Two from Seth Meicht

Tenor saxophone contenders come and go as the reed continues its reign as the most recognizable jazz instrument. Producer Bob Rusch has proven particularly adept over the years at picking out new talent from the legions of practitioners. Rusch isn’t an easy sell. His notes for CIMP and CJR releases regularly recount the strings of failed attempts by artists prior to the actual inking of contracts. It’s a gauntlet that yields surprisingly few errors in judgment. Seth Meicht is his latest “find” and once again, the score sheet registers a winner.

A student of Odean Pope and David Murray, Meicht’s approach is deeply etched by both elder saxophonists. He’s a current member of Pope’s Saxophone Choir and his ruddy, belt-busting tone seems bred to be heard in such populous and potentially stentorian surroundings. I also detect slight similarities to Ken Vandermark in his muscular attack and rhythmic acuity, but his chops outstrip the Chicagoan when it comes to harmonic ability and overall command of his horn. Not surprisingly, Meicht names Coltrane, Rollins and Rivers as other sources of abiding inspiration. A small cache of releases on labels like Utech, and the even smaller Scrapple, caught Rusch’s ear and after the customary period of consideration, the producer signed Meicht to a double disc deal.

Cadence Jazz Records 1196

The Meicht Trio’s self-titled CJR debut gives a crash course in the ensemble’s mien, gathering tracks from a pair of dates from the spring and fall of 2005. Bassist Matt Engle, also a member of the up and coming Philly band Shot x Shot, and drummer Lonnie Solaway look younger than their years in the cover photo. Accomplishing a hat trick akin to the diminutively framed Malachi Favors, Engle’s beanpole build generates a robust, wall-reverberating presence from his amplified upright. Solaway funnels plenty of vigor and precision into his kit and together the duo come on like Hamid Drake and William Parker protégés, stirring up monster grooves that keep Meicht’s restless tenor well fed. Their crowning moment comes with the spiritualized setting of “Visions of Change”, Engle locking down a pile driving ostinato and Solaway working his snare and cymbals into a syncopated frenzy.

“The Goal” bounces back and forth between burning boppish blowing and more moody low-pressure interplay. Shortly after the track’s median, Meicht waves his colleagues off for an acappella sortie, his phrases diminishing until all that’s audible is the dry flutter of keypads. This kind of cobbling together of divergent compositional structures characterizes other tracks too. “DWB” begins with a mallets foray by Solaway and moves into a somber ballad processional showing off Meicht’s more nuanced improvisatory nature. After a particularly potent bass solo and another sans-support turn from the leader, the players hit the boosters and blast through a bruising spate of pugilistic permutations. “The Sounds We Make” starts with the rhythmic bounce of a Rollins-style calypso and ends as a slow, minor key march. As instrumentation for improvised music, tenor, bass and drums remains the commonplace coin of the realm. Meicht meets the mountain-sized precedence head-on and manages to carve out his own individualized niche.

CIMP 350

Recorded in the Spirit Room, spring of 2006, Illumine reconvenes the trio with a defining twist: Meicht opens up the frontline to include the tenor of Matt Bauder. Bauder’s been making strides through a string of discs on 482 Music and as a fixture on the Chicago scene. His dry, idiosyncratic language on his instruments jibes well with Meicht’s own highly expressive vocabulary and conjures up an array of past jazz juxtapositions. Rusch makes comparisons to Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, cool and hot, and the like and they’re pithy benchmarks to the pair’s contrastive tenor verities. The tonal quality and resonance on display in the harmonies of pieces like “Invisible Moments” suggest a rapport built on close listening and active anticipation. Neither man backs himself into one bag for very long either. Bauder can and does play with punishing force as on the title track and “The Enormous Room”, a sectional piece penned by Meicht’s brother Aaron. Meicht aerates his tonality to the consistency of fluffy down on “Blue Smiles”, blowing legato shapes against a backdrop of arco bass and malleted drums before Bauder joins in and the two reeds braid another dual line of quivering melody.

With Bauder in the band, Engle and Solaway aren’t always as pivotal to the action, but their amiable deference to the tenors ends up a well-played move. Both players still eke out plenty of space to flex their improvisational skills and Engle in particular is an anchor on pieces like the hard-charging freebop of “Resonator.” Their absence on the fleeting “44” yields a valuable chance to hear Bauder and Meicht floating free of rhythmic gravity, circling in an overlapping dance reminiscent of Marsh and Konitz. The subsequent “Dualing Diptychs” once again cements their importance to overall enterprise, via another Engle solo not the least bit curtailed by the surrounding’s bass-burying peculiarities and a strapping polyrhythmic beat. Meicht’s penchant for trap-door mood swings resurfaces after the median as the piece becomes dirge-like and querulous, only to close with a strangely congruous anthemic push. This is an album built expressly for those who love the tenor saxophone in all its myriad vicissitudes. It points to Meicht as a serious contender. Listen up!

~ Derek Taylor