Label: Red Piano Records, 2019

Personnel - Tony Malaby: tenor saxophone; Ethan Helm: alto saxophone; Hery Paz: bass clarinet; Andrew Schiller: bass; Matt Honor: drums.

After landing in Brooklyn, bassist Andrew Schiller, a native of Phoenix, has been displaying a level of maturity not frequently seen in musicians of his age. Asserting his extraordinary talents as a composer, player, and bandleader, Schiller redefines his quintet for the second album, Sonoran, a nine-part suite inspired by the Sonoran Desert landscape, a visual perception from his childhood.

If his 2017 debut record, Tied Together, Not to the Ground, had featured a double-horn section supported by piano, bass, and drums, then, for this new project, he goes piano-less and expands the frontline with an extra reed. Saxophonists Tony Malaby and Ethan Helm, on tenor and alto saxophone, respectively, join him for the first time, as well as drummer Matt Honor. Cuban-born reedist Hery Paz remained in the group, but switched from tenor saxophone to bass clarinet in order to provide further timbral stimuli.

The title track is an enthralling contrapuntal dance that unfolds with a multi-ostinato texture at the base and unisons from alto sax and bowed bass. A persistent bass pedal is later transformed into a thrusting groove, inviting the horn players to blow simultaneous free extemporizations.

Pace and timbre are remarkably controlled in this group, and the vivacious “Gambelii” demonstrates this quality while effortlessly mixing classical, Latin, and post-bop idioms. The free bopish attitude is aggrandized through polyrhythmic nuances in the foundation, and the soloists, Helm and Malaby in the case, may go different ways, but bring sparkle to the music. The tenor man initiates his improvisation in a disarmingly melodic way after Helm’s vertiginous explorations.

“Thorny Flora” nods to Charles Mingus, marching methodically with swagger and swinging with some reedy melodic strains atop. The tune, another showcase for Malaby's inventiveness, also features Paz, who totally grabs the spotlight on “Wet Hair, Dry Hair”, an even-tempered effort crafted under a 5/4 meter signature. Here, he delivers a mesmeric, meaty solo sustained by discernible bass alignments and restless drumming, later enjoying the company of the saxophonists, whose parallel lines provide atmosphere.

An earnest avant-garde vibration shakes the very first minutes of “Shade For Shelter”. However, the piece veers into a rock-infused elation that emphasizes contrapuntal melodic associations (the two saxophones against the pair double bass/bass clarinet). The bandleader shows off tight improvisational skills, after he had explored more spacious environments on the romantically classical “Western Theme #1”, the first of three cinematic chamber vignettes.

As a multi-colorist, Schiller expands his sonic canvas with the current instrumentation, comfortably straddling multiple disciplines and providing you with deeply absorbing sounds to be discovered.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Sonoran ► 05 - Wet Hair, Dry Hair ► 09 - Thorny Flora

Label/Year: Red Piano Records, 2017

Lineup - Hery Paz: tenor saxophone; Alec Harper: tenor saxophone; Frank Carlberg: piano; Andrew Schiller: bass; Robin Baytas: drums.

Phoenix-born Brooklyn-based bassist Andrew Schiller has a knack for modern composition and his debut album, Tied Together, Not To The Ground, a 10-song collection of inventive genius, features an ensemble top-loaded with talent. The peers that follow him are tenorists Hery Paz and Alec Harper, pianist Frank Carlberg, and drummer Robin Baytas.

Enjoying the calm waters, the quintet sets sail to explore spacious regions on “Little Shoes”. The intro, built with sax and drums and later joined by a cadenced piano pointillism, is delivered in a breathable and cyclic manner. More spontaneous rather than mechanical, Schiller’s bass solo is crafted with art, as well as Paz’s saxophone lines, whose lyricism doesn’t stick to anything you might be expecting to hear but has the capacity to surprise.

The exquisite waltzing flow of “Go Get ‘Em Tiger!” carries wry fanfare tones in the unison melodies deliver by the two-horn frontline. Soloing with swampy intensity, Harper (what an entrance!) instills all his melodic and motivic richness into a tune that also counts on Carlberg’s melodies (we can hear his voice) to entice. The pianist’s expressive gestures are also strongly felt on the contagious “Head Down, Walk”, whose title could have been ‘Head up, March’ in accordance with its actual nature.

Infusing larger doses of joyfulness, the band digs the frisky “Tink Tink” with Latin and groovy vibes, in a stylistically expansive description of a rousing scenario. In addition to Schiller and Paz’s individual statements, Baytas has here an opportunity to show his flexible drum forays. The latter shines again by the end of the revolutionary “Gluckschmerz”, in which he helps to form a powerful rhythmic epicenter together with the bassist. A collective improvisation blossoms out of this adventurous stretch, bringing an avalanche of sharp angles and protuberances created by Paz and Harper.This visceral rhythmic drive and melodic entanglement emerge again on the abstract, sparse, and uncompromised “CFBDSIR-2149” and on the title track, a deeply nostalgic ballad that refrains from agitation.

Also painted with an atmospheric glow is “One That Never Was”, whose starting point is made of acerbic bass note intervals before landing on an unknotted, stable groove that instinctively combines with the dry percussive sounds engendered by Baytas.

Between the lines, the album’s title reads only the truth. The members of this quintet are closely tied to this music whose creator provides them with an abundant freedom to create, move, and interact. Moreover, instead of being tied to the ground, they are able to fly together.
Schiller’s debut is a worthy trip and his compositions reflect the blistering state of the modern jazz.

Favorite Tracks:
02 – Go Get ‘Em Tiger! ► 05 – Gluckschmerz ► 07 – Head Down, Walk