{"id":4813,"date":"2013-06-07T23:34:34","date_gmt":"2013-06-08T06:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=4813"},"modified":"2013-06-08T15:21:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-08T22:21:00","slug":"recent-listening-terence-blanchard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2013\/06\/recent-listening-terence-blanchard\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening: Terence Blanchard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Terence Blanchard<\/strong>, Magnetic<\/em><\/a> (Blue Note)<\/p>\n

Even in tracks orchestrated with layers of electronic mysteries, a fine sense of chance-taking permeates Blanchard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s return to the Blue Note label. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Run,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the piece with the least contrivance, is to a considerable degree the album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most daring. Built on a stuttering unison melodic line, it is just short of a free-for-all for the trumpeter, soprano saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and bassist Ron Carter, with drummer Kendrick Scott’s strategically placed interjections urging them along. The track has a sense of street-beat abandon evocative of parade \"Blanchard<\/a>music in Blanchard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s native New Orleans. Carter is magisterial on this piece and “Magnetic.” The gifted 19-year-old bassist Joshua Crumbly is on eight of the album’s 10 tracks. He has yet to attain Carter’s incisiveness, but he more than holds his own. <\/p>\n

\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pet Step Sitter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Theme Song,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by the young Cuban pianist Fabian Almazan, also captures some of the same wild feeling as “Don’t Run.” Blanchard, Almazan, and Coltrane\u00e2\u20ac\u201don tenor sax\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsolo passionately. Ethereal tones paint the background of the piece. They sound like a guitar but may be Blanchard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s horn routed through a synthesizer. As the piece fades away, someone adds touches of vocalise. Almazan is the only soloist in a dazzling performance of his feature piece, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Comet.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Studio techniques expand the dramatic title track by Blanchard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quintet to Wagnerian proportions, particularly in his solo, but the manipulations fall away for tenor saxophonist Brice Winston\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Almazan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sharply etched choruses.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hallucinations\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (not the Bud Powell tune, but a Blanchard composition) goes to lengths to live up to its title, with more of those eerie guitar-like slips and slides permeating the atmosphere. Scott\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No Borders, Just Horizons\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gets underway with the drummer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tight press rolls initiating a solo impressive for its concision. Blanchard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s virtuosic improvisation in this piece, indeed throughout the album, is\"Brice<\/a> tightly controlled, with few of the glissandos, slurs and half-valve effects that in some of his previous work became clich\u00c3\u00a9s to the point of distraction. Saxophonist Winston (pictured) appears on five tracks. The purity of his tone and the fleetness of his soloing are notable throughout and dominate the recording of his composition \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Time to Spare.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Through the magic of electronic manipulation, Blanchard becomes a raucous trumpet trio on the relentlessly intense \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Another Step,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which ends in a round of sardonic laughter.<\/p>\n

An observation on the packaging, possibly of concern only to grumpy critics: the CD booklet lists the names of the musicians in miniscule white type on a red background, making it a challenge to decipher who plays on which tracks without the aid of a powerful light or a magnifying glass, or both. The three pages inside the booklet are largely devoted to a widescreen photo of Blanchard surrounded by spectral out-of-focus images. The one panel of notes is devoted to Blanchard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thanking everyone involved in the making of the CD, including the president of the record company and members of the production staff. Some of that space might have been used for facts about this fascinating, often complex music. The lack of meaningful information is by no means unusual to this album. It follows a trend that jazz and classical companies have adopted from the pop and rock branches of the record industry. That may satisfy requirements for trendiness, but it is of no help to listeners who want to know about what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re hearing.<\/p>\n

That cavil aside, this is a recommended album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terence Blanchard, Magnetic (Blue Note) Even in tracks orchestrated with layers of electronic mysteries, a fine sense of chance-taking permeates Blanchard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s return to the Blue Note label. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Run,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the piece with the least contrivance, is to a considerable degree the album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most daring. Built on a stuttering unison melodic line, it is just short […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}