October 7, 2013
By Grady Harp
Format:Audio CD
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is one astounding ensemble of jazz greats who have joined forces and talents to provide the spectrum of jazz as they interpret it. If you’re wondering about the rather bizarre Wagneresque title of this album, stick around for the entire sequence and the `ashes to ashes’ signature becomes obvious.
David `Elaine’ Alt produces and directs Jazz Combustion Uprising, and he has a solid background in studying composition, conducting and clarinet at the finest music schools in this country. Grant Levin, originally from San Diego and now based in San Francisco, is a versatile contemporary jazz pianist. Grant Levin is among the most in-demand musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area. He brings his inventive, tasteful and enthusiastic energies to Jazz Combustion Uprising and kicks it to a new level. Proficient in many styles, he has played in every setting from solo piano to big band.
Fiery compositions, equal parts innovation and dedication, with blistering solos and a vintage rooted sound. According to the album notes, `When playing the original compositions of Self-Immolation by David Elaine Alt, we proudly honor, embrace, and attempt to channel the great and diverse Jazz tradition while staking out our own ground. To provide a point of departure, artists whose influences are most apparent are listed, and the songs are grouped into three stylistic programs Blues, Standards, and Modern.
Oxtail Soup [ Horace Silver, Charles Mingus ] Blues
Bike Lanes (Coming) [ Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner ] Blues
44 Magnum [ Bernard Hermann, Billy Strayhorn ] Standards
Cupcake Flavor Profile [ Tadd Dameron, Ahmad Jamal ] Modern
Roberta, Roberta [ Louis Jordan, Dexter Gordon ] Blues
Series of Adjustments [ Thelonious Monk, Lester Young ] Standards
This Unmemorable Evening [ George Russell, Steve Lacy ]Modern
Self-Immolation [ Johannes Brahms, Bill McHenry ] Modern
A Classic Base [ Nat King Cole, Eric Dolphy ] Standards
Rising [ Wayne Shorter, Abbey Lincoln ] Modern
Bike Lanes (Going) [ Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, Gil Scott-Heron ] Blues
The members of Jazz Combustion Uprising are David Elaine Alt, tenor, alto, soprano saxophone, clarinet, Henry Hung, trumpet, Grant Levin, piano, Andrew Ryan, drums, Kenny Annis, bass, Gabe Davis, bass, Wendell Hanna, bassoon, Jane Lenoir, flute.
“As the signature song of this album, Self-Immolation is an immortal transformation from ashes to ashes. It elaborates a process of self-reflection and expansion that ends up sounding like Ethiopian Jazz. Germanic and organic, it is a symbiotic, lyrical and poignant fanfare and counterpoint.” And the end result is music that demands our attention.