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    Ralph Alessi Quartet - It's Always Now (2023)

    Posted By: delpotro
    Ralph Alessi Quartet - It's Always Now (2023)

    Ralph Alessi Quartet - It's Always Now (2023)
    EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+log+.cue) | Digital booklet | 00:59:19 | 241 Mb
    Contemporary Jazz, Post-Bop, Modern Creative | Label: ECM Records

    Ralph Alessi’s fourth appearance as a leader for the label follows a singular album run that’s been met with nothing but praise from The New York Times to The Guardian. The latter lauded Ralph’s previous recording Imaginary Friends (2019) for its “elegant balance of poignant, playful original compositions and gracefully probing improv” and declared it “his best album yet”. It’s Always Now however brims with arguments that there is a new contender for that title. On his new album, Alessi’s unique tone is as limber, piercing and present as ever, enveloped by a fresh quartet line-up – pianist Florian Weber, Bänz Oester on bass and drummer Gerry Hemingway – that navigates through the trumpeter’s idiosyncratically swinging compositions with a sixth sense. The album is not only a continuation of the leader’s work but also records Florian’s evolution on the label, this being his fourth album with ECM to date. His distinctive harmonic approach on keys is as evident in leader settings as in the role of a sideman, and his deep sensibility for Alessi’s pulse enhances this session, which was produced by Manfred Eicher.

    Each of Ralph Alessi’s three prior leader recordings for the label – Baida (2013), Quiver (2016) and Imaginary Friends (2019) – garnered high international praise. The New York Times lauded the “elegant precision and power” of Baida, whereas Downbeat declared that with Quiver, Ralph had found “an ideal venue, his penchant for the oblique statement and ventilated ensemble nicely couched in a pristine recording and a magical ensemble.” In a rave review, The Guardian called Imaginary Friends “an elegant balance of poignant, playful original compositions and gracefully probing improve”. For It’s Always Now, however, the cards have been re-shuffled, as Ralph Alessi steps away from his familiar New York collaborators and goes on an entirely different adventure with fresh casting on every position. A change in the line-up naturally provokes a shift in the music, because, as Ralph points out, “anytime you play with new musicians with strong ‘voices’ such as these, it changes how you hear your music”.

    “I moved to Switzerland in August of 2020”, Alessi explains, “and it gave me an opportunity to collaborate with a new mix of musicians who I hadn’t had the pleasure of playing with before. And I strongly believe in the benefit of change.”

    Within change, here, also lies familiarity, for not everything about Ralph’s European quartet constellation is previously unexplored. The trumpeter’s partnership with pianist Florian Weber for instance goes back almost two decades, each having been part of the other’s group, and, more recently, Alessi played on Florian’s ECM recording Lucent Waters in quartet with Linda May Han Oh and Nasheet Waits. They have also extensively performed as a duo, and their special duo chemistry is showcased at various moments throughout the new album – “Hypgnagogic”, “Old Baby”, “Ire”, “Tumbleweed” and the title track all being improvised explorations tastefully delivered between the two. Ralph: “I love how Florian provokes me when I play with him. He is always pushing the envelope, helping create an atmosphere of chance taking in the music which definitely resonates with me.”

    Drummer Gerry Hemingway and Ralph previously played together only once several years back, while the session for It’s Always Now marks the very first meeting between the trumpeter and bassist Bänz Oester. All three of them are presently active educators in Switzerland – Ralph teaches at the University of the Arts Bern, Gerry at the Lucerne School of Music and Bänz at the City of Basel Music Academy. From the deeply grooving undercurrent of “Migratory Party” over the angular tangle of “Everything Mirrors Everything” to what feels like that composition’s contra-fact in “Hanging By A Thread”, there is little to nothing that would suggest this being the group’s first encounter. Movements are fluent, counterpoint is intuitive and whichever path Ralph’s serene trumpet lines choose, the remaining musicians follow, always finding unexpected but complementing figures.

    Ralph insists how Bänz and Gerry “have such a strong vibe playing with each other”, and it’s no surprise, as the bassist and drummer have partnered up regularly for over two decades and still frequently play together today – their most prominent outlet being the WHO trio featuring pianist Michael Wintsch, with whom they’ve released five albums going back to 1999. Within the ensemble sound of Ralph’s quartet, the bassist and drummer’s parts contract and expand gracefully and in accordance with Ralph and Florian’s deft instrumental flourishes, ranging from minimalist designs and short improvisations to extended forms with polyphonous subjects and idiosyncratic structures.

    These contrasting idioms manifest through juxtapositions of songs like “Residue” and “The Shadow Side”, the former a rhythmically sparkling platform for exuberant exchanges between the players, the latter an introspective, romantic investigation into dark lyricism – each voice on high alert. A similar analogy can be drawn for ”His Hopes, His Fears, His Tears” and “Portion Control”, two songs that have vastly different outlines but share a tendency towards abstraction and Ralph’s conceptional DNA.

    Shedding light on his compositional process, Ralph says, “writing is always an intuitive exercise for me; In short, I’m trying to move the music from the abstract to a place of hearing. Some of the newer pieces on It’s Always Now were actually still coming into fruition during the session. That presents a challenge, to find the music while ‘under the gun’ but I am very pleased with the outcome of these emerging pieces.”

    “It’s a step by step recording process creating the material and then seeing how it fits together. That’s also where the compelling sensibility of Manfred comes into play. He has an incredible knack for hearing the big picture.” It’s Always Now was recorded in June 2021 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

    Ralph Alessi, trumpet
    Florian Weber, piano
    Bänz Oester, double bass
    Gerry Hemingway, drums
    Tracklist:
    01. Hypnagogic
    02. Old Baby
    03. Migratory Party
    04. Residue
    05. The Shadow Side
    06. It's Always Now
    07. Diagonal Lady
    08. His Hopes, His Fears, His Tears
    09. Everything Mirrors Everything
    10. Portion Control
    11. Ire
    12. Hanging by a Thread
    13. Tumbleweed

    Exact Audio Copy V1.6 from 23. October 2020

    EAC extraction logfile from 30. August 2023, 21:13

    Ralph Alessi / It's Always Now

    Used drive : PIONEER BD-RW BDR-UD04 Adapter: 1 ID: 2

    Read mode : Secure
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    Read offset correction : 667
    Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
    Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
    Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
    Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
    Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
    Gap handling : Appended to previous track

    Used output format : User Defined Encoder
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    Quality : High
    Add ID3 tag : No
    Command line compressor : C:\EAC2\Flac\flac.exe
    Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%


    TOC of the extracted CD

    Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
    ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
    1 | 0:00.00 | 3:06.44 | 0 | 13993
    2 | 3:06.44 | 3:20.57 | 13994 | 29050
    3 | 6:27.26 | 4:25.68 | 29051 | 48993
    4 | 10:53.19 | 6:46.04 | 48994 | 79447
    5 | 17:39.23 | 3:53.10 | 79448 | 96932
    6 | 21:32.33 | 3:39.04 | 96933 | 113361
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    10 | 41:46.02 | 4:00.64 | 187952 | 206015
    11 | 45:46.66 | 1:34.65 | 206016 | 213130
    12 | 47:21.56 | 8:53.06 | 213131 | 253111
    13 | 56:14.62 | 3:04.31 | 253112 | 266942


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    Accurately ripped (confidence 4) [9D5EB5CD] (AR v2)
    Copy OK

    Track 2

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    Track 3

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    Track 4

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    Track 5

    Filename D:\CD\Ralph Alessi Quartet – It's Always Now (2023)[CD FLAC ECM 2722]\05 - The Shadow Side.wav

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    Track 6

    Filename D:\CD\Ralph Alessi Quartet – It's Always Now (2023)[CD FLAC ECM 2722]\06 - It's Always Now.wav

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    Accurately ripped (confidence 4) [2AF96D5B] (AR v2)
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    Track 7

    Filename D:\CD\Ralph Alessi Quartet – It's Always Now (2023)[CD FLAC ECM 2722]\07 - Diagonal Lady.wav

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    Accurately ripped (confidence 4) [9951DD3B] (AR v2)
    Copy OK

    Track 8

    Filename D:\CD\Ralph Alessi Quartet – It's Always Now (2023)[CD FLAC ECM 2722]\08 - His Hopes, His Fears, His Tears.wav

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    Track 9

    Filename D:\CD\Ralph Alessi Quartet – It's Always Now (2023)[CD FLAC ECM 2722]\09 - Everything Mirrors Everything.wav

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    Accurately ripped (confidence 4) [C267E443] (AR v2)
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    Track 10

    Filename D:\CD\Ralph Alessi Quartet – It's Always Now (2023)[CD FLAC ECM 2722]\10 - Portion Control.wav

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    Accurately ripped (confidence 4) [60989ADD] (AR v2)
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    Track 11

    Filename D:\CD\Ralph Alessi Quartet – It's Always Now (2023)[CD FLAC ECM 2722]\11 - Ire.wav

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    Copy CRC A63AD3EA
    Accurately ripped (confidence 4) [82D90D29] (AR v2)
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    Track 12

    Filename D:\CD\Ralph Alessi Quartet – It's Always Now (2023)[CD FLAC ECM 2722]\12 - Hanging by a Thread.wav

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    Track 13

    Filename D:\CD\Ralph Alessi Quartet – It's Always Now (2023)[CD FLAC ECM 2722]\13 - Tumbleweed.wav

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    Accurately ripped (confidence 4) [5AF66210] (AR v2)
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    12 track(s) accurately ripped
    1 track(s) could not be verified as accurate

    Some tracks could not be verified as accurate

    No errors occurred

    End of status report

    –– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

    [CTDB TOCID: yUTMpJJF8OB_xUvGFvrSui6dm6o-] found
    Submit result: insufficient quality
    Track | CTDB Status
    1 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    2 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    3 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    4 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    5 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    6 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    7 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    8 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    9 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    10 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    11 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    12 | (14/14) Differs in 400 samples @08:52:25-08:52:28,08:52:41
    13 | (14/14) Accurately ripped
    If you are sure that your rip contains errors, you can use CUETools to repair it.


    ==== Log checksum 6218016861721613288E1C211408695B6F8D75516022C0388B79FBCD86D70BDA ====

    ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

    Exact Audio Copy V1.6 from 23. October 2020

    EAC extraction logfile from 31. August 2023, 5:00

    Ralph Alessi / It's Always Now

    Used drive : ASUS SDRW-08V1M-U Adapter: 1 ID: 0

    Read mode : Secure
    Utilize accurate stream : Yes
    Defeat audio cache : Yes
    Make use of C2 pointers : No

    Read offset correction : 6
    Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
    Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
    Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
    Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
    Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
    Gap handling : Appended to previous track

    Used output format : User Defined Encoder
    Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
    Quality : High
    Add ID3 tag : No
    Command line compressor : C:\EAC2\Flac\flac.exe
    Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%


    TOC of the extracted CD

    Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
    ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
    1 | 0:00.00 | 3:06.44 | 0 | 13993
    2 | 3:06.44 | 3:20.57 | 13994 | 29050
    3 | 6:27.26 | 4:25.68 | 29051 | 48993
    4 | 10:53.19 | 6:46.04 | 48994 | 79447
    5 | 17:39.23 | 3:53.10 | 79448 | 96932
    6 | 21:32.33 | 3:39.04 | 96933 | 113361
    7 | 25:11.37 | 4:51.27 | 113362 | 135213
    8 | 30:02.64 | 7:05.64 | 135214 | 167152
    9 | 37:08.53 | 4:37.24 | 167153 | 187951
    10 | 41:46.02 | 4:00.64 | 187952 | 206015
    11 | 45:46.66 | 1:34.65 | 206016 | 213130
    12 | 47:21.56 | 8:53.06 | 213131 | 253111
    13 | 56:14.62 | 3:04.31 | 253112 | 266942


    Track 12

    Filename D:\CD\Ralph Alessi Quartet – It's Always Now (2023)[CD FLAC ECM 2722]\12 - Hanging by a Thread.wav

    Peak level 71.1 %
    Extraction speed 5.7 X
    Track quality 100.0 %
    Test CRC 517563B7
    Copy CRC 517563B7
    Accurately ripped (confidence 4) [F27AB068] (AR v2)
    Copy OK


    All tracks accurately ripped

    No errors occurred

    End of status report

    ==== Log checksum 6AF26AB28F54AE468316B121D13C81D24C1776D78CB749F111CA2E5840B4A647 ====

    Thanks to the Original ripper !