Janel Leppin, Jon Irabagon, Peter Evans ... urgent, restless and (in a good way) relentless

By Paul Acquaro

Janel Leppin Ensemble Volcanic Ash - To March is to Love (Cuneiform, 2024)

You cannot say D.C. based cellist Janel Leppin didn't try to sound the alarm, that she didn't try to put into her music into the service of delivering an important message. Released in June of 2024, To March Is to Love is intense, infused with an urgency of that moment. On her Bandcamp page, Leppin underscores this, saying "This is the moment where people are going to have to step up. We’ve done this before and we can do it again. It’s a very D.C. message, but a very important message." 

 

Seeing as to where we are now, we'll pivot and let the intensity and urgency of the message be of service to the music. As it is, To March is to Love channels the music and convictions of two very intense and urgent musicians: the classically rooted and musically boundless Abdul Wadud and Pablo Casals.

 

The influence of the first musician is name checked right on the opening track, 'Ode to Abdul Wadud,' and if you, dear reader, have ever felt goosebumps listening to the opening track of Julius Hemphill's 1972 Dogon A.D., be prepared to feel it again. In the quick minute and a half, the combination of Leppin's thick cello and Pirog's biting guitar delivers a crackling introduction that only gets more intense in the next tune "Tennesee's a Drag." Here, Leppin's repeating rhythmic line and Larry Ferguson's drums provide a feverish energy for Sarah Hughes' and Brian Settles' fuzzily-outside-the-lines saxophone solos. A later track, "As Wide as All Outdoors," is also notable in how Luke Stewart's bass and Leppin's cello together generate a lovely, resonant contrast.

 

The title track, broken into two parts, begins with the cello and bass bowing a pensive melody as the guitar plays an arpeggiated counter-figure. The saxes add some relief to undulating composition, while on second part, all hell breaks loose. Sort of. 'Part II,'picking up as the first ends, seems to grow darker and then evolves into the most free playing on the album.

 

The closing track, "Casal's Rainbow" finds Leppin on piano, solo. The classically oriented piece closes the recording with a buoyant rhythm but a questioning melody that leaves one feeling just a little unsettled.

To March is to Love spent too long in my "to listen to" list, so please do not make the same mistake now that you are in the know. This is a fantastic album that will help you keep the fire burning during the coldest of times. 

 

 

I Don't Hear Nothing but the Blues - Vol 3, Part 2: Exuberant Scars (Irabaggast, 2024)

Saxophonist Jon Irabagon has not gotten much rest this past year. At the tail end of '23 he released Recharge the Blade  and Survivalism, followed by the collaboration Bakunawa on Out Of Your Head Records and a duo with pianist Brian Marsella, Blue Hour, which was then followed by Dinner and Dancing with his trio with Barry Altschul and Joe Fonda, and finally one from I Don't Hear Nothing but the Blues, Volume 3 Part 2 - Exuberant Scars. We'll likely need a "Catching up with Jon" review soon, but for now, the focus is on the latter of this list...

The gun-slinging group, I Don't Hear Nothing but the Blues, seemingly undergoes an expansion with each volume. The group began in 2009 with Irabagon and drummer Mike Pride, and added guitarist Mick Barr on 2012's Volume 2. Then in 2020, on Volume 3, fellow outlaw guitarist and experimentalist Ava Mendoza added her firepower to the group. The result was even more energy for an already highly energetic group. On the second part of this configuration's collaboration, however, the impact is the same but the method is different. Recorded live at The Stone in NYC by Randy Thaler, Volume 3 Part 2 - Exuberant Scars, is sort of the inverse of Volume 1. Instead of the furnace blast of fire power that greeted us last time, we hear the wooden plunks of a xylophone and then a slowly growing menacing growl of the others. There is no beat, but there is a growing urgency and a subdued aggression behind the sounds. The plucked frenetic notes of electric guitar and vaguely connected line from the sax allude to the coming restlessness. Then, within a few more minutes, the strands begin layering, xylophone and sax seem to be shadowing each other, while one of the guitars is running about and the other is filling the background with texture. 

 

So that's the first 10 minutes of the single 45-minute track. Skip ahead to the 20 minute mark and the drums are fierce, the sax is screaming, and the two guitars have reached a peak of intensity. What can possibly happen in the next 20 minutes? 

 

Peter Evans - Extra (We Jazz, 2024)

If you are looking for something urgent, restless and (in a good way) relentless, you've got it all in this tight 34 minute package from trumpeter Peter Evans. From the moment the music starts, Evans, along with long-time collaborators drummer Jim Black and electronicist and bassist Peter Eldh, deliver a tremendous set of laser focused compositions. 

 

'Freaks' opens with a long held note from Evans over a sparky bass-line and a tumble of drums. The tone then morphs into a melody that one would swear requires two trumpets to maintain. Knowing Evan's prowess with the instrument, it is not a safe bet to make any assumptions of how it was done. The tune then opens up with a fierce, uptempo solo by Evans over the relentless backing of the pulsating rhythm work. The group suddenly crashes into a synthesizer, as a bright tonal cluster signals the end. 

 

What comes next is even more urgent - Eldh delivers a syncopated, pummeling bass-line, augmented by taught drumming from Black and - I think - some hand-clapping samples that recalls a sample from GarageBand. Evans takes full advantage of the groups momentum and delivers another scintillating performance, his trumpet's tone slightly augmented at times by electronics that open up new augmented tones and timbres.

 

"Movement 56," a piece in the middle of the album takes the electronics to an extreme. The track begins with Evans alone, acoustic, deploying his myriad solo techniques, but a synth tone quickly bubbles up - or for all we know, it may still be Evans, his trumpet's tone entirely enveloped by the electronics. Regardless, this highly synthetic tone builds and builds, finally ending in a deep, oscillating drone that eventually tapers off to the next track, 'Underworld,' which is comforting in its slippery beat count and dovetailing grooves. 

 

Overstuffed with ideas and more than enough improvisational craft, Extra, is the exact right portion of urgent, restless and (in a good way) relentless music.