Bassist/Composer Mark Wade Debuts with
"Event Horizon,"
Featuring His Trio
Pianist Tim Harrison, Drummer Scott Neumann
New CD Scheduled for February 17 Release
CD Release Shows by the Mark Wade Trio:
Somethin' Jazz Club, NYC,, 3/5
St. Peter's Church Midday Jazz Series, NYC, 4/15
December 16, 2014
"I always loved
listening to great piano trios," the Queens, New York-based bassist
says. "With no horn players or other musicians, there is so much space
for expression, but with that comes the responsibility to have something
to say. You can't hide behind a lot of other musicians. Everybody has
to really stand out. I wanted to challenge myself and put myself in a
situation where I had to be an excellent soloist."
Writing for the piano
trio was a challenge Wade embraced. "How can you orchestrate and arrange
three instruments to sound big and full?" he asks. "If you've got 12 or
20 people, you have a lot more colors at your disposal as a writer.
With three people, it forces you to think about what is really essential
to get across a musical idea."
Wade's compositions range from the opening waltz, "Jump for Joy," and the peaceful ballad "Cold Spring" to the aggressive, edgy "Twist in the Wind" and the Afro-Cuban-flavored "Tossed." The ballad "Apogee" has no time, while "Singsong"
has no melody ("It's a motif that keeps coming back, holding the song
together"). The only non-original on the disc, Harold Arlen's "If I Only Had a Brain," is notable for its use of swinging 5/4 and its re-harmonization and modulations.
The title Event Horizon,
says the self-described "science enthusiast," refers to "where you go
from not being in a black hole to falling in. In a broader concept, it's
the edge at which something happens. This album for me is kind of the
edge of something happening because I'm launching my solo career. I see
it as an adventure, a stepping-off point."
Wade first worked in a trio setting with Tim Harrison and Scott Neumann
while the bassist was an artist-in-residence at the historic Flushing
(NY) Town Hall in 2013 and '14. The three connected so well that Wade
began composing for the new trio. "Their musicality," he says,
"influenced the writing choices I made."
"Tim really excels,"
says Wade of the Nottingham, England-born Harrison, "not just as a
soloist but also as an ensemble player and an accompanist. He's very
sensitive, he listens, and he's really conscious about getting the music
right and sounding good."
"Scott is a unique
voice on the drum set," Wade says of Neumann, who was born in
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and whose extensive credits include work with
Woody Herman, David Liebman, and Kenny Barron. "There's a never-ending
supply of ideas for everybody to play off of."
Since graduating NYU,
Wade has busied himself in a variety of musical contexts, from jazz to
classical. His jazz credits include playing in the string section for
the Jimmy Heath Big Band's performances of Ernie Wilkins's Four Black Immortals, appearing with vocalist Stacey Kent on The Today Show, playing with Bill Warfield's New York Jazz Repertory Orchestra, and recording with vocalist Elli Fordyce. And Wade has played with numerous classical ensembles, including the Key West Symphony with which he backed guitarist Sharon Isbin and violinist Robert McDuffie, both of them Grammy winners.
Wade also directs New Music Horizons,
an organization he founded in 2014 to perform and promote the works of
emerging jazz and classical composers. "There are a lot of challenges
composers face in getting their music accepted," he says. "Top venues
often don't want to program artists who don't already have a large
following. Reaching new audiences is difficult when you aren't playing
at top venues. It's a tough cycle to break. I started New Music Horizons
to give composers a chance to showcase their work at established arts
venues to attract new audiences to their music. I think this kind of
support is critical to the long-term success of new music."
The Mark Wade Trio will be performing at two CD release shows in support of Event Horizon: 3/5 Somethin' Jazz Club, 212 E. 52nd Street, NYC, 7:00-8:45pm; and 4/15 St. Peter's Church Midday Jazz Series, 619 Lexington Ave. at 54th Street, NYC, 1:00-2:00pm.
Photography: Jesse Winter
 |
| "Apogee" (excerpt), from "Event Horizon" |
Terri Hinte
hudba@sbcglobal.net
510/234-8781
