THE FURY

LIVE IN BROOKLYN

GiantStep Arts

Mark Turner, tenor saxophone/composer; Lage Lund, guitar/composer; Matt Brewer, bass/ composer; Tyshawn Sorey, drums.

The group opens with a jazz waltz called “Like A Flower Seeking the Sun.”  It unfolds beautifully, with musical petals reaching upwards and notes spewing from the guitar of Lage Lund. This is followed by Mark Turner’s tenor saxophone solo.  Tyshawn Sorey plays a mean set of trap drums, doubling the tempo and what I thought was going to be a jazz waltz turns into a more Straight-ahead arrangement with Matt Brewer’s bass locking into the rhythm, smooth as a key slipping into a padlock.  A little over half-way into the tune, the quartet gives the stage to Brewer.  He and his double bass take their time to tell us his own personal story.

This group represents four of today’s modern jazz players who call themselves, “The Fury.”  Tyshawn Sorey, the power-plus drummer, is a 2024 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Music and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. In competitive jazz circles, Mark Turner is often mentioned as the most influential tenor player in the past two decades.

Lage Lund is a winner of the Thelonious Monk Competition and even more notable as the first jazz guitar player admitted to the prestigious Julliard School of Music.

Finally, the fourth member, Matt Brewer was a ten-year-old prodigy on the bass.  He remains a great bass talent in the new millennium.

The group’s name was extracted from the 1929 William Faulkner novel, “The Sound and the Fury.”

“It represents the passion and grit of our music,” Lage Lund explained.

This brilliant and entertaining album was recorded in August of 2023 at Brooklyn’s Ornithology room.  It’s one of New York’s great listening venues where the music comes first, and audiences are both attentive and appreciative. Lund has composed three pieces; “Couch” then “Jimbo” and finally “Vignette”.  Turner has composed two tunes (“Sonnet for Stevie” and “Ender’s Game”) and Brewer wrote “Of Our time.”  It’s a pretty ballad with a lovely melody sung by Mark Turner’s tenor saxophone. Lage Lund takes an extended guitar solo that creatively explores both melody and chord changes.

Brewer follows with a long and impressive bass solo during Mark Turner’s composition, “Ender’s Game.” He and the guitarist play tag throughout, complimenting each other with their intriguing phrasing and interaction.

These musicians become important names in a new series called Modern Masters and New Horizons on the GiantStep Arts record label.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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