Label: Endectomorph Music, 2021

Personnel - Kevin Sun: tenor saxophone, clarinet, sheng; Walter Stinson: bass; Matt Honor: drums + Adam O’Farrill: trumpet (#1,10-13); Max Light: guitar (#5,8,15); Christian Li: piano, Fender Rhodes (#2-4,6,9,13).

Saxophonist/composer Kevin Sun puts out his third album, reverentially paying tribute to Charlie Parker, a masterful jazz innovator and inevitable influence, in a dynamic work with ensemble sections that burst with contemporary life. Here, he fractures Parker’s bop ways with creativity, straying from the obvious paths of Bird’s original tunes by challenging them in several ways (pace, metric variation, new melody) but maintaining some aspects recognizable. The idea, which came up while in lockdown, allows spotlight features for the musicians - his habitual rhythm section of rising stars - bassist Walter Stinson and drummer Matt Honor - and three excellent guests that spice things up, expanding the timbral spectrum in a few tunes. They are trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, guitarist Max Light and pianist/keyboardist Christian Li.

Borrowing the harmony of “Confirmation”, “Greenlit” boasts fresh melodic lines and launches an impromptu folk-swing dance between tenor and trumpet. The attractive arrangement of “Adroitness Part II”, designed in virtue of the rhythm of “Dexterity”, has Li contributing to both the abstract and swinging parts, while Sun’s saxophone curls out in smoky breaths. The pianist’s work is further emphasized and got our appreciation on the exquisitely sculpted “Dovetail”, where juxtapositions of timbre create mysterious moods that go beyond Parker, even if the inspiration comes from his two studio improvisations on “Yardbird Suite”. Sun switches from clarinet to tenor for his solo, returning to the former for the head out.

In “Onomatopoeia”, an integration of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Be-Bop” and Parker’s “Segment”, guitarist Max Light joins Sun in parallel lines imbued with a clear bop feel, while on “Du Yi’s Choir” - a reimagination of “Dewey Square” - we feel their tensile presences in communication. This piece opens and closes with guitar and sheng (a Chinese polyphonic reed instrument), flowing breezily in between while probing fascinating rhythmic possibilities.

Rhythmic variations are all over the map, and whereas “Bigfoot” gets groovy with an exotic and polyrhythmic feel, “Schaaple From the Appel” prefers a more temperate, cool version with snappy brushwork by Honor and a tightly muted trumpet solo by O’Farrill. Everything sounds natural, never mechanic.

Knowing well the amounts of definition and intensity he wants for his music, Sun demonstrates his tremendous compositional acuity and flawless execution.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - Adroitness Part II ► 06 - Dovetail ► 08 - Du Yi’s Choir