For a follow-up to his superb sophomore release Wolfgang, rising star vibraphonist/composer Warren Wolf finds himself alongside some of the biggest names in modern jazz for Convergence, his stellar third outing on Mack Avenue Records. Along with bassist Christian McBride, the all-world rhythm section is rounded out by master drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts and esteemed pianist Brad Mehldau. Renowned guitarist John Scofield is a featured soloist on two tracks.
After
having the vibraphonist in his acclaimed Inside Straight quintet since
2007, longtime label-mate and mentor McBride produced the album and
brought the band together to see how far Wolf could go. "It was a
particular pleasure to bring Warren together with John Scofield and Brad
Mehldau--two musicians he'd never worked with before," explains
McBride. "Warren's A-level musicianship clearly moves him into an
echelon that musicians like Sco and Brad represent. I think the results
were inspirational for all of the musicians involved."
Together,
they spur each other on to some dazzling heights on six Wolf originals
and five well-chosen covers, running the gamut from funky soul-jazz to
post-bop burners, intimate ballads and even a touch of classical. Convergence
features some of Wolf's most accomplished writing and dynamic playing
to date, and his all-star sidemen rise to the occasion with some heat of
their own from track to track. "What we wanted to do on this record is
mix it up and not just have the whole band on every single track," he
explains-the album features everything from solo to quintet recordings,
utilizing various configurations of this stellar lineup.
Convergence
opens with the full quintet playing the funky boogaloo-cha "Soul
Sister," which is fueled by McBride's inimitable deep groove and
features some of Scofield's nasty string-bending prowess. "I actually
wrote that song a few years ago for a woman I was dating at the time,"
Wolf explains. "She was just so bad...I mean that in a good way. She was
so cool and just had all this soul about her. The song has a strong
melody and is kind of bluesy, and I figured this would be the perfect
song to have Scofield on, especially with his sound."
The
other quintet number, "Havoc," is an aggressive fusion original
inspired by Scofield's "Trim," a sizzling tune from the guitarist's 1987
album Blue Matter that Wolf first encountered later on. This
serves as a tribute to Scofield and brings Wolf back to his introduction
to jazz back in '93 when his father bought him a DCI instructional home
video which featured the guitarist's band from the '80s.
The
expansive quartet piece, "Four Stars From Heaven," evolves like a
beautiful tone poem from an atmospheric opening to graceful waltz-time
vehicle underscored by Watts' simmering swing factor, gradually building
to a kinetic straight eight feel that has the great drummer forcefully
traversing the kit in typically Tain-like fashion. "I'm a father of four
kids so I wrote this song as my gift from the creator above," Wolf
explains. "I was thinking about changing the name of the song because
I'm actually expecting another kid soon. But for now it's 'Four Stars
From Heaven.'"
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Photo Credit: Steven Parke
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"Cell Phone" is a blistering number that comes out of the gate charging
hard and never lets up. This exhilarating quartet piece is fueled by
Watts' whirlwind polyrhythms and Mehldau's insistent performance. The
title comes from the vivid memory of a young woman at an airport with a
cell phone that rang constantly, leaving such an impression on Wolf that
the ringtone is essentially replicated by McBride's bass line, and if
you listen closely, you may even hear that familiar T-Mobile ringtone in
Wolf's solo.
Vibraphone
legend Bobby Hutcherson's mellow "Montara" is a chill trio number that
has Wolf comping for himself on vibes while carrying the melody and solo
on marimba. Following shortly after is "Tergiversation," a briskly
swinging trio number that features Watts on brushes at the beginning
before he erupts in quintessential Tain fashion at the end of the piece.
Wolf provides some vibes-on-vibes overdubbed accompaniment on this one.
Stevie
Wonder's lovely "Knocks Me Off Of My Feet," featuring McBride and
Watts, opens with Wolf exploring a bit before resorting to the familiar
melody, and also engaging in some rapid-fire trades on marimba and vibes
at the end of the piece. "I play an idea on the marimba and come back
and play it on the vibes, going back and forth like that," he explains.
"So I was trying to cut myself, as they call it in the jazz business."
Wolf's "A Prayer For The Christian Man," the final trio piece on the
record, is a brooding piece that carries an understated power in the
vein of John Coltrane's thoughtful dirge "Alabama." Wolf plays piano,
Fender Rhodes, vibraphone and marimba on this reflective number, which
is underscored by Watts' mallets work.
Wolf's
luminous duet with Mehldau on Dave Samuels' "New Beginning" features
some highly conversational playing between the two master musicians.
"The whole point of Convergence is two minds
coming together to form just one voice, and this song is a perfect
example of that," says Wolf. The jauntily swinging "King Of Two Fives"
features Wolf and McBride in a buoyant old school dialogue that harkens
back to the spirit of Duke Ellington's duets with Jimmy Blanton.
McBride's contribution here has the bassist jumping back and forth from
doubling the melody with Wolf to sticking to his fundamental role as a
bass player.
For
his finale, the lone solo showcase on the album, Wolf joins Hoagy
Carmichael's classic "Stardust" together with Chopin's "The Minute
Waltz" to stirring effect. He explains that the idea came about
spontaneously on a gig. "We did a performance at the Savannah Music
Festival and at some point I told my pianist Alex Brown, 'Man, let's
play 'Stardust.' This looks like the type of crowd that would like it.'
And right at the end of the piece I went into a cadenza and started
doing a trill on two notes. Alex picked up on that and started playing
something that was very close to Chopin's 'The Minute Waltz.' I knew
that piece and Alex is a great classical pianist himself, so we started
playing it together and just went ahead and played the whole song as a
cadenza. People really enjoy the balance of going from grooving stuff to
straight burning stuff. This whole record and my live shows are all
about giving the audience a little bit of everything, not just one style
of music or one type of jazz.
"I
like to show that there's always another side of Warren Wolf," says the
classically trained multi-instrumentalist, who has also been a member
of the SFJAZZ Collective for the past two years. "I'm not just Warren
Wolf the jazz musician who went to the Berklee College of Music and
studied bebop, I'm Warren Wolf the musician who actually knows a lot of
music from bebop to pop music, Motown, fusion and classical."
Since
graduating from Berklee, Wolf has taken the jazz world by storm, first
as a sideman in Christian McBride's Inside Straight quintet, then with
his self-titled Mack Avenue debut in 2011 and Wolfgang in 2013.
Now the vibraphonist-composer and multi-instrumentalist takes things up
another notch on his excellent all-star outing, Convergence.
