Label: Pi Recordings, 2024

Personnel - Brian Settles; tenor saxophone; Luke Stewart: bass; Trae Crudup: drums (#1-4); Chad Taylor: drums (#5-7).

Esteemed bassist Luke Stewart, who has been enriching the creative jazz scene through projects like Irreversible Entanglements and his Exposure Quintet, makes his debut on Pi Recordings with Unknown Rivers, a daring exploration in the trio format. Consisting of seven tracks, the album showcases Stewart's versatility and innovation, featuring drummer Trae Crudup on the first four studio recordings and Chad Taylor on the final three tracks from a live performance at Detroit’s Trinosophes. Renowned saxophonist Brian Settles lends his melodic sagacity to both sessions.

The album opens with “Seek Whence”, driven by Crudup’s modern hip-hop beat and Stewart’s bass fragmentation. Despite its polyrhythmic feel, there’s a weightlessness that vanishes as Settles blows freely over a rich tapestry affiliated with a danceable punk-rock act. The title “Baba Doo Way” transports its phonetic articulation to the motif at the center, which expands and transforms whimsically. Here, devotional tenor phrases expose a chanting quality, while the irregular, complex rhythmic mesh provided by bass and drums accelerates into a confident swinging walk.

In “You See?”, the deep, thick sounds of Stewart work closely with Crudup’s amazing timbres. The piece gradually evolves into a triologue where Settles’ bursts of irreverence standout prior to a calm conclusion. In turn, “The Slip” exhibits a groovy vibe in seven, with the bassist anchoring a palpable harmonic progression under balmy saxophone lines.

The presence of Chad Taylor on the last three tracks brings a new dimension to the album. In “Amilcar”, after a percussion solo introduction filled with joy and tasty licks, we feel like a devastating force in the way the adventurous drummer pairs up with Stewart. Taylor’s high-energy attacks on drums and cymbals brings the exoticism of Afro-Brazilian percussion, while Stewart throws in a provocative odd-metered figure that impels Settles to explore both diction and tone in a prayerful exaltation.

The spiritual-infused “Dudu” features bowed bass and consistently inventive percussion in the line of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, while the closer, “Unknown Rivers”, exudes vibrancy and unconstrained fervency with its sextuple meter feel.

Exploring eclectic avenues with boldness, Stewart steps forward artistically with a risk-taking album whose tracks conjure a synergistic collective spirit that is always on the move, never settling for the ordinary. It underscores his reputation as one of the most inventive and energetic bassists in the field.

Favorite Tracks:
05 - Amilcar ► 06 - Dudu ► 07 - Unknown Rivers

Label: Astral Spirits, 2020

Personnel - Ken Vandermark: reeds; Edward Wilkerson, Jr.: reeds; Jim Baker: piano; Luke Stewart: bass; Avreeayl Ra: drums.

Gifted young bassist Luke Stewart - a member of James Brandon Lewis Trio, Irreversible Entanglements and Heroes Are Gang Leaders - shows here he has a promising future as a leader/composer as he points in the right direction with the Exposure Quintet, a Chicago-based avant-garde jazz outfit featuring adventurous players such as reedmen Ken Vandermark and Edward Wilkerson Jr., pianist Jim Baker, and drummer Avreeayl Ra. For this double LP, the bandleader gathered motifs, ideas and compositional segments to be explored with freedom by these excellent musicians.

Often performed with vibrancy and dramatic tension, the music is also filled with spiritual inspiration, and the opening act, “Awakening the Masters”, shows exactly that, as a mid-tempo bass groove in seven supports languid saxophone unisons. Eventually, the reed players part ways, switching from parallel movements to juxtaposed lines where fiery improvisation professed with raspy and beefy tones meets the successive rhythmic figures thrown in as a garnishment by each counterpart. With the triangular rhythmic effort from Stewart, Ra and Baker successfully serving the revolutionary saxophone manifestations, it’s the latter who instigates musing through some reverie created in the mid and higher registers. Intrepid harmonies intermittently bolster this procedure.

If the previous piece intended to awake the masters, “Brown and Gray” evokes a bunch of them, including Monk, Ornette, Shepp, and Coltrane. Powerful drumming and fast bass walks pave the way for a blistering tenor solo. At times the sound of the group is restlessly ebullient; during others, they focus on the peaceful center of the spirit. Still, there’s a final saxophone solo that bubbles over with frenzy, leading to the reinstatement of the short theme. Favoring intensity over melody, this section burns avidly with Ra’s spanking drums and expressive cymbal crashes.

“Haarp and Concrete Silhouette” is delivered in two parts, the first of which clocking in at approximately 18 minutes and the second at 15. The former is initially explored as a steady, ritualistic abstraction with earnest arco bass, bass clarinet drones, and subdued percussion, all within a circular, motivic activity. The second part feels like a continuation of the first, ensuring that Stewart has the time to express his own thoughts. By the end, the vivid presence of Vandermark and Wilkerson, Jr. atop the expansive drum work of Ra allows this spiritual contemplation to escalate in density.

The record concludes with the 23-minute “The Scene”, where its shifting center of gravity results from the group's efficient communication, focused interplay and teamwork.

Stewart doesn’t seem the kind of player who stands still artistically. With this ensemble, he explores the unexpected with passion and intelligence.