{"id":1807,"date":"2013-05-03T20:15:21","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T20:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=1807"},"modified":"2013-05-03T20:15:21","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T20:15:21","slug":"trumpeter-jamie-breiwick-plays-at-his-cd-release-party-saturday-at-the-jazz-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=1807","title":{"rendered":"Trumpeter Jamie Breiwick plays at his CD release party Saturday at the Jazz Estate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer Jamie Breiwick is one of the most talented and inspiring musicians I’ve met in quite a while. He’s a major force in Milwaukee’s surprisingly strong new generation of jazz musicians and educators.<\/p>\n

So I’d like to alert all of this blog’s readers to his brand-new album Spirits,<\/em> recorded at the Jazz Estate in November and released on the Chicago-based Blujazz label.(blujazz.com). Jamie’s quartet will perform at a CD release party for Spirits<\/em> at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at the scene of the recording, The Jazz Estate, 2423 N. Murray, on Milwaukee’s eastside.<\/p>\n

Full disclosure compels me to inform you that I wrote the liner notes for this album, but I did so with serious enthusiasm. So I’ll leave you with those liner notes, for Spirits<\/em>:<\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/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 front man 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 exhalation.<\/strong><\/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 Bill Cosby produced 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.<\/strong><\/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\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0with mute in bell, 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.<\/strong><\/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 Visions, a musician-run organization that promotes the local jazz scene, especially with an excellent website: milwaukeejazzvision.org. 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<\/strong><\/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 \u201cEureka\u201d 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 mountain top.<\/strong><\/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.<\/strong><\/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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spirits<\/i> 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. \u00a0— Kevin Lynch<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope to see you at the Estate Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer Jamie Breiwick is one of the most talented and inspiring musicians I’ve met in quite a while. He’s a major force in Milwaukee’s surprisingly strong new generation of jazz musicians and educators. So I’d like to … 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":[],"class_list":["post-1807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-t9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807","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=1807"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1814,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807\/revisions\/1814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}