Ohad Talmor

Back to the Land (2-CD)

Intakt

Tenor saxophonist Ohad Talmor  has fought through licensing issues that held back issuing his Back to the Land  last year. The project has an interesting back story, not to mention  highly original music.  Talmor is releasing a double album of unreleased Ornette Coleman pieces from recently discovered DAT rehearsal tapes found in the basement of the home of the late Lee Konitz, Talmor’s mentor, friend, and father figure for three decades. After Konitz passed away early in the pandemic, Talmor was called in to go through Konitz’s musical belongings. During that process, he and drummer George Schuller discovered three DAT tapes which documented rehearsals that took place at Ornette Coleman’s loft in May 1998. It was Ornette and Lee together with Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, rehearsing new music that Ornette had just written for an upcoming concert at the Umbria Jazz Festival. They played the music at Umbria and never again to anyone’s knowledge. None of it had been published. Talmor mixes these ten pieces with fourteen of his own originals.

This 2-CD set comes with three different configurations:  Talmor’s working trio with bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Eric McPherson, a quintet that adds vibraphonist Joel Ross and pianist David Virelles; and on the second, the more electronic disc, a sextet/septet that features the trio plus keyboardists/electronics master Leo Genovese, trumpeters Shane Endsley and Russ Johnson, and Denis Lee on bass clarinet. Some of these musicians appear in other combos across the two discs. And there’s more – the special guests are Gregoire Maret on harmonica and Adam O’Farrill on trumpet. Talmor transcribed the ten unknown, nameless Ornette Coleman tunes which was difficult because it was a work in progress and required several assumptions. The process took on a new life when he started playing them with his trio, which led to expansion in several directions, likely not originally envisioned by Coleman.

The first track “Seeds “has Talmor with his trio along with Joel Ross, and David Virelles, done in one take, quite remarkable considering the interplay, in Talmor’s home, which also serves as the indie jazz venue, SEEDS, in Brooklyn. It is poetic that the piano heard on Back to the Land is Konitz’s old Steinway, which Talmor inherited and now resides there. Eleven of the 24 included the word “Variations” as Talmor Is not always trying to play Coleman’s compositions straight but to interpret them through the lens of his trio and accompanying musicians. The first of these is the “Trio Variations on Tune 11,” reminiscent of the highly diatonic Ornette tune “Free.” The quintet reconvenes for “Accords – Quintet Variations on Tune 12”- a mashup of Talmor’s original “Accords” with Coleman’s “Variations.”  While these three pieces are highly improvisational in a Coleman-esque vein if you will, “Kathlyn Grey,” also a Coleman composition, is a gorgeously trio rendered melancholic ballad. Other highlights on Disc One include “Dewey’s Tune” with Ross and Virelles in homage to Talmor’s first tenor teacher, Dewey Redman who composed the piece. Fans of the group Old and New Dreams, like this writer, will especially gravitate toward this one. “Quartet Variations on Tune*” includes trumpeters Johnson and Endsley with bassist Tordini sitting out. Without a bassist the tune takes on a “middle eastern” flair with the two horns playing in clear counterpoint practically throughout. Tordini shines however on “New York,” also known as the first movement of Ornette’s String 4tet “Prime Design/Time Design.”  Disc One ends with Redman’s “Mushi, Mushi” with the trio plus Genovese interpreting the tune originally recorded by Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet.

The second disc is a musical journey of 14 pieces meant to be played without a break. Five were composed by Coleman with the balance from Talmor. Virelles and Ross play the chord sequence of “Accords for Two” without improvisation, a minute long piece of which’s theme is repeated throughout the 14. “Variations on Tune 1” is the first Coleman tune Talmor transcribed, a tender, fragile, blues rendered by the trio. “Three Septet Variations on Tune 1” is the first of four larger ensemble pieces. Highly improvisational and Bruckner-like in terms of harmonics, it includes light synths and Lee’s bass clarinet.  “Accords for Five” repeats the sequence from track I with Adam O’Farrill and Talmor contributing synth arrangements and the former brilliant as usual in his soloing. Talmore admits to Coleman’s “Trio Variations on Tune 2” being the hardest to play as the 12/8 feel was difficult to notate. Drummer McPherson navigates the different speeds deftly. Talmor’s “Electric Sunglasses,” a feature for McPherson is one of  the more contemporary and electronic of the pieces with an intriguing and partially hidden electric bass line, Genovese on piano and various synths, with Endsley, Johnson, and Talmor faintly in the distant.

“Back to the Land” is the shortest piece with Talmor, practically alone on tenor, nodding to Redman. Coleman’s “Quartet Variations on Tune 4 – Peace Warriors” features brilliant soloing from Johnson and Talmor as they pay tribute to Coleman’s album In All Languages, as the saxophonist ends with “Peace Warriors” which Coleman recorded twice on that album. Fervent dialogues of the sextet color “Four Sextet Variations on Tune 4.” Listen for the startling chord mid-piece.  “Accords for Four” with McPherson and Adam O’Farrill is the last of the opening theme, with the music playing both forward and backward, forming a seamless segue into Talmor’s “Astonishment,” where he integrates brooding electronics into Coleman’s “Tune 3” which gets a quartet acoustic treatment when trumpeter Endsley is paired with Talmor on “Quartet Variations on Tune 3” replicating the instrumentation of Old & New Dreams. “A Good Question” is a companion piece to “Astonishment” with a brief refrain of “Back to the Land.” Arguably, he saved the best for last, teaming with fellow Switzerland native, and the masterful harmonicist Maret, the two improvise in counterpoint, while Tordini plucks judiciously, Genovese adds subtle synths to his piano, and the quintet delivers a stirring, aching Coleman blues on “Quintet Variations on Tune 10” in one sublime take.  This impressive double album just must be Talmor’s crowning career achievement to date and likely find its way to Year End Best lists.

Jim Hynes

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