Visionary Pianist/Composer SEAN WAYLAND Releases His 21st Album,
Click Track Jazz: Slave to the Machine, Vols. 1 & 2 (Seed Music), October 9, 2012
Double Album Release Features Wayne Krantz, Keith Carlock, Mark Guiliana, Donny McCaslin,
Nate Wood, Mark Shim, Jochen Reuckert, Orlando
Le Fleming, James Muller and Matt Penman
|
Australian-born pianist, composer and keyboardist Sean Wayland creates a stunning work of improvisational jazz/funk on his latest recording, Click Track Jazz: Slave to the Machine, Vols. 1 & 2.
A creative star of Sydney’s jazz scene, Wayland relocated to Brooklyn
in 2005 (following a brief earlier stint in New York) and has spent a
good part of the last decade living in New York touring and recording
mostly with his piano trio featuring Jochen Rueckert and Matt Penman.
All the while, Wayland has maintained a high profile in Australia
through his collaborations with Australian virtuoso guitarist James Muller and drummer Andrew Gander. Rueckert and Penman both feature prominently on the new double album, which also heavily features rising drum star Mark Guiliana.
An
extremely prolific instrumentalist and composer, Wayland mines a vein
of jazz which has its roots in such influential recordings as Herbie
Hancock’s Thrust, Alan Holdsworth’s Secrets and John Scofield’s Blue Matter. Wayland delivers 26 fresh-sounding compositions on Click Track Jazz
as he effortlessly combines influences ranging from jazz piano greats
Herbie Hancock and Kenny Kirkland with jazz funk and fusion masters
Allan Holdsworth and Wayne Krantz, both of whom Sean has worked with in
the last year. Wayland’s studies of composers of various idioms find
expression in the truly rare grooves of Click Track Jazz.
Deeply
rooted in the jazz piano tradition, Wayland strongly feels funk rhythms
and electric instruments to be equally worthy of exploration by the
serious musician of today. Click Track Jazz combines the
tradition of the acoustic jazz piano trio with modern rhythms and newly
created instruments including Sean's own programs created on the
computer-based Nord Modular G2X synthesizer.
“Actual Proof,” from Thrust,
is a real American masterpiece,” Wayland says. “The way it’s recorded,
Herbie’s Fender Rhodes playing and Mike Clark’s drumming created an
entirely new genre. I heard Holdsworth’s Flat Tyre right after
9/11 while gigging in Japan. The sounds of the synths there really
captured me. That’s when I realized it was possible to do something
very interesting and original with synthesizers.”
Click Track Jazz features
a heady rollercoaster ride of rapt musicianship and inspired melodies,
across-the-bar-line improvisations and seriously unctuous groove
machinations. Vol. 1 includes “Belt Parkway,” with its darting
acoustic piano, swirling synthesizers, and slippery rhythmic
syncopations, bop-flavored quartet vehicle, “Boxing Day,” the
Holdsworth-tinged synths and arrangement of “Conglomerate,” the Hammond
B3/acoustic piano infused drive of “Flypaper,” the Wayne Krantz
enlightened ruminations of “Marshmallows,” and Americana-inspired
closer, “Stop I Want to Get Off.”
Bringing a fresh perspective to American standards, Wayland finds a unique slant on Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” to introduce Vol. 2.
Over a pulsing Mark Guiliana rhythm, Wayland improvises on a Nord Lead
modular synth, the duo battling like Ninja swordsmen, Coltrane’s classic
melody eventually erupting through the smoke before the song spins out
and collapses, as quickly as the track began.
Wayland
explains the significance of finding and playing with Guiliana in the
context of his larger body of work. “I think Mark has revolutionized
improvised drumming. It's a real step forward in the language and
concepts. He sounds like what has been in my head for years and
previously only my computer drum programming could realize. It’s
actually a dream come true to hear my music performed by him. I believe
that over the last few years of playing and touring, we have developed a
unique way of playing together.”
Other highlights of Vol. 2
include the odd phrase-shifting explorations of “Mark Is Enough,” the
atmospheric synth tonalities of “QY70,” “Technocalypse,” with its
squirrely melody and gently insinuating rhythms, and the ominous
“Waiting for the Computer to Take Over.” Throughout Click Track Jazz, Wayland merges various strains for an album that is simultaneously challenging, refreshing, and forward thinking.
A
graduate of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music where he won the Jack
Chrostowski Piano Award and was a finalist in 1993’s National Jazz Piano
Awards, Wayland arrived in New York City in 1999 and soon became a
fixture on Harlem’s chitlin circuit, and a regular at Lower East Side
haunt, The Living Room, supporting Madeleine Peyroux and Jesse Harris.
Constantly learning, recording and expanding his knowledge base, Wayland
also adapted his keyboards to suit his vision.
“I’ve
spent a great deal of time tinkering with what’s possible,” Wayland
explains. “For synthesizers, I created a patch that allows me to
transpose the whole keyboard by playing notes on the bottom octave.
Rather than spending time practicing insane chromatic systems I can play
them on the spot.”
Since
arriving in New York, Wayland has recorded at a furious clip with a
compelling collective of like-minded musicians. Most recently, Pistachio and Pistachio 2 (featuring Keith Carlock, Tim LeFebvre & Adam Rogers from 2009), Live at 55 Bar Dec 2009 (featuring Mark Guiliana & Jeff Hanley), and The Show Must Go On (featuring Rueckert & Penman, 2010) paved the way for Wayland’s most powerful statement yet, Click Track Jazz: Slave to the Machine, Vols 1 & 2.
“The
new record is an attempt to straddle multiple styles,” Wayland says.
“It blurs the division between playing rhythm changes, actually having a
chord sequence and having no chord sequence. Overall, I wanted to make
a funky, improvised record that was also as acoustic as possible.”
Release Date: October 9, 2012
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment