Trumpeter Josh Lawrence leads a quintet featuring the stalwart Posi-Tone rhythm section along with Willie Morris on tenor sax and Jason Tiemann on drums for select tracks for And That Too, his fifth recording for the label, a quick follow-up to Call Time, released in September 2022. These are mostly the same musicians aboard for this date as both albums were recorded in the same session. The aforementioned Posi-Tone rhythm section is pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Boris Kozlov, and a drummer on most tracks, Rudy Royston. (Tiemann was the lone drummer on Call Time). Listeners familiar with the label will certainly recognize those three and perhaps even Morris, a fellow student of Lawrence’s at Juilliard, who also appeared on January’s Something Blue’s Personal Preference. Listeners may also recognize Lawrence for his work on Ropeadope and with Orrin Evans’ Grammy-winning Captain Black Big Band.
Like most material on this label, Lawrence brings straight ahead, hard bop jazz performed spontaneously in most first takes yet it moves further away from the sounds of the ‘50s and ‘60s that defined its predecessor into more boundaryless compositions now that he has assumed the position of Director of Jazz Studies at northern Michigan’s fabled Interlochen Center for the Arts. Seven of these eight compositions were composed by Lawrence or a band member with Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti” the sole exception.
The opening “Grit,” penned by Morris, puts the tenorist squarely in the spotlight, trading lines with his front-line partner, Lawrence, while Hirahara, Kozlov, and Tiemann provide the the footing. Typifying the classic hard bop quintet, pianist Hirahara contributes a glistening solo as well. Morris is also the composer of “Hole in the Wall,” marked by Kozlov’s fierce, walking bassline and searching activity from the quintet as a whole and especially the front liners that find the balance between exploration and swing amidst subtle tempo changes.
They slow the tempo for Shorter’s tune, associated mostly with Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet, as Lawrence emulates Davis in one way by employing the Harmon mute as his trumpet sings lyrically to Hirahara’s tender accompaniment, Kozlov’s warm plucking, and Tiemann’s brushes. This sensitive side of Lawrence’s playing is contrasted with his fiery side on the rhythmically complex, “Cosmological Constant” powered by Royston’s expert steering down a ‘Black Diamond’ course (to use a skiing analogy) at breakneck speed with time changes that range from double to half time. This tune and the yet unmentioned others are all penned by Lawrence, including “North Winds,” written for his graduate recital and recorded two weeks later, with his new Michigan destination in mind. The ascending melodic phrases articulated by Lawrence and Morris swing but Royston’s beats veer from the customary swing style into hints of hip hop. Hirahara matches the fiery energy of the horns, making this a true burner. “Black Keys,” obviously emphasizing the piano’s pentatonic keys, is stripped of the harmonics found in the other compositions, while bassist Kozlov deftly navigates its unpredictable course in the most experimental-sounding offering on the disc. Lawrence’s growling mode midway through is a surprising and effective touch. While the agile, nimble Hirahara purposely stays clear of overt comping, his solo is uncharacteristically percussive.
Lawrence admits to a more formulaic approach to the composition “Left Hanging,” a beautifully rendered elegiac ballad, again with the muted trumpet for a lost friend. “Cantus Firmus,” is a joyous expression of tapping into his new and future directions in his music with Hirahara effervescent while Lawrence and Morris trade lines soaring gleefully. Royston puts a cap on it with his frenetic work on the kit.
Lawrence’s effort stays mostly within Posi-Tone’s straight-ahead style while stepping away from it with some experimental compositions, a direction, which in hindsight, he could have tapped into more heavily, but offers promise for future efforts.
