{"id":16410,"date":"2024-12-03T12:37:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T18:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=16410"},"modified":"2024-12-04T10:00:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T16:00:35","slug":"restless-searcher-jamie-breiwick-knows-jazz-history-also-shines-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=16410","title":{"rendered":"Restless searcher Jamie Breiwick knows jazz history also shines forward"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Jamie Breiwick Quartet performs, “Spirits: Live at The Jazz Estate,” Thursday Dec. 5. 7 p.m. $10-$15.<\/strong><\/div>\n
Album <\/strong>released May 4, 2013.\u00a0<\/strong>Recorded live at The Jazz Estate, Milwaukee, WI — Nov 30th, 2012<\/strong><\/div>\n
Tickets:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
https:\/\/www.tix.com\/ticket-sales\/thejazzestate\/6755\/event\/1407626<\/a><\/div>\n
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Restless searcher Jamie Breiwick wisely knows jazz history also shines forward. He leads a hip-hop jazz group, KASE, but also another dedicated to bop genius Thelonious Monk’s repertoire. Another is the fluid “book” of innovative trumpeter\/pioneering world musician Don Cherry.<\/div>\n
Several other performance projects ebb and flow through his prolific talents, including recently the daring paired-solo-sets at the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts with powerhouse East Coast trombonist Joe Fielder. He’s even written a tune that is a luminous soundtrack point for an adventure\/thriller film, Deep Woods<\/em>.<\/div>\n
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That suggests some of the range of his interests. But also how the horn player\/conceptualist understands that American music’s lineage casts profoundly forward. Or, you might call it the ever-flowing nourishment of “culture currents,” especially those where vernaculars, musical and literary, “speak” to audiences of the past, present and future.<\/div>\n
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Reviving the album live — Breiwick’s artistic breakthrough project — will take place this Thursday, Dec. 5. It was recorded in this very hallowed Milwaukee jazz space, known for decades as the Jazz Estate (which can apparently now be rented out for musical events, though no longer a regular jazz joint).<\/div>\n
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I was honored to write the album liner notes (included a few paragraphs below) based on the recording.\u00a0Spirits: Live at the Jazz Estate<\/em> was the first jazz album I’ve heard to cover Taylor Swift, back in 2012, before she became a Beatle-esque four-artists-in-one phenomenon (comparable talent is another story).<\/div>\n
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There’s also a Death Cab for Cutie cover, as well as one by Wayne Shorter, jazz master of visionary obliquity who, after Monk, might be the most-covered modern jazz composer. Also you’ll find a tune by Breiwick’s Wisconsin-born contemporary, trumpeter Philip Dizak (a Milwaukeean now East Coast-based), plus originals by Breiwick and two band members.<\/div>\n
The album closes perfectly with the incomparably timeless Duke Ellington, the apt and poetically titled “Sunset and the Mockingbird.”<\/div>\n
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Jamie Breiwick. Photo by Leonardo Moscaro<\/em><\/div>\n
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What’s more, Breiwick may be as gifted a graphic artist as he is a musician. His daringly stylish album covers, which boldly extend the Blue Note design tradition, adorn scores of albums and have been used by such notable jazz labels as Verve, Palmetto, Sunnyside, Candid and Mack Avenue.<\/div>\n
In this case, he honored the club’s\u00a0 legacy by originally displaying the red door entrance to The Estate on his original retro-Blue Note typeface cover (see below). Later he decided to capture the spirit<\/em> of the album by re-imagining the cover into one of his most inspired visual creations (at top).<\/div>\n
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Here, Spirits<\/em> soars into the stratosphere. The highly stylized title typeface, to me, suggests aeronautic striving, as a gaggle of birds frolic through the sky buoyed by a painterly cloud floor. The whole effect carries a faintly mystical aura — the space between humanity’s striving to transcend gravity and the bird’s natural gift to do so.<\/div>\n
The new cover is so elegantly striking I might’ve found a different cast for the liner notes I wrote for the album. Kind of like, all his knowledge shines forward in time, as far as the light can reach.<\/div>\n
The quartet Thursday is the same as the recording except, instead of Tony Barba, acclaimed Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi will perform (his own musical unearthing includes a recording reviving “The Music of Moondog”). Laurenzi has also recently toured with Grammy-winning indie-rock artist Bon Iver.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0There’s no guarantee though that, like most jazz musicians, Breiwick doesn’t stray from the implied script of the album’s tunes.<\/div>\n
As it is, here are those original notes to give you a sense of the music to be played:<\/div>\n
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Jamie Breiwick – Spirits: Live at the Jazz Estate (BluJazz).\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
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Open the door on the album cover and you enter the Jazz Estate, a Milwaukee club that exemplifies a venue that nurtures modern straight-ahead jazz and makes money at it. This recording was made there one night, even if the program has the well-considered sense of purpose of a studio recording.<\/p>\n

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The melody of the opening \u201cGig Shirt\u201d has a slightly skewed trumpet-saxophone harmony, recalling Ornette Coleman\u2019s classic\/radical quartet, which certainly influenced the album’s piano-less instrumentation. The theme bodes well for a musical departure, especially in its expansive rising last notes.<\/p>\n

This journey\u2019s departure mean\u2019s arrival at many musical ports, including some adapted pop-rock. \u201cI Will Follow You into the Dark\u201d by Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, is a mournful yet oddly resolute melody. Breiwick\u2019s muted trumpet sounds playful, as if he\u2019s wooing a young woman with a joke. The rhythm players burble along in the same coy spirit, lifting the interpretation\u2019s insouciance and the band ends with an exquisite\u00a0exhalation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSafe and Sound,\u201d by country-pop artist Taylor Swift, is another strong and pliable melody that tenor saxophonist Tony Barba builds from close, pinprick-sharp variations until he unfurls some Joe Henderson-like flag-waving. Breiwick\u2019s own \u201cLittle Bill\u201d is a funky, amiable tune that honors the memory of his Grandfather Bill and also refers to the cartoon of the same name, which Breiwick\u2019s children love to watch. \u201cDad\u201d adopts a slightly gruff tone and Barba is almost flippantly offhanded, befitting the sit-com mood.<\/p>\n

This band has a svelte-but-sure grip on the harmonic and rhythmic tension of \u201cCapricorn,\u201d a Wayne Shorter theme that seems to move in two directions at once while flowing as a seamless melody — characteristic of Shorter\u2019s ineffable compositional genius. If that sounds like a chops-busting practice-room etude, \u201cCapricorn\u201d rises like an indelibly hummable melody. The band swings hard out of the gate, as Barba plunges in with pithy Shorterisms — slanting shards, open-throated exhortations and quotes of the sorcerer-like theme. Breiwick shifts gears, then creeps into a softly growling, splattered tone that recalls Don Cherry. He\u2019s clearly finding his own forward-pushing place in the trumpet tradition. Bassist Tim Ipsen steps in like a heady middleweight contender, with a sly combination of punchy harmonic intervals.<\/p>\n

The aphoristically titled \u201cWalk through Daydreams, Sleep through Nightmares\u201d reflects Breiwick\u2019s magnanimous depth as a member of the jazz community. He leads two jazz bands, including a more pop rock-oriented one called Choir Fight. He\u2019s also an educator, organizer and all-around go-getter, having co-founded Milwaukee Jazz Vision, a musician-run organization that promotes the local jazz scene, especially with an excellent website:\u00a0mkejazzvision.org<\/a>. This tune is by one of Breiwick\u2019s own former students, Philip Dizack, a fast-rising young trumpeter of uncommon lyrical strength and compositional maturity. Breiwick acknowledges that crafting a songfully expressive melodic line is a primary concern of his. \u201cI believe the album\u2019s aesthetic intent points to a depth of feeling in the music,\u201d he says. \u201cBeyond technique, which is obviously hugely important, emotional communication is a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWalk\u201d opens with swelling mallet rolls and cymbals. The two horns resound like one voice, or mind, experiencing a revelation. Then everyone pulls back, as if in a slight state of awe, to contemplate the implications of the eureka moment. One imagines a lightning bolt having struck the narrative consciousness right at its precipitous leap from daydream to nightmare. It recalls John Coltrane\u2019s more pensive lyrical moments in his late years, when he pushed the spiritual-empowerment envelope like the shaman Dr. King might have met on that windswept mountaintop.<\/p>\n

The program follows appropriately with Barba\u2019s title tune \u201cSpirits.\u201d A simple rising interval, extrapolated and harmonized, seems like a wisp of a theme, yet these men plumb its modality as if climbing the branches of a majestic tree. It stands like a spirit, inviting as it is inherently challenging for the earthbound.<\/p>\n

Consequently the closing tune, \u201cSunset and the Mockingbird,\u201d is also apt, from the pen of Duke Ellington, a timeless jazz presence. This is Duke\u2019s indigo mood, and Barba proves he can fabricate a short story whole cloth from textured whole notes, while Breiwick is a mockingbird with genuine feelings. He evokes Ellington trumpeter Cootie Williams\u2019 muted sorrow, as an elegy to whatever the sunset bade farewell, something to cherish, and live up to.<\/p>\n

Spirits demonstrates extraordinary range and vision from this new jazz generation, and delivers on promise as if tapped into a musical wellspring flowing through their veins.<\/p>\n

— Kevin Lynch<\/em><\/p>\n

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Lynch has written for Down Beat, The Village Voice, CODA, American Record Guide, The Chicago Tribune, The Milwaukee Journal, The Cap Times, and other publications, and blogs at Culture Currents (Vernaculars Speak).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Jamie Breiwick Quartet performs, “Spirits: Live at The Jazz Estate,” Thursday Dec. 5. 7 p.m. $10-$15. Album released May 4, 2013.\u00a0Recorded live at The Jazz Estate, Milwaukee, WI — Nov 30th, 2012 Tickets:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.tix.com\/ticket-sales\/thejazzestate\/6755\/event\/1407626 Restless searcher Jamie Breiwick wisely … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2564,2563,311,665,1554,2557,2562,1295,2565,404,2554,2553,250,2561,118,315,1110,2566,2556,423,2560,2555,2558,2327,232,105,1018,2559,562],"class_list":["post-16410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com","tag-andrew-green","tag-ben-gibbard","tag-blue-note-records","tag-bon-iver","tag-cootie-williams","tag-death-cab-for-cutie","tag-deep-woods","tag-don-cherry","tag-dr-martin-luther-king-jr","tag-duke-ellington","tag-dustin-laurenzi","tag-jamie-brewick","tag-jazz-gallery-center-for-the-arts","tag-joe-fiedler","tag-joe-henderson","tag-john-coltrane","tag-kase","tag-leonardo-moscaro","tag-moondog","tag-ornette-coleman","tag-philip-dizak","tag-spirits-live-at-the-jazz-estate","tag-taylor-swift","tag-the-estate","tag-the-jazz-estate","tag-thelonious-monk","tag-tim-ipsen","tag-tony-barba","tag-wayne-shorter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-4gG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16410"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16442,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16410\/revisions\/16442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}