Label: Sunnyside Records, 2021

Personnel - Dan Blake: soprano and tenor saxophone; Carmen Staaf: piano, Rhodes; Leo Genovese: synth, piano, Rhodes; Dmitry Ishenko: acoustic and electric bass; Jeff Williams: drums.

On his new outing, saxophonist Dan Blake ponders about climate change, poverty and hunger, at the same time that pays tribute to the spiritual leaders and activists committed to make this world a better place. Blake, who carved out his musical skills with Anthony Braxton and Julian Lage, plays exclusively originals on Da Fé, forging an empathic bond with his peers while offering us opportunities to bask in his catchy and articulate sonic imaginings.

“Prologue - A New Normal” opens the record as a beautiful solo piano work. The performer is Carmen Staaf, who combines dreamlike cascading lines and chordal sustains to create tension. What could have been round corners are bent into moderately sharp angles, and by the end, eerie electronics reinforce the sense of danger.

In “Cry of the East”, a dedication to the Palestinian people, a shifting rhythmic figure and sinewy soprano lines flow along a jazz waltz. At some point, I felt like having Yusef Lateef and John Coltrane performing on the same wavelength.

“Like Fish in Puddles”, whose title stems from Atthakavagga, a collection of Buddhist poems, features the inventive Argentinian keyboardist Leo Genovese, whose futuristic sounds were added in post-production. Identified as modal jazz, this number highlights a fervently prayerful soprano sax on top a Tyner-esque piano practice. Expansions and contractions occur with a no-frills work by the rhythm team of bassist Dmitry Ishenko and drummer Jeff Williams, and the final section welcomes well-balanced saxophone overdubs and fluttering, laser-like synth effects into a vamp.

The finely layered title track, benefitting from Eastern sounds and Genovese’s off-kilter synth moves, lashes together sluggish bass lines and energetic saxophone discharges for an interesting outcome.

Both “Doctor Armchair” and the noir “The Grifter” have one foot in the post-bop terrain and the other in the avant-garde jazz. Whereas the latter piece takes two saxophone threads to an agreement after a turmoil, the Monk-tinged “The Cliff” initially aligns them to form a kinetic chain of neo-bop caliber, and then separates them for a polyphonic aesthetic that coalesces, perplexes and connects effortlessly. The groove in seven from where everything had departed is resumed after a bass monologue.

Each piece encompasses a self-sufficient storyline with no obvious hooks, which is wonderful, and the enduring “Pain”, Blake’s emotional response to some recent losses in the family, is another good example. The bandleader shouts continuous tenor cries delivered with an extraordinary range, crisscrossing the cosmic rubato textures he might find in the way.

It’s hard not to appreciate what Blake puts together here with so much passion. The special and unique personality of Da Fé is on full display as its creator seeks for justice, truth and compassion through music.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - Like Fish in Puddles ► 04 - Pain ► 06 - The Cliff