Label: Outside in Music, 2021
Personnel - Dave Meder: piano, vocals; Marty Jaffe: bass; Michael Piolet: drums. Guests - Miguel Zenon: alto saxophone (#6); Philip Dizack: trumpet (#4,9).
Dave Meder, a rising pianist from Tampa, Florida, releases his sophomore album on the New York City-based imprint Outside in Music. The followup to Passage (), his positive debut, is called Unamuno Songs and Stories and it's inspired by the work of Spanish philosopher and author Miguel de Unamuno. The latter's words serve as an analogy for the current threats against democracy in America.
Featuring him alongside bassist Marty Jaffe and drummer Michael Piolet, the album sparks with the guest presences of altoist Miguel Zenon and trumpeter Philip Dizack, who, never appearing side by side, push the group to a quartet on three of the nine tracks.
“Song of Secret Love” immediately dives into post-bop lightness with a fine burnish and a touch of poignancy. The pianist works his instrument with melodic development and dramatic tension on top of the leisurely feel of the drums. And we have the bassist and the pianist soloing prior to the latter's vocals are added.
“I Look For Religion at War” attempts to bring Unamuno’s controversial ideas to the fore. Its mournful tones - carried by a piano ostinato, bowed bass and Dizack’s trumpet - are subject to modulation, passing by a classical ascendancy inspired by the Post-Romantic Spanish pianist Isaac Albeniz. This is before Jaffe (with arco) and Meder articulate phrases in mutual agreement. Although the ending is more energetic than the beginning, this tune is never more potent than “The Lake and the Mountain”, on which the seasoned saxophonist Miguel Zenon lends his distinctive voice with grit and energy. A sextuple meter, periodic Latin-tinged envelopment, expressive dynamics and tightly synced movements are other aspects that make this one a highlight.
Both “Augusto’s Dilemma” and the Sir Roland Hanna-penned “Century Rag” operate closer to the mainstream jazz. The latter gets ahead with stride piano and walking bass lines for a swing ride that feels deeply bluesy, while the latter, in a more flamboyant reading, includes rhythmic mutations that lean into avant-garde jazz.
A sense of connection and sharing centers this program, which includes another cover - the Lerner/Loewe ballad “If I Ever Would Leave You” (from the Broadway musical Camelot) - and ends in a sad note with Meder’s “Exile”, featuring dusky arco bass at the outset, pushing-forward brushwork, sweeping piano and the crystalline intensity of Dizack’s trumpetism.
Some elegant, mature stuff is found here.
B
Favorite Tracks:
04 - I Look For Religion at War ► 06 - The Lake and the Mountain ► 09 - Exile