A New Album of Brian Landrus’ Low-Register Jazz

2015 photograph of Brian Landrus with his preferred instruments (photograph by Vince Segalla, from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

For Now, the tenth album featuring Brian Landrus, who favors the lower registers of the wind family, was originally scheduled for release one week from today. However, as can be seen from the above hyperlink, the album is currently available for purchase from Amazon.com. This may have something to do with an agreement between either BlueLand Records or the company’s distributor to compensate for the fact that all deliveries are taking more time than usual.

The album has thirteen tracks, one by Bronisław Kaper (“Invitation,” originally composed for the 1950 film A Life of Her Own), two by Thelonious Monk (“’Round Midnight” and “Ruby, My Dear”), and the remaining ten by Landrus himself. He leads a “core combo,” whose rhythm section consists of Fred Hersch on piano, Drew Gress on bass, and Billy Hart on drums. There is also a “guest appearance” by trumpeter Michael Rodriguez and a string quartet consisting of violinists Sara Caswell (leader) and Joyce Hamman, violist Lois Martin, and cellist Jody Redhage-Ferber.

That diversity of instrumentation allows for an equal range of diversity across Landrus’ own compositions. Nevertheless, given my particular interest in Hersch’s keyboard work, I have to say that, for my own listening, the album saves the best for the last, concluding with just Hersch and Landrus spinning out duo improvisations on “Ruby, My Dear.” On the other hand, my key disappointment involved the strings, since I had hoped that Landrus’ preference for the lower register would have allowed from a bit more from Martin and Redhage-Ferber than reinforcement of homophonic passages.

That said, Landrus’ command of instruments that many wind players find obstreperous runs the gamut from impressive to downright awesome. “’Round Midnight” is given a solo performance on bass clarinet, with harmonic progressions reinforced by frighteningly agile arpeggio work. The listener comes away with a new perspective on the melancholia behind the tune, but the edges of the improvisations are sharper than one would be inclined to expect. Ultimately, the track comes across as a bold exploration into unknown territory, recalling (for me at least) some of the riskier ventures I had encountered in Ben Goldberg’s PLAGUE DIARY recordings. In terms of album layout, on the other hand, having “Invitation” bop along freshly on the next track tends to burst the delicate bubble that rose out of Landrus’ approach to “’Round Midnight.”

In all fairness, any jazz that gets adventurous in the lower register tends to make for highly absorbing (if not compelling) listening; but there is much to be admired in Landrus’ ability to sustain those adventures over a thirteen-track album.