Search - Jamie Baum :: Solace

Jazz flutists are rare: Eric Dolphy, Hubert Laws, James Newton, and Kent Jordan, come to mind as some of the best and brightest on that instrument. With her new release and Sunnyside debut CD, Solace, the critically acclaimed flutist/composer/bandleader Jamie Baum joins that illustrious list. Backed by her long-standing septet featuring trumpeter Ralph Alessi, saxophonist/bass clarinetist Douglas Yates, French horn virtuoso Vincent Chancey, pianist George Colligan, bassist Johannes Weidenmueller, and drummer Jeff Hirshfield, Baum delivers an impressive CD that is the definitive display of her all-encompassing talents and is comprehensive in its musical scope.

Two selections are indicative of Baum s artistry: Wheeler of Fortune, is an evocative composition dedicated to the great trumpeter/flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler. As a guest artist in 2006, I was invited along with my band to perform and teach at the University of Alaska Jazz Festival at Fairbanks, Baum writes in the CD liner notes. The director of the program, Glenn White (an excellent musician and friend), had the savvy to obtain the score to Kenny Wheeler s Sweet Time Suite for us to perform with the big band. Having been a longtime fan, it was a great opportunity to really check out a piece that for me exemplified the warmth, beauty and energy characteristic of his music. Shortly after that trip I wrote Wheeler of Fortune.

Baum s interpretive powers are on full and dynamic display in her four-part Ives Suite, her ingenious extension and elaboration of classical composer Charles Ives groundbreaking use of multitonality, polyrhythms, and simultaneous melodies. In 2003 I was fortunate to receive a grant from Chamber Music America s New Works: Creation and Presentation Program, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to write music for this septet based on chosen Charles Ives compositions, Baum wrote. Around the time I was deciding on which pieces to focus my efforts, my friend Frank Tafuri offered me tickets to hear him sing with the Dessoff Choir performing Ives Fourth Symphony with the NY Philharmonic. ... Inspired by the Fourth Symphony, I decided to call Parts 1 and 2 Time Traveler because upon hearing his piece, it becomes evident that he was, and still is, ahead of his time. The Unanswered Question was the basis of Parts 3 and 4. My interest and intention was never to rearrange his music or to have mine sound like his, but to try to communicate the spirit and feel his music has, put to a jazz context.

Rounding out the CD are the florid, midtempo title track, the lithe and lilting Far Side, the ballad, In Passing, the Latin tinged Pine s Creek, and the rhythmically challenging Dave s Idea. There is also a bonus downloadable track Tag featuring Doug Yates incomparable bass clarinet solo. On all of the tracks Baum s warm-toned flute and alto flute are beautifully supported and counter-stated by the lickety-split rhythm section and the rich horn lines, signatured with supple, Gil Evans and Herbie Hancock/Speak Like a Child-like voicings.
Solace is the passport to all of the places and spaces of Jamie Baum s musical universe. Like most musicians, I am influenced by so many artists and styles ... I ve been fortunate to hear and play with many great musicians both in NYC and abroad...I m sure that they are all in here, somewhere.