Giant Step Arts launches Modern Masters and New Horizons series with the first-ever live album as a leader by saxophonist Mark Turner, recorded at the iconic Village Vanguard
Live at the Village Vanguard, due out [date], 2023, features Turner’s remarkable quartet with trumpeter Jason Palmer, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Jonathan Pinson
“[Mark Turner is] a premier saxophonist, conceptual thinker and bandleader who plays a visionary role on today’s rapidly evolving, ever-expanding jazz scene.” – Ed Enright, DownBeat
“Light of tone and phenomenally agile, the sound of Mark Turner’s tenor saxophone is so beguiling that I’d happily listen to him playing from a book of exercises.” – Dave Gelly, The Guardian
Anyone who’s paid attention to the evolution of jazz over the past three decades is surely familiar with the work of Mark Turner, who has cemented his place as one of the most acclaimed and influential tenor saxophonists of the modern era. No less an authority than saxophonist Ravi Coltrane has said, “I think Mark Turner is one of the most important players that has come along in the last 20 years, easily the most influential. He never seems to have any doubt about what he’s doing.”
It’s somewhat surprising, therefore, that up to this point in his career Turner has never released a live recording as a leader. On stage, with the time to stretch out and the energizing presence of a rapt audience, is the place where an artist like Turner is in peak form, as the present album brilliantly attests.
With a live album under his name so long overdue, Turner decided to debut at the pinnacle, choosing as the venue the most storied and iconic room in jazz history. Live at the Village Vanguard, due out [date] via the artist-centered nonprofit Giant Step Arts, thus adds Turner’s name to the legacy of jazz giants who have recorded on that hallowed stage – including John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Paul Motian and Art Pepper. For the occasion Turner reassembled his stellar new quartet featuring trumpeter Jason Palmer, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Jonathan Pinson.
“To some extent, playing at the Village Vanguard makes me feel that I've been accepted to the village where the masters began,” says Turner, who has returned regularly to the club since his debut there more than twenty years ago. “It’s a sensation of being part of something larger than myself, and that's ultimately what I want out of playing music and playing jazz.”
Live at the Village Vanguard also serves as the first entry in Giant Step’s new series Modern Masters and New Horizons. Specially curated by trumpeter Jason Palmer and drummer Nasheet Waits, two modern masters in their own rights, the series features thrilling original music by artists who have helped shape the modern jazz landscape along with rising voices who promise to do the same for the next generation. Artists currently slated to contribute include Waits, saxophonists Ben Solomon, Neta Raanan and Michael Thomas, vibraphonist Chien Chien Lu, drummer Eric McPherson, bassist Edward Perez and others.
On Live at the Village Vanguard the soloists are unleashed to explore the tunes at their most inspired, at times stretching the pieces out to more than twice the length of their studio equivalents with audacious, combustible virtuosity. Turner weaves long, labyrinthine melodies that are mesmerizing in their unpredictability; in Palmer he has found his ideal frontline partner, as evidenced on their work together on the trumpeter’s previous Giant Step releases, Rhyme & Reason and The Concert: 12 Musings for Isabella. His playing throughout these two sets is breathtaking in its graceful contours and incandescent fluidity. They’re supported by a masterful rhythm section whose eloquence, power and tactful sense of space is always on point.
The 18 minutes of “It’s Not Alright With Me,” for example, leaves space for Martin’s probing solo to dig deep into the piece’s knotty nuances, while Pinson’s rapid-fire snare barrage provokes the leader into molten, forked-tongue licks followed by a more wistful, lyrical turn from Palmer. “There’s more fire and grit when this band plays live,” Turner says. “And maybe more romance. Working with these guys feels really good and intuitive, and it takes on a romantic sound as opposed to a more abstract approach.”
The bulk of the material in this two hour-plus set was written expressly for this quartet, but Turner draws material from throughout his career into the mix. “Brother Sister,” which opens with a jaw-dropping five-minute solo turn by the saxophonist, comes from his prior quartet release, 2014’s Lathe of Heaven. “Lennie Groove” dates back much further, to Turner’s second album, In This World from 1998. It has since become something of a modern standard, recorded several times and called on countless bandstands. “Wasteland” was initially recorded with drummer Billy Hart’s quartet in 2012. The album closes with a new composition, the simmering “1946,” which evokes a sinuous tenor solo from the leader over Martin and Pinson’s robust walking rhythm, yielding to Palmer’s cool, investigatory precision.
The performance is beautifully captured by renowned photographer/engineer and Giant Step Arts founder Jimmy Katz, marking his first released recording from the Vanguard. “Everything that Mark plays is unique,” Katz says. “In his phrasing, he’s not playing anything that has been played before in the history of jazz. That’s true of all of his studio records, but that’s just one side of him. Live, especially in this context where the band is absolutely on fire, it’s something else entirely. It’s a magical two sets of music that reveal just how intense and powerful he is as a composer and soloist.”