Label: ArtistShare, 2020
Personnel - Dave Pietro: alto saxophone, flute; Alex Sipiagin: trumpet; Ryan Keberle: trombone; Gary Versace: keyboards; Johannes Weidenmueller: acoustic bass; Johnathan Blake: drums; Rogerio Boccato: percussion.
New York-based saxophonist/composer Dave Pietro reflects on the modern human experience on his new outing, Hypersphere, a record that reveals the searching quality of his music. His working group, whose well-oiled mechanics ensures the fluidity of the proceedings, accompanies him with the same commitment expressed on the previous album, New Road: Iowa Memoirs, released in 2017.
inspired by the current social structures and the interminable cable news, “Kakistocracy” opens the record with elegance in the harmonic construction. Although it’s Pietro, on alto sax, who leads the lilting melody, he’s not alone at the front, with trombonist Ryan Keberle and trumpeter Alex Sipiagin providing a few accents at the margins and joining him in occasional parallel movements. After a passionate saxophone dissertation, there’s a change of pace that feels quite right for the trombonist’s cool vibe. His colleagues adorn the end of the statement with prompt unisons, and then it’s the skilled patterns and myriad syncopations in Johnathan Blake’s drumming that come to our attention.
The ability to move smoothly between distinct passages and tempos is also felt in a number of other cuts, but especially on the title track. Its structure and odd-meter are disorienting weapons, and its strength is reinforced by Sipiagin’s searing trumpet, Pietro's expressive narrative, and a post-theme vamp that favors Blake’s hyperactive rudiments.
Variety is a strong point, and if “Incandescent”, written for Maurice Ravel, accommodates a silky waltzing carpet charmed by trumpet-sax unisons, “Quantum Entanglement” steps into the crossover jazz genre, adding a hot Brazilian flavor to the rhythm. Both tunes feature Rogerio Boccato’s understated percussion and keyboardist Gary Versace on the piano. In the former piece, the pianist, alone, makes a soft harmonic bed over which Sipiagin’s melodicism rests. This middle passage is later consolidated by Johannes Weidenmueller’s measured bass and Blake’s cozy beat. Alternatively, “Quantum Entanglement” is subjected to variation, inviting Versace to bring his conversational talent into focus.
Versace’s work also stands out when he plays the Hammond B3 organ. It happens on “Gina”, a lush ballad written for Pietro’s wife, and “Tale of Mendacity”, a balladic cruise centered on the arduous search for truth and filled with powerful saxophone articulations and some trumpet exoticism.
Firmly introduced by bass, “Orison” concludes the album with appeasing tones, relying on an efficient dialogue and melodic juxtapositions to accomplish the task of conveying hope.
Even with a few cuts leaning on the contemplative, Pietro’s music can never be accused of static simplicity.
Grade A-
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Kakistocracy ► 06 - Quantum Entanglement ► 08 - Orion