My friend Caleb and I keep up the jazz playlist at WSRN FM (wsrnfm.org). He did some shopping and added some new releases, a few of which are working their way into my heart. Here’s the first recomendation for cutting new jazz:
The David S. Ware Quartet. Balladware. 2006. Thirsty Ear Records (the blue series)
8.0
1. Yesterdays
2. Dao
3. Autumn Leaves
4. Godspelized
5. Sentient Compassion
6. Tenderly
7. Angel Eyes
David. S. Ware: Tenor Saxophone
Mathew Shipp: Piano
William Parker: Bass
Guillermo E. Brown: Drums
I was certainly surprised to see this one on the shelf. Ware is known as an extraordinarily hard-hitting, free improvising servant of Lord Ganesh. A Ballads album certainly doesn’t fit with anything that comes before it in his work, but, it turns out, that’s a good thing. While I love some of his earlier albums (Aquarian Sound being one of my favorites), this is a particularly interesting glance into his creative process. Strip away the sometimes epic wailing sessions, go so far “in” as to include some standards, and this is what you’re left with.
The two original compositions on the backside of the disc are my favorites (Godspelized and Sentient Compassion), but I plan to absorb each of the tracks on this beautiful disc again and again. Ware demonstrates the outer realms to which standards can be pushed and the continued relevance of his own composition. Now we’re got a Ware for every moood. Or, well, two moods. Firey, screaming Ware shows up again and again. Now we’ve got a softer Ware to wake up to, study to, make love to. I dig it hard.
