Both Are True

Album review

It is almost staggering to consider the commitment necessary to lead an 18-piece big band in the 21st century, especially in North America. Enter Canadian-born, N.Y.C.-based-saxophonists and composers Anna Webber and Angela Morris. They assembled this group in 2015 in New York, and have nurtured and developed its identity ever since. The Webber/Morris Big Band don't follow traditional precepts from the big-band tradition. Instead, they employ thoroughly modern compositional techniques, ranging harmonic and dynamic concepts, and present new tonal and sonic possibilities that expand the definition of what a big band is. When improvisation occurs, it's carefully scripted in. The way these women compose and arrange, they make room for various bandmembers to shine.
Both Are True is this band's recorded debut. Given the various players' busy individual schedules, it was cut in four sessions between November of 2018 and October of the following year. Morris and Webber split composing and conducting duties, making the band's appeal kaleidoscopic. This is slippery music. In the opening Webber composition "Climbing on Mirrors," three layered horns offer a potent minimal phrase in conjunction, as the rhythm section offers a repetitive yet off-kilter pulse. When the rest of the band enters, drummer Jeff Davis cuts loose to drive it with accents, fills, and popping kickdrum; bassist Adam Hopkins temporarily holds it down before the music shifts again as the three frontline players return in their minimal merrymaking until altoist Charlotte Greve delivers a sweeping solo. Morris' title track is busier, it meanders across a wide swath of harmonies and rhythmic interplay with warm humor. Lines get staggered, inverted, and turn in on themselves before the ensemble creates room for solos from Webber's and Jay Rattman's saxophones and Patricia Brennan's gorgeous vibraphone playing. The tonal inquiry in the tune's center is striking, urgent, and utterly engaged. "Coral," also composed by Morris, opens with brass and flutes commingling in droning reeds and brass, including Reginald Chapman's bass trombone in a shimmering intro that recalls moments of Wolfgang Rihm's Canzona Per Sonare. Gradually separating and offering brief and inquisitive statements before the rhythm section unites behind Adam O'Farrill's trumpet break, stripping away the edges, the tune ends the way it began. Webber's 11-minute-plus "Reverses," closes Both Are True. After a contemplative intro, the band swings playfully as the different instrument sections appear to exchange roles with expansive harmonic interplay and rhythmic invention. Trumpeter Kenny Warren offers a bluesy solo that ties it all together, especially when engaging in brief call-and-response with Hopkins before the entire band returns and ramps up in intensity and before a climax where several voices offer a layered contrast with a text by Maya Angelou. Throughout, Both Are True dazzles with musical fireworks, humor, a wildly creative harmonic palette, discipline, and delight. This is a groundbreaking work that establishes a unique, present-future identity for the Webber/Morris Big Band.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo