Dayna Stephens Trio - Liberty

Label: Contagious Music, 2020

Personnel - Dayna Stephens: tenor and baritone saxophones; Ben Street: acoustic bass; Eric Harland: drums.

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Well-versed saxophonist Dayna Stephens went for an appealing trio recording session with longtime collaborators, bassist Ben Street and drummer Eric Harland. These musicians were featured on Stephens’ very first recording, The Timeless Now (CTA Records, 2007), and one composition from that album - “Lost And Found” - appears on Liberty with a new outfit, passing a sensation of downtempo jazz without really being it. The warmly connected bass lines join the laid-back drumming to support the darkly wistful tones of Stephens, who, on this one, plays baritone sax with asserted pensiveness.

Setting the tone for what follows, the opener, “Ran”, was written for film and music producer Randi Norman, conjuring supple melodies and swinging with easygoing familiarity. Stephens populates his tenor solo with smart note choices and rhythmic figures, while Street, finding pungently strutting routes throughout, also sets his bass to speak freely, having mainly a hi-hat rhythmic pulsation in the background. “Wil’s Way”, the closing track, is another composition penned to a friend, this time the organist Will Blades, with whom Stephens recorded on the albums Sketchy (Doodlin Records) by the organist and on his own New Day (Vegamusic), in 2007 and 2014, respectively. In this re-configured version, we find the saxophonist grooving with a blend of hard-bop and post-bop energies, well anchored in the rhythm section’s dynamic thrust.

The group’s work is similarly extroverted on “Loosy Goosy”, whose boppish exuberance hearkens to Joe Henderson and Sonny Rollins’ musical universes. Occasional Eastern-tinged spells are cast during the trade offs with Harland. This number was previously recorded, first appearing on the album Today is Tomorrow (Criss Cross, 2012).

Whereas “Tarifa” is a hymn-like African celebration that makes a picturesque sonic detour with plenty of rhythmic flair, “Planting Flowers”, composed by pianist Aaron Parks when he was 15, finds the trio sauntering with a casual, happy posture. They exert a fair amount of charm here.

The respect Stephens has for Coltrane is mirrored in two pieces where the latter’s genius is molded and taken to entirely new places. While “Faith Leap” is an unfaltering, breezy exercise founded on “Giant Steps”, where the bass follows the footsteps of the saxophone over a period of time, “Kwooked Stweet” is a contrafact of “Straight Street” and comes conducted with emphatic rhythmic accentuations and expressive interplay. By the end, Harland’s talkative drums can be heard over a sliding bass vamp designed for that purpose.

Shaped with equal parts sturdiness and grace, the 11 tracks of Liberty, Stephens’ ninth recording as a leader and first trio output, flourish with invention, suspension, and resolution. Above all, the group brings emotion into play, building and releasing tension in a stylized fashion.

Grade B+

Grade B+

Favorite Tracks: 
04 - Lost and Found ► 06 - Loosy Goosy ► 07 - Tarifa


Dayna Stephens - Gratitude

Label/Year: Contagious Music, 2017

Lineup - Dayna Stephens: reeds; Brad Mehldau: piano; Julian Lage: guitar; Larry Grenadier: bass; Eric Harland: drums.

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Dayna Stephens, a top saxophonist and bandleader with a knack for calm post-bop adventures and ballads, translates his gratitude to the world and to himself into a set of nine tunes (only one is original) that compose his eighth album as a leader.
To bring Gratitude to life, Stephens called the same illustrious musicians who had recorded Peace in 2004 - pianist Brad Mehldau, guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Eric Harland.
After Stephens has been diagnosed with a grave disease, he started seeing life in a different manner and this recording transpires appreciation, celebration, and life itself in its most varied musical forms.

Built with warm, amiable tones, “Emilie” is gently Latinized by Mehldau’s thoughtful comping, effortlessly adhering to the rhythmic flow set by Grenadier and Harland. This version of Olivier Manchon's composition lies between a typical jazz standard and the richness of a Jobim’s tune, featuring animated sax-guitar dialogues by the end. 

A soulful approach is reserved for both “In a Garden” and “Amber Is Falling (Red and Yellow)”. While the former, composed by pianist Aaron Parks, is a languorous ballad colored by Grenadier’s enlightened bass solo, the latter, written by vocalist/composer Michelle Amador, starts slowly but becomes rapidly enveloped by a positive energy, glimmering with Stephens and Mehldau’s fluid language and improvisational creativity. Harland is particularly stimulating here, exhibiting his rhythmic potentiality all along the way.

Lage’s “Woodside Waltz” combines pop, jazz, and folk through disciplined harmonic sequences and easy melodies. 
In a sweet melancholy, “We Had a Sister” is a Pat Metheny celebrated song where Stephens plays EWI, pulling out this weird flute-synth sound of the instrument. The saxophonist switches to baritone in the drum-less version of Billy Strayhorn’s “Isfahan”, boasting a full, deep timbre over the crystalline voicings liberated by Lage’s electric guitar. 

Stephen’s only original, “The Timbre of Gratitude”, draws a laudable coordination between all the musicians involved, yet it’s “Clouds & Clouds” that creates surprise through its modern trip-hop beats and cyclic synth trajectories saturated in color. On top of it, Stephens calmly formulates unclouded melodies with a pureness of intention.

Balanced and overflowing with awesome musicality, Gratitude will engage jazz fans in general since it lives from tradition and modernity alike. Regardless of which format the group may acquire, the proximity of the musicians and their huge synergistic sensibility lead to a beautiful work in all its subtlety.

         Grade A-

         Grade A-

Favorite Tracks:
01 – Emilie ► 03 – Amber Is Falling (Red and Yellow) ► 07 – Isfahan


Dan Cray - Outside In

Dan Cray: piano; Dayna Stephens: tenor saxophone; Clark Sommers: bass; Mark Ferber: drums.

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Outside In is the title of the sixth album by the pianist/composer Dan Cray, his second recorded in quartet. 
Regarding the lineup, and in comparison to Cray's previous work, Meridies, the saxophonist Noah Preminger was replaced by Dayna Stephens, while the drummer Mark Ferber and his longtime bassist Clark Sommers keep laying down the foundation.
Favoring a laid-back posture and a liberating spiritual freedom, the recording comprises seven frictionless tunes, which have the power of grabbing us emotionally.

More than just deliver a gentle spirituality, “Small Sir” works as a natural medium for the pianist’s modal expansions and beautiful creativity. By the end, after sincerely felt improvisations by Cray and Sommers, Stephens lets his voice out for the final turnaround, peppered by Ferber’s stalwart drumming.
Where Springs” is an innocuous ballad that boasts a wonderful understanding between the bandleader and Stephens. They whether complement each other’s phrases or fill the available spaces with logic and wisdom. 

Billy Strayhorn’s classic, “A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing”, is an exceptional piece crafted with an exotic grace and escorted by a sophisticated bass pulse and cultivated drumming. Besides the latter, the album presents two more renditions: Bud Powell’s “Oblivion”, which starts as a rhythmically broken dance and then swings sturdily for Cray’s heartening solo, and the soft and tender “Where Are You”, a 1937 jazz standard composed by Jimmy McHugh.
Also captivating is “OdP (Bird of Paradise)”, a serene waltz whose melody, drawn by Stephen’s attractive language, is more plaintive than dreamy. In contrast, the title track accelerates slightly by adding some more pulse. It maintains a passionate feel, though. 

Serenading the moon and the Earth, Cray frames velvety layouts resorting to reflective moods and a huge sense of unity with the members of his quartet. 
The romanticism will be even greater if you listen to Outside In while drinking a good glass of red wine in the company of your loved one.

         Grade A-

         Grade A-

Favorite Tracks:
01 – Small Sir ► 03 – A Flower Is a Lonesome Thing ► 05 – OdP (Bird of Paradise)