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