Fly Trio: Sky & Country auf CD

“Sky & Country” is the ECM debut of the highly-regarded collective trio that drummer Jeff Ballard has memorably described as “an intimate band with teeth”. It’s a group that overturns expectations of its specific instrumentation. Modern jazz history is not short on highly charged sax / bass / drums trios, including those of Sonny Rollins, Albert Ayler and Sam Rivers, but Fly is differently cast. Equal rights for all instruments is one goal. The saxophone seeks parity with bass and drums, and its refusal to fill all the space with sound brings another set of tensions into play. As writer Nate Chinen observed in a JazzTimes article, “This is music that expands and contracts, effortlessly and dramatically and that balances the cerebral components of group improvisation with the more gut-level element of groove.” Or as Brad Meldau, who works regularly with Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard in his own trio has said: “Fly brings together elements in their playing that are often at odds with each other: On the one hand their music can be intellectually challenging - their compositions in particular can be rhythmically and harmonically dense. In spite of that, their music makes a strong emotional impact, felt through the deep rhythmic groove, and the organic way that these three musicians tell a story together.”

The group first surfaced as the Jeff Ballard Trio in 2000 on one track of the anthology “Originations”, curated by Chick Corea (Ballard was Chick’s drummer at the time) and became Fly with the release of their first album, on Savoy, in 2004. Association between the players however goes back much further. Grenadier and Ballard played music together as teenagers in California in the early 1980s and subsequently gigged together often. They both migrated to the US’s East coast in 1990 where they met Turner, and the three musicians have played in diverse permutations and contexts since then.

In Fly, Turner, Grenadier and Ballard all write material. Mark Turner: “Sometimes it’s the saxophone carrying the melody. Other times it’s the bass or drums. We spread out the frontline duties among us.” “Sky & Country” features three Ballard tunes, four by Turner, and two by Grenadier.

Mark Turner was born in Fairborn, Ohio in 1965, and moved with his family to California when he was four. He started playing clarinet at nine then later switched to alto, then tenor as a teenager. He studied art at Long Beach State and California College of Arts and Crafts, transferring to Berklee College of Music, and graduating in 1990. Since moving to New York he has worked and recorded with musicians including Kurt Rosenwinkel, Dave Holland, Paul Motian, Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci, Dave Douglas, Billy Hart, Lee Konitz and James Moody. Turner is on dozens of recordings as a sideman as well as five of his own recordings (“Yam Yam” on Criss Cross, “Mark Turner”, “In This World”, “Ballad Session” and “Dharma Days” on Warner Brothers). Both Turner and Larry Grenadier appeared on Enrico Rava’s “New York Days” album on ECM.

Turner’s elegant, abstract and thoughtful playing has been much remarked on by his contemporaries. Brad Meldau has noted that Mark “doesn’t court the theatrics associated with his instrument ... (He is) playing with a direct candor usually reserved for older players.” And the older players, too, have been taking note. Lee Konitz (in the book “Conversations on the Improviser’s Art”): “I think Mark is a very serious contender. He’s really mastered the altissimo register of his instrument. That’s quite rare among tenor players ... He’s really playing lines up there as Warne Marsh could do – and Mark uses that register much more than Warne did.”

Larry Grenadier was born in San Francisco in 1966. He began playing bass when he was 11, and as a teenager worked in the Bay area with Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Bobby Hutcherson among many others. He graduated from Stanford University in 1989 with a degree in English Literature. After playing with Gary Burton's band in 1990, he moved to New York City and played in the groups of Betty Carter, Joshua Redman, Danilo Perez, Tom Harrell, Joe Henderson, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Paul Motian, Charles Lloyd and Brad Mehldau and recorded dozens of albums. Previous ECM credits include the above-mentioned Rava disc and three albums with Charles Lloyd: “The Water Is Wide”, “Hyperion With Higgins” and “Lift Every Voice”. Enrico Rava recently described Larry’s playing as “present and focused in every moment”, and this is true too of the quite different demands of Fly where bass and sax frequently move in complementary orbits, developing ideas independently and interdependently.

Drummer / percussionist Jeff Ballard was born in Southern California in 1963 and grew up in Santa Cruz, where he began playing drums at age 14. He toured with Ray Charles from 1988 through 1990. Jeff moved to New York in 1990, and since then has played and / or recorded with Lou Donaldson, Chick Corea, Buddy Montgomery, Mike Stern, Danilo Perez, Pat Metheny, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Joshua Redman, Enrico Rava and very many others. Recent recordings include the Brad Mehldau Trio’s “Live” , “Metheny/ Mehldau” and Joshua Redman’s “Momentum”. “Sky & Country” is Ballard’s first ECM recording.

In interviews Ballard frequently speaks of drawing influence from the widest range of stylistic sources, acknowledging jazz masters from Joe Morello to Tony Williams but also citing the inspiration of South American, Afro-Cuban, Middle-Eastern and African drumming, and rhythms from everywhere...

“Sky & Country” was recorded at New York’s Avatar Studio in February and June 2008. The group’s touring activities in April and May take in concerts in both the US and Europe.

Pressestimmen:

Fly conquers the challenge presented to all trios in its ability to think as one, telepathically adjusting as each member prods or pulls back, making space for a gorgeous tenor comment or a perfectly chosen rim shot then undulating into another collective form and shape. Fly’s ability to probe each member’s mind is its greatest asset. The results often prove revelatory. Ken Micallef, Downbeat

The nine tracks on Sky & Country are rhythmically limber and structurally involved, reflecting the selfless, collaborative spirit that is the band’s raison d’être. … Turner, among the most distinctive and influential saxophonists to emerge in years, can surge like a wave or whisper like a flute. His rapidly coiling lines span the full reach of the horn, leaping widely across intervals and dissecting chord changes with striking originality. David R. Adler, Time Out New York

The key to the album’s success is that this is not just a saxophone with bass and drums accompaniment, but the thought that has gone into exchanging roles, the relationship between bass and melody instrument, the way the drums move to centre stage in a way that is integral to the realisation of a composition – in short, this is an album full of fascinating and absorbing musical events that have the capacity to move and exhilarate. Stuart Nicholson, Jazzwise

On the new CD you can hear what’s made Turner such a sensation among musicians. … In Fly, with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard, Turner is at his best. In his complex, multi-part pieces the distinction between written melody and spontaneous outpouring is blurred; Turner’s saxophone lines always sound invented on the spot, but informed with a sure compositional logic. Jon Garelick, The Boston Phoenix

Fly ist ein Trio wie aus dem Musterbuch, drei Könner vor dem Herrn, die seit bald zehn Jahren immer wieder auf den gemeinsamen Grund zurückkommen: der Saxofonist Mark Turner mit seinem warmen, manchmal fast schon durchscheinenden Ton, Jeff Ballard, der die Becken und Felle seines Schlagzeugs zum Singen bringt, und der Kontrabassist Larry Grenadier als Rhapsode, der im tiefen Keller seine eigenen Melodien erfindet. Auf Sky & Country haben sie ihre Kunst der Ökonomie perfektioniert. Nur die unerlässlichen Töne zählen, das Beiwerk lassen sie fahren. Stephan Hentz, Die Zeit

Mit der zweiten CD seiner Formation Fly legt Turner ein souveränes, reifes Album dreier gleichberechtigter Partner vor, das durch Aufmerksamkeit und Intensität überzeugt. Es geht nicht um einen Star und devote Begleiter, sondern ums oft beschworene Interplay. Und dieses gelingt aufs Schönste. Manfred Papst, Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag

Diese Platte ist ein exzellentes Beispiel dafür, dass sich Freiheit und Disziplin, Energie und Entspannung, Nähe und Distanz, Übereinstimmung und Widerspruch, fließende Eleganz und Brüche ganz wunderbar verbinden lassen – so, wie am Horizont Sky & Country verschmelzen. Ein Meisterwerk. Werner Stiefele, Rondo

Rezensionen

G.​ Fischer in Musikexpress 7/09: "Das Trio spinnt sein Vokabular mit der ganz eigenen Leidenschaft und Risikobereitschaft, mit poetischem Tiefgang und rhythmischer Klarheit fort.​ Mark Turners Sax-Sound ist glühend und cool.​ Larry Grenadiers Bass-Saiten sorgen für lässiges und körperliches Störfeuer.​ Und Jeff Ballard beherrscht von der Rock-Pace bis hin zu pointillistisch durchstalteten Vitalität einfach alles.​"