Jane Ira Bloom - The Red Quartets (1999)

Some jazz feels like it could go anywhere at any moment, latitude being the music's most enviable quality. Jane Ira Bloom's "Always Hope" is certainly distinguished by such a feel. Opening The Red Quartets with a swirl of sound from Fred Hersch's piano, Mark Dresser's bass, and Bobby Previte's drums, the soprano saxophonist creates nothing but liberty. As Hersch's foot pedal keeps his chords in the air, the leader's horn lines glide through them. Previte's cymbals match the pianist's pulse and sundry thoughts present themselves. "That piece basically introduces you to what we're about," explains Bloom, "which is adventure. I'm a bit of a sound searcher, and 'Always Hope' encapsulates that - if anything, it's a four-and-a-half-minute journey. My interests are in strong melodic motion and deep rhythm." Bloom's version of "Perdido" is likewise somewhere in the sky, the most demure Duke tribute so far this year. "I Want to Be Happy" wafts by, too, reminding that cheer has a place in the process as well. Throughout, Bloom makes it difficult to determine where one tune begins and the other ENDS - her auspicious framework accommodates all sorts of intriguing entrances and exits. In fact, here, on what sounds like a breakthrough disc, is a music that skirts the trappings of a dominant style. Culling elements of bop, cool, and loft, among others, Bloom's fluid maneuvers propose that maturity begets amalgamation. On "Monk's Rec Room," she and Hersch play a chutes-and-ladders game akin to the mid-'70s duets by Dave Holland and Sam Rivers. With "Tell Me Your Diamonds," she and Dresser cast determination as serenity. During "Jax Calypso," there's plenty of room left open for anyone who wants to shimmy-shimmy-shake. "It's probably the composer in me that keeps plenty of room open," she offers, "an aesthetic move about less being more. It's a point of view that's been with me from my earliest recordings, really - not a conscious thing, just the way I live and breathe." Although Bloom is an expert at examining a tune's harmonic possibilities, the new disc fixes itself on melody. "Time After Time" and "How Deep Is the Ocean" revel in the tunes of their tunes. Bloom says that's because she's singing the song, focusing on the lyrics while interpreting. The strength of the teamwork gives extra depth to such simple pleasures. "I think it all came together for me here; this group of people is the most satisfying combination I've ever put together. From the start, I've believed making an album is serious stuff. I want my records to hold up as time passes. These guys helped me to where the music feels just right." They do so by utilizing both delicacy and thrust. Which does Bloom deem more crucial? "Man, that's like a Zen riddle. I want both." Here, she gets her wish.

Tracklist:

01. Always Hope
02. Time After Time
03. Monk's Rec Room
04. Tell Me Your Diamonds
05. Jax Calypso
06. Chagall_ How Deep is the Ocean
07. Five Full Fathoms
08. It's a Corrugated World
09. Climb Inside Her Eyes
10. Emergency
11. Einstein's Red: Blue Universe