Aruán Ortiz, Don Byron, Lester St. Louis & Pheeroan AkLaff - Pastor's Paradox (2023)

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Aruán Ortiz, Don Byron, Lester St. Louis & Pheeroan AkLaff - Pastor's Paradox (2023)

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Cuban-born, Brooklyn-based pianist, composer and conceptualist Aruán Ortiz celebrates his 50th birthday year with the release of Pastor’s Paradox, his stirring new album drawing on the power and structure of Martin Luther King’s words. Out October 20, 2023 on Clean Feed Records, the album features Ortiz with clarinetist Don Byron, cellists Lester St. Louis and Yves Dhar, drummer Pheeroan akLaff, and spoken word artist Mtume Gant.

Aruán Ortiz weaves multiple strands of tradition through his music, with an endgame of deep mystification…he has been a creative force at least since the release of his debut album.” – Nate Chinen, New York Times

“In Ortiz’s music, one can hear how the pianist makes connections, looking, thinking and seeing, as well as playing.” – John Ephland, DownBeat

“Cuban-born pianist and composer Aruán Ortiz is constantly evolving, experimenting and injecting new elements into his craft…Ortiz is an exceptional composer with a special talent for surrounding himself with gifted and empathetic colleagues.” – Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz

Pastor’s Paradox shares many of King’s themes, including racial equality, but also reflects Ortiz’s singular artistry. To write his enthralling suite, Ortiz studied King’s Biblical and world history references, the speech’s construction, and the pacing and vocal dynamics that give King’s words such power and momentum. “’I Have a Dream’ is one of the masterpieces in the history of speeches,” says Ortiz. “I studied that speech from different angles, particularly his use of analogies and how he integrated different aspects of literature into his message. It’s amazing when you analyze its structure.” In addition to studying the structure, analogies and literary references of the “I Have a Dream” speech, Ortiz delved into King’s 1968 speech “The Drum Major Instinct,” delivered five years after the March on Washington and two months before King’s assassination, as his pursuit of racial socio-economic justice became more radical and he spoke out against the Vietnam War.

That edginess, always emerging from deep wells of intellect and humanity, is also present on Pastor’s Paradox, the conception of which was also fueled by King’s complexity and the turbulence of his times. “He was very revolutionary for his time,” says Ortiz, “fighting for not only racial equality for Black America but also for women’s rights and Latino rights oftentimes against a very turbulent backdrop.” Says John Murph in the liner notes, “Throughout Pastor’s Paradox, the band depicts the turbulence and cacophonous sounds of police brutality, loud sirens, and searing cries and wails of the 1960’s civil rights movement.”

The recording opens with the tumultuous “Autumn of Freedom,” anchored in riveting power by Gant’s imposing fragments of the “I Have a Dream” speech. The title track follows, dominated by Byron’s silky, roaming bass clarinet navigating above the band’s penetrating accompaniment. The foreboding cello opening of “Turning the Cheek No More” leads into a piece that Murph says “superbly evokes the violence many civil rights marchers encountered and the simmering doubt of the nonviolence stance of those who had been brutalized, or worse, lost loved ones in the struggle.”

“The Dream That Wasn’t Meant to Be Ours” brings Gant’s voice back for a potent exploration of the interaction between ego and the desire to do good. Ortiz’s fluid, expressive piano guides “From Montgomery to Memphis,” a harrowing depiction of the dangerous treks of civil rights marchers along Southern roads. “An Interval of Hope” begins with tentative cymbals and drumbeats, echoing the challenge and necessity of hope in the face of tragedy and injustice. “No Justice No Peace, Legacy!” closes the album with a definitive musical climax conveyed through band members’ instruments as well as their voices exclaiming the words of the track’s title with a rhythmically and emotionally complex combination of exultation, weariness and absolute determination.

Pastor’s Paradox began with a single composition commissioned by a 2020 Jazz Coalition Grant, the year mass protest broke out after the murder of George Floyd, a killing which followed a series of other high-profile slayings of unarmed Black Americans. As the nation reckoned, and continues to reckon, with systemic racism and violence decades after the historic March on Washington, King’s evolving and enduring words and legacy became the fitting focal point for Ortiz’s project, which grew into a five-part suite with support from the South Arts Foundation, premiering in Dallas in 2021 with Byron, St. Louis and akLaff. Ortiz expanded the suite into a seven-song cycle for the album, adding cellist Dhar and spoken word artist Gant.