MULTI-GRAMMY® Award-winning trumpeter and composer Brian Lynch is releasing Brian Lynch Songbook Vol. 1: Bus Stop Serenade, as the first in a series of “Songbooks” intended to reclaim the many original compositions that Lynch has recorded for other labels throughout his career. Bus Stop Serenade focuses on music originally composed between the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, configured here for the classic quintet formation of Lynch on trumpet and flugelhorn along with longtime front line partner Jim Snidero on alto saxophone, the redoubtable Orrin Evans on piano, and in-demand bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Donald Edwards.
These sessions took place in 2016 and probably should have been released earlier but Lynch was focused on his big band project The Omni-American Book Club which we covered on these pages, and which went on to win a GRAMMY®. The project is really yet another example of an artist wanting to own the masters of his compositions, thus these are being issued on Lynch’s Hollistic Music Works. The album was recorded in a single day at Red Rock Studio in the Poconos after a warmup gig at the Deer Head Inn the night before. There were only two takes for each piece except a single take for “Keep Your Circle Small.” Lynch dubs Disc One as “The Express Route” and Disc Two as “The Alternate Route.”
These are mostly swinging burners beginning with “24-7,” a classic example of the energetic quintet playing flat out. “Afinique” is a term used by Afro-Caribbean musicians, especially percussionists, for a certain quality of groove. Although Lynch has recorded it twice, this marks the first time it’s done in the quintet configuration. “Keep Your Circle Small” was also originally done as a quartet piece in 1994 but Snidero’s contribution adds brightness. “Bus Stop Serenade” appeared on the quartet rendered Tribute to the Trumpet Masters featuring the late pianist Mulgrew Miller. Orrin Evans is a highly creative, unpredictable pianist who steps into Miller’s shoes just marvelously here. “Clairvoyance” hails from Lynch’s 1997 Spheres of Influence, done as a quintet and dedicated to his late friend Peggy Claire. This one has a great ensemble playing from the front line and allows more room for the soloists to stretch out. Drummer Edwards and bassist Kozlov keep a steady groove until it’s time for Edwards to unleash his own pent-up explosion on the tag.
Lynch, an alum of the late edition of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, is one of the fieriest trumpeters today with a style influenced in part by two legends that he honors here with the tunes “Woody Shaw” and “Charles Tolliver,” both also drawn from Tribute to the Trumpet Masters. Any tune Woody Shaw’s name in the title must be a blaster and Lynch is certainly in that same league, setting the bar high for Snidero, who soars into flight. This one has been recorded in several Lynch configurations and appears on the aforementioned big band album. =Lynch brings the Tolliver piece down a bit but with plenty of fire as is imperative when honoring these iconic trumpeters. Snidero matches the leader’s intensity in his own turn, as he does throughout this session. Evans, per usual, hits his fair share of unexpected notes and beautifully harmonic chords in his solo. The quintet states the theme powerfully and ends with a ferocious climax.
“Before the First Cup” and “On the Dot” both originally appeared on Brian Lynch Meets Bill Charlap. Lynch and Snidero seem telepathic in their reading of the latter while the rhythm section is in potent hard bop mode. The former is the most restrained piece of all, aptly since a tribute to the early morning hour before one gets coffee. All players demonstrate grace and restraint here with Kozlov and Evans especially vivid in their lyrical, poetic approaches.
These descriptions all relate to Disc One but like all great jazz, nothing is ever played the same way twice. Lynch changes the sequence too on Disc Two. While most tunes have similar lengths, “Woody Shaw,” likely the album standout for most listeners, expands from six and a half to over ten minutes, and “24-7,” the first cut on Disc One, becomes the last cut on Disc Two, going from five and a half to nine and half minutes.
These are five of today’s leading inventively straight-ahead players at the top of their game. Collectively, they bring scintillating hard bop. It hits hard and stays dynamic and exciting through both discs. Aside from its power, the real fun is to discover the individual nuances and punctuations each player makes in contributing to the glorious quintet sound. Expect to hear more great music in this series as Volume 2 is apparently all ready to go.
