Label: Cellar Music, 2023
Personnel - Gerald Clayton: piano; Vicente Archer: bass; Bill Stewart: drums.
Boasting a nearly 25-year career that bristles with rich musical synergies, it was about time we had bassist Vicente Archer leading his own group and releasing a full-length album that works as a reflective self-portrait as an artist. The repertoire chosen for Short Stories, a trio effort with pianist Gerald Clayton and drummer Bill Stewart, consists of three compositions by Archer, two by Stewart, one by Clayton, and one rendition each of pieces by close collaborators: guitarist Pat Metheny and trumpeters Jeremy Pelt and Nicholas Payton.
With a penchant for consistently relaxed and expressive gestures, the music reflects moments of Archer’s life and career. And that’s the kind of aesthetic that informs the whole disc, which begins with the smooth virtuosity of “Mirai”, a magnificently picturesque sonic landscape with a reiterative bass pedal laying the groundwork and a dreamy atmosphere that serves Clayton’s soloing purposes. This number is related to Archer’s daughter, with whom he used to watch the Japanese animated film in the title.
Both the subdued “Lighthouse”, a solo bass statement over a dubbed texture, and “Bye Nashville”, in which sizzling brushes and dancing bass lines support the Southern sounds (bluesy, folksy and even slightly gospelized) of the piano, are Archer’s. The latter piece is a farewell to Tennessee's capital, where he lived four years and had to leave in 2020 due to a tornado.
Stewart’s “Space Acres” incorporates a certain mystery while carrying a relative darkness into the chordal work. There’s ample margin to create spontaneously, and that’s what Clayton does. The pianist contributes “Round Comes Round”, which he introduces with a mix of broken stride and instinctive phraseology. Interesting musical interchanges succeed one another with groove, counterpoint and accentuation, and there's a pretty bass solo that leads to the final vamp.
Archer’s originals are a match for the covers presented here. Pelt’s “13/14” is pure post-bop with lyrical melody; Metheny’s “Message to a Friend” is an affectionate ballad that first appeared on his duo album with Charlie Haden, Beyond the Missouri Sky (1997); and Payton’s lesser-known “It Takes Two to Know One” takes the form of an agreeable five-minute bass-drums duet delivered with a dazzling rhythmic flux. Archer played this tune in 2011 with pianist Danny Grisset for the latter’s studio album, Stride.
Eschewing fireworks, Short Stories is a solid debut from a gifted bassist continuously focused on growing as a musician. The vocabulary of the three musicians never feels forced but rather intrinsically unpretentious in the interest of the music.
Favorite Tracks:
03 - Space Acres ► 08 - Bye Nashville ► 09 - It Takes Two to Know One