The Never-Ending Now: Jeff Cosgrove Quartet Creates Music in Springfield

Sometimes in the world of improvised music, it’s not necessary to have long history to establish a rapport. The connection can be immediate if the musicians involved are accomplished, think-on your-feet veterans. Drummer Jeff Cosgrove had never met pianist Angelica Sanchez before they performed together on Friday at the Community Music School of Springfield, and Sanchez had never played with multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson, either. Despite that lack of shared experience, the music produced on September 30 by the Jeff Cosgrove Quartet was cohesive, magical and very musical.

I also had never met Cosgrove before Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares agreed to host his band; indeed, I’d hardly heard of him. But when he mentioned the personnel: Angelica Sanchez, Scott Robinson and bassist Ken Filiano, my wheels of excitation whirled. The affable Filiano was the lynchpin, both relationally and musically. He knew everyone in the band, and provided the connective tissue that gave the evening it’s shape and coherence.

The concert centered around five Cosgrove compositions, loosely woven together without fanfare or interruption. The sketched pieces sat inside a sea of instant composition, with four master musicians listening and responding deeply in real time. The results: open and abstract, but with clear contours and moods, carried this participant to a place of acceptance and engagement.

Cosgrove was an unassuming bandleader, content to provide color and texture. His brief solos, sometimes with hands on skins, were understated and played at moderate volume. He skirted all the stereotypes: there was no bashing, no impossible tempos, no strict timekeeping, no overt displays of virtuosity. Instead, he added his voice to the others, moving the proceedings along without attracting undue attention. As a consequence, the band sounded as one.

Cosgrove lives in rural Maryland, and before that, in West Virginia, far from any critical mass of jazz energy. Although his profile might be low, his discography as a leader, featuring musicians like Frank Kimbrough, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Mat Maneri, Scott Robinson and Ken Filiano, is very impressive. His latest, History Gets Ahead of the Story, is a trio with John Medeski and Jeff Lederer. He is starting “Jazz Inside Out”, a series of concerts in Frederick, MD that will put him the company of Dave Douglas, Caroline Davis, Akua Dixon and John Hébert. He has created his own scene, on his own terms. If you want to know more about Cosgrove, check out this interview which appeared in my favorite on-line jazz publication, Point of Departure.

This was my first opportunity to spend time with Scott Robinson, who was an overnight guest at chez Page/Siegel. We stayed up past 2am, talking about his “lab” in Teaneck, NJ, where he records, rehearses and repairs instruments. He owns hundreds of reed, brass and percussion instruments (20 tubas, he told me), which he reconditions and sometimes sells. Many of them are rare, obsolete or custom made. He is recording an improvised symphony comprised of him playing his musical ephemera, and is half-way through the first of four movements; he estimates it will take him 20 years to complete. The culmination of his 2015 residency at The Stone was his Orchestra Impossible, featuring well known New York musicians playing his assortment of obscure, rarely heard instruments. The day after the Jazz Shares concert, at Robinson’s behest, we visited some Northampton antique shops in search of old sound making devices. In Springfield, Robinson played a C melody saxophone, a tárogató(a Hungarian woodwind), and a cornet made in Springfield, Massachusetts by the John Heald Company in 1902 or 1903.

Robinson’s playing was magnificent, with complete control over all three horns. He used various extended techniques judiciously and conversationally, and always in service to the music. I liked the way he changed the dynamics of each section by moving closer or further from the microphone. At one point, he moved off-stage and played a drum, a bell and crash cymbals.

Sanchez has so much playing experience, I imagine she had no trepidation playing this new music with these new people. She just started a full time teaching job at Bard College, so she has lots of new in her life. Everything she played had an element of the unexpected, free from cliché, and delivered with confidence. She has become a real friend, and I look forward to seeing her next on October 30 at Real Art Ways in Hartford, with Terry Jenoure’s ensemble.

What a happy coming together of old and new companions, making live music for the benefit of us all.

A Large Helping of Sound: David Sanford Big Band in Florence

It goes without saying, that organizing a concert for big band is a heavy lift. You don’t just pick up a saxophone, gather a few friends and blow. The logistics, not to mention the finances, are daunting. So if you are a composer and arranger in the 21st century, and your “instrument” is an aggregation of 20, your gigs are few and far between. Such is the fate of David Sanford, a lauded, but under recognized master of the large ensemble, who gave a life-changing concert at the Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity on Sunday. The event was part of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares’ 11th season.

David Sanford, the Elizabeth T. Kennan Professor of Music at Mt. Holyoke College, was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the highest recognition of artistic merit in the United States. But mention his name to the average jazz fan and you’re likely to get a blank stare. You will search in vain for Sanford’s name among the big bands in the Downbeat critic’s poll. But for my money, Sanford writes and arranges circles around better known ensembles led by Maria Schneider, Wynton Marsalis or Christian McBride. It has everything to do with exposure, of course. Sanford doesn’t have the resources of Jazz at Lincoln Center or the juggernaut that is the Maria Schneider Orchestra. Hopefully, the well-received release last year of A Prayer for Lester Bowie (Greenleaf), will help to elevate Sanford’s standing among big band royalty.

But on September 11, in sleepy Florence, Massachusetts, 180 of us heard an extraordinary mass of sound organized in extremely creative ways by the David Sanford Big Band. Drawing from jazz, rock, blues, funk and experimental music, Sanford’s writing had us leaning in with our ears pinned back.

In April at UMass, I presented Adam Rudolph’s GO: Organic Orchestra with Brooklyn Raga Massive. Rudolph’s 30-person ensemble emphasized strings, percussion and flutes, and floated through Bowker Auditorium on a world-music vibe. Sanford’s outfit was more like some hip, roaring Stan Kenton band: five trumpets, five low brass (trombones and tuba), five saxophones and rhythm section.

The energy tunes, including “poppit” and “Full Immersion”, brought us face to face with a powerful machine firing on all cylinders. The room was ablaze. On the latter tune, simultaneous tenor saxophone solos by Anna Webber and Lee Odom brought the house down.

There were lots of friends, family, colleagues and students of Sanford’s in the audience, who offered yelps of delight, dialogue, applause and laughter throughout the evening. “We love you, David”, rung through the sanctuary. In fact, it was a love fest all around. Sanford has long time relationships with many of the people in his band, about half who are original members from 2003. Some are among his oldest and closest friends. Others, like tubist Joe Exley, was a last minute COVID-related replacement. Lee Odom, who Sanford first heard playing at Ornette Coleman’s memorial, and Anna Webber, now living in Franklin county, are both more recent collaborators. Towards the end of the evening, Sanford introduced the members of the band with descriptions of his personal connection to each.

Then there is Hugh Ragin. The veteran trumpet player was a mentor of Sanford’s from his time in Colorado, and remains a valued collaborator. Sanford was deferential throughout the evening, happy to have his teacher on the bandstand. The 71 year old trumpeter led the band in his original, “The Moors of Spain”. Its catchy, loping melody was the most straight ahead piece on the program, and a perfect respite to the density of many of Sanford’s compositions. Ragin, who has extensive performing credits with Roscoe Mitchell and David Murray, was a dynamic soloist throughout.

There were other outstanding soloists, including trombonist Jim Messbauer and alto saxophonist Ted Levine. But the real star was the band itself, who executed Sanford’s vision as one precise and supple unit. They performed the night before in New York as part of the Festival of New Trumpet (FONT). If they sounded this good after one rehearsal and one concert, imagine if they were criss-crossing the country like the big bands of yesteryear, bringing the joy to towns large and small.

Carried Away: Jazz Shares Season Begins with Pneuma

The range of the clarinet is similar to the human voice, so one might worry that an ensemble of three clarinets and voice would have a limited palate. But as 50 listeners witnessed at the Parlor Room on Friday, in the right hands, that configuration can yield expansive results.

Clarinetists James Falzone, FrançoisHoule, Michael Winograd, and vocalist Ayelet Rose Gottlieb are Pneuma. They kicked off the 11th season of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares in Northampton, MA on August 19, with a deep, 60-minute concert of chamber jazz.

Pneuma means “wind”, “breath”, or “spirit” in ancient Greek, and Gottlieb intoned wind-inspired poetry by Christina Rossetti, Izumi Shikbu and Forugh Farrokhzad that projected a sense of longing and bitter sweetness. “Do you hear the darkness blowing?”, asked Farrokhzad, the late modern Iranian poet. “Who has seen the wind?” asked Rosetti, the English poet from the 19th century.

I appreciated that both Gottlieb and Falzone recited the poems beforehand, giving us clear access to the words. Gottlieb’s voice soared above the clarinets to deliver lyrics, then blended with them to spar and parry. Her beautiful instrument had depth and gravitas, and she was unafraid to let loose, producing worlds of wordless sound that brought feelings of freedom and playfulness. Gottlieb told us she conceived of Pneuma while grieving the loss of her grandfather, who played clarinet. Her piece “Passing Through/Lament for Harry”, was the impetus to form the band.

The Jerusalem-born vocalist now lives in Montreal, and has closely collaborated with John Zorn, Anat Fort, and the string quartet ETHEL. Her latest project, “13 Lunar Meditations: Summoning the Witches”, is a song cycle about the moon and our connection to it, based on writings by women and girls from around the world. Over dinner, Gottlieb told me how as a 16-year-old in Israel she was forever changed after meeting the legendary saxophonist and educator Arnie Lawrence, who brought her into his band, taught her to be a professional singer, and shaped her fearless approach to music making.

Michael Winograd is regarded as one of the best working klezmer clarinetists today. He performs regularly in Amherst at Yidstock, the Yiddish Book Center’s annual festival of new klezmer music. Like many in the field, Winograd is funny and quick-witted. He joked that he wanted to include “Someday My Blintz Will Come” on the evening’s set list. He told us he has always wanted to form the “Make a Knish Foundation”. His formative teacher was Sid Beckerman, whom he met at Klez Kamp as a 14-year-old. Winograd is a serious musician with chops, whose Semitic note bending added complexity and a certain melancholy to the stew.

During a wonderful clarinet workshop at the Northampton Community Music Center organized by Evan Arntzen, François Houle ran down his list of influences, which included John Carter, Perry Robinson, Don Byron, and especially Bill Smith, who was a mentor. Houle was born in Montreal and has lived in Vancouver since 1990. He is the only band member who didn’t attend the New England Conservatory of Music; he went to McGill University and Yale. The bulk of his best work can be found on Songlines, a label also based in Vancouver. Like Winograd and Falzone, Houle is a master technician, whose off-the-chart facility shone during sections of rapid, jagged, poly-tonal unison playing. That brilliance sat in winning combination with his emphasis on tone and emotion.

I first met James Falzone in Chicago in 2013. Since then, Jazz Shares has presented his six-piece celebration of the clarinet family: the Renga Ensemble (2014), his Arabic and European folk music quartet: Allos Musica (2015), and his duo with bassist/vocalist Katie Ernst: Wayfaring (2019). Each project was distinct in instrumentation and orientation, but shared a commitment to mixing authentic music traditions in fresh ways. Falzone has a natural-born divinity that shines. He is a first rate teacher (now a Dean at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle), a creative and immensely talented musician, and a kind and considerate human being. I hope to see him every few years forever.

Except for a few brief introductory solos, it was difficult to tell who was playing what, so I closed my eyes and made it impossible to find out. The resulting sound became one living, breathing thing that vibrated through heart and soul. This concert, postponed by the pandemic, came right on time for me, and was an auspicious start to another season of live music.