McLean were among the most prolific with albums like Deeds, Not Words, We Insist!, Let Freedom Ring, and Right Now! announcing both musical and societal entreaties for emancipation and equality. Whether Preminger’s project measures up to those classics is arguable, but there’s no assailing the earnestness behind the endeavor in making his feelings on the subject now known. Palmer, Cass and Froman are right beside him channeling feelings of consternation, indignation and conviction into the music along with a heaping mustering of hope.

Dylan’s “Only a Pawn in Their Game” serves as the first savvy shot across the bow, boiling down the current Administration’s exploitative perspective on the electorate to its basest terms. The horns shape a lush prefatory section of wending harmonies without rhythmic support before breaking off for solos led by the leader’s searching modulations. Hornsby’s “Just the Way It Is” is a millions-selling pop tune imbued with a surprising undercurrent of political frankness. Preminger and Palmer truncate and tilt the melody and turn it into something resembling an old time spiritual with the former soon slipping into a dialogue with Froman that echoes vintage Ornette. Sam Cooke’s “Change is Gonna Come” shines a high-wattage klieg light in the darkness balanced on the slow lope of Cass’ strings.

The titles to Preminger’s pieces reference other mnemonic elements endemic in the struggle. “We Have a Dream” tweaks the MLK proclamation in the interest of inclusiveness. Cass and Froman are on collective point once again, prompting the kind of richly polyphonic playing field that’s perfect for the ensuing acrobatics by the horns. “Women’s March” pays homage to the largest global protest to date with some tight unison playing and propulsive urgency while the concluding “Broken Treaties” alludes to the time-testing American tradition of violating its accords with this country’s indigenous peoples with a somber resignation. Preminger’s modesty precludes him from placing the program in the aforementioned pedigree, but a propensity to do so on the part of the listener isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Derek Taylor

[diyeipetea]

Noah Preminger: Pivot: Live at the 55 Bar (Autoproducido, 2015; CD)

Pivot: Live at the 55 Bar es uno de esos conciertos que a un servidor, como aficionado al jazz, le gustaría disfrutar. Da lo mismo en un club -mediano, grande o pequeño-, o en un gran escenario, aunque la cercanía posiblemente actuase como catalizador del disfrute. La grabación incluye un par de temas (sendos blues del…

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Noah Preminger: Pivot: Live at the 55 Bar (Autoproducido, 2015; CD) was originally published on Tomajazz 2.5

[92ny]

From The Wall Street Journal: Radio Stations Go Back to the Future

On Wednesday, WBGO will kick off its new jazz performance series, the Checkout: Live from 92YTribeca, which can be watched via live stream on the station's website, seen in person at 200 Hudson St. (advance tickets are $12), or heard over the radio and Internet. Hosted by Josh Jackson, the series is an extension of the station's current hour-long radio program and podcast, the Checkout. This comes as WBGO—which became New Jersey's first public radio station in 1970—is adding an HD broadcasting channel at 88.3 FM that will focus on emerging jazz artists—as well as installing a broadcast antenna in Manhattan to improve reception throughout the metropolitan area. "Everything we do is centered around broadcast, but then we branch off into these other distribution platforms because people are going there," Mr. Bowles said. "You want to reach people where they are."

Learn more about The Checkout on 92YTribeca.org.

[rjjohnson-blog-blog]

Michael Feinberg - With Many Hands

     Bassist Michael Feinberg's newest album focuses mainly on composition, not instrumental prowess.  Despite the fact that the musicians on this record are fully capable of bringing down the house, a respectful restraint is present throughout the recording.  One of the things I liked was the fact that, though Feinberg is a bassist, he is not overly present as an instrumentalist.  You may expect to hear a long bass solo on every tune, or perhaps a less than exciting epic introduction on a few tunes, but this is not the case.  Feinberg simply plays the bass in a manner which would be appropriate if he were just another member of the band, and I like this much better than hearing a bunch of bass throughout the album.  Besides, Feinberg's compositions are nuanced enough to showcase his talents, and luckily he was smart enough to realize this.  Though everyone plays well, saxophonist Noah Preminger, someone who I believe will come to be well known on the international jazz scene, comes off as the most well versed instrumentalist throughout the album.  His solos are not cliche ridden, but still display his careful study of saxophonists from previous generations, especially Coltrane.  Guitarist Alex Wintz takes a nice delay-driven solo on "It is Written", which seems to be influenced by today's modern players more so than bebop.  This record straddles the line between traditional and modern, but certainly leans more towards modern.  It is a solid example of the direction that jazz is going, but also demonstrates the fact that the younger generation has taken the time to study the greats of jazz.   

Michael Feinberg - With Many Hands (Michael Feinberg Music 2011)

Michael Feinberg (bass, compositions), Alex Wintz (guitar), Noah Preminger (saxophone), Daniel Platzman (drums), Julian Shore (piano), Godwin Louis (alto sax)

[rjjohnson-blog-blog]

Noah Preminger: Before the Rain

     New York based tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger released his second album as a leader just a few days ago.  Preminger, who is only in his mid twenties, sounds like a musician who has been honing his craft for a much longer period of time.  He is a saxophonist who seems to stay away from licks and the obvious traps of such a common instrument.  His compositions are well thought out, and not simply starting points for instrumental acrobatics.  I think that Preminger will be a common name in New York within a couple of years, and he is certainly deserving of any recognition age receives.  Despite his age, he is certainly worth checking out.

Before the Rain:  Palmetto Records 2011.  Noah Preminger (tenor sax), John Hebert (bass), Frank Kimbrough (piano), Matt Wilson (drums)