The Red Quartets [IMPORT]

Jane Ira Bloom

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 1, 1999)
• Original Release Date: June 1, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Arabesque Recordings
• ASIN: B00000J89N
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #259,691 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Jane Ira Bloom has not only created an identifiable sound on the soprano sax, but as this recording aurally illustrates, she is an inventive composer capable of evoking three-dimensional life portraits, mental videos where the listener is both the audience and the director. She is joined here by pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Mark Dresser, and drummer Bobby Previte. Bloom's lyrical and weighty tones yield literary solos that develop notes and phrases in Hemingwayesque fashion, as evidenced by the spellbinding, dream-timed "Always Hope"; the chamber-waltz "Tell Me Your Diamonds"; the intricate, Afro-Tropical beats of "Jax Calypso"; "It's a Corrugated World"; and the spylike melody mazes on "Five Full Fathoms." On "Monks Rec Room," Bloom and Hersch perceptively capture Thelonious Monk's playfulness and humor, and two classic American popular songs, "Time After Time" and "How Deep Is the Ocean"--which interlocks with an avant-impressionistic intro entitled "Chagall"--showcase Bloom's gift for mixing the old with the new with her soprano sax spells. --Eugene Holley Jr.

From Jazziz
Some jazz feels like it could go anywhere at any moment, latitude being the music's most enviable quality. Jane Ira Bloom's "Always Hope" is certainly distinguished by such a feel. Opening The Red Quartets with a swirl of sound from Fred Hersch's piano, Mark Dresser's bass, and Bobby Previte's drums, the soprano saxophonist creates nothing but liberty. As Hersch's foot pedal keeps his chords in the air, the leader's horn lines glide through them. Previte's cymbals match the pianist's pulse and sundry thoughts present themselves. "That piece basically introduces you to what we're about," explains Bloom, "which is adventure. I'm a bit of a sound searcher, and 'Always Hope' encapsulates that - if anything, it's a four-and-a-half-minute journey. My interests are in strong melodic motion and deep rhythm." Bloom's version of "Perdido" is likewise somewhere in the sky, the most demure Duke tribute so far this year. "I Want to Be Happy" wafts by, too, reminding that cheer has a place in the process as well. Throughout, Bloom makes it difficult to determine where one tune begins and the other ENDS - her auspicious framework accommodates all sorts of intriguing entrances and exits. In fact, here, on what sounds like a breakthrough disc, is a music that skirts the trappings of a dominant style. Culling elements of bop, cool, and loft, among others, Bloom's fluid maneuvers propose that maturity begets amalgamation. On "Monk's Rec Room," she and Hersch play a chutes-and-ladders game akin to the mid-'70s duets by Dave Holland and Sam Rivers. With "Tell Me Your Diamonds," she and Dresser cast determination as serenity. During "Jax Calypso," there's plenty of room left open for anyone who wants to shimmy-shimmy-shake. "It's probably the composer in me that keeps plenty of room open," she offers, "an aesthetic move about less being more. It's a point of view that's been with me from my earliest recordings, really - not a conscious thing, just the way I live and breathe." Although Bloom is an expert at examining a tune's harmonic possibilities, the new disc fixes itself on melody. "Time After Time" and "How Deep Is the Ocean" revel in the tunes of their tunes. Bloom says that's because she's singing the song, focusing on the lyrics while interpreting. The strength of the teamwork gives extra depth to such simple pleasures. "I think it all came together for me here; this group of people is the most satisfying combination I've ever put together. From the start, I've believed making an album is serious stuff. I want my records to hold up as time passes. These guys helped me to where the music feels just right." They do so by utilizing both delicacy and thrust. Which does Bloom deem more crucial? "Man, that's like a Zen riddle. I want both." Here, she gets her wish.

--- JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Climb inside her eyes" is outstanding!, May 23, 1999

By A Customer

I just happened to catch this performer's gig last night in NYC at Sweet Basil's [5.22.99] She played a cut from this new album - "Climb inside her eyes" and it was fantastic! A great ballad. Right up there with Miles & Coltrane. I would've bought the CD right there at the bar, based on that one tune, but I knew I'd get it for less @ amazon! It's amazing to hear a) a woman jazz musician b) a woman jazz musician who writes & plays this great.I'd say for all of the above reasons, this is a must-get.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant writing complemented by fine musicianship, June 24, 2001

By	Ian Muldoon (Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This CD opens with a piano repeating an insistent percussive chant like motif joined by an arco bass, and then a soprano sound emerges as it were from the soundscape, building and building until it reaches full throated aria-like, its joyful climax, at which point the piano dispenses with its repetitious figure to engage in a musical conversation with the soprano sax and then returns to its opening motif at the end. It's a most affecting and memorable even catchy composition. I love it. A great entree to this delicious programme of two standards and nine originals including a quirky MONK'S REC ROOM which features a note bending soprano along with Mr Hersch's delighful nod to Mr Monk, and the swinging JAZ CALYPSO, the one track that highlights Mr Previte's outstanding drum sound. Mr Previte's supportive presence throughout the programme is a classic instance of the player respecting the music over the musician. But it is TELL ME YOUR DIAMONDS and CLIMB INSIDE HER EYES that show to best effect the beauty of the sound of Ms Bloom's instrument as well as the fineness of her feeling combined with the satisfaction of the structure of the composition. It is on the latter composition too that Mr Dresser's arco playing is used to great effect (but dig also his solo on EMERGENCY - get down!! Boomshukalaya!!) For me the seductive charm of this music rests a great deal on the lovely sound Ms Bloom gets from her instrument whether it's the note-bending asides she drops from time to time (on JAX CALYPSO) or the exquisite dreamy opening to CHAGALL/HOW DEEP IS THE OCEAN. Her sound is one of the most beautiful I have heard on this instrument in improvising music. Bechet may have the fullness and depth, Coltrane the passion, Lacy the inventiveness, but Ms Bloom combines some of all of these qualities with a beautiful sound. Touches of Coltrane can be found in IT'S A CORRUGATED WORLD for example, but for me the overriding memory of this fine programme of music is the sweetness of her sound particularly on the ballads. A CD that I expect to be returning to on a regular basis over the coming years.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High Class Sounds, January 12, 2000

By	Tim Jeter (VA) - See all my reviews

This is thinking mans music. Every piece on this CD is elegant. Ms. Bloom is one of the most technical composers in jazz. People who buy The Red Quartets will raise their music IQ. If you dont have this you are missing out on a great musical experience.