Second Sight
Flying With The Comet
Reviews
By Warren Allen
Published: July 28, 2009
Some jazz fans have come to look down on the '80s as a lost decade. A band like Second Sight shows just how wrong they can be, with the reissued Flying with the Comet (1986) thrumming with intensity.
The brainchild of pianist and composer John Esposito, the band refuses to choose between tradition and innovation. All the traces of the past greats who inspired this music show up clear and sharp as ever in the sound and spirit; that said, these guys let nothing hold them back.
Esposito shows warmth and personality, throwing odd notes into familiar mixes with the cool confidence of a well-dressed mad scientist. There's joy in what he plays, tinged as it is with gospel and hard bop; but it's tailored for a man who wants his own sound heard. Dave Douglas, 23 years-old here, brings high heat with a master's control. Jeff Marx's sax sounds close to blasting at the seams, adding hints of Michael Brecker, Sam Rivers, and Joe Henderson to a breathless, high flying intensity. Drummer Jeff Siegel and bassist Allen Murphy keep it all together with an inspired flexibility and sensitive response.
The opening title track rides a launching blast of free horns into a head that's recalls the great explorers of '60s Blue Note—Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Andrew Hill. It's appropriately intense, with Douglas spitting fire, cooling himself down, then working himself up again, while Esposito's piano matches streaks of beauty in the right hand with subtle dissonance from the left. And the music only gets tighter from there.
"Barbara" is a pretty, atmospheric ballad—the horns playing around with its melody, though the really interesting stuff comes out of the piano keys. But "Birthright" may be the highlight, a 14 minute-plus jam simmered in Afro-Latin percussion and groove. Marx reaches down for a little extra with a honking, out there solo, before passing the baton. Douglas in turn channels the energy into brilliantly lyrical work that gets Esposito and percussionist Berryhill echoing him. The pianist then sets up a conversation of his own, passing different lines back and forth between his hands.
The previously unreleased material is just as good. "We Got Rhythm" displays a take-no-prisoners intensity at high speed, setting squeals and squawks against lyrical post bop. "Jump at the Sun" is the same deal, but draws out to a fever pitch with Marx's most ecstatic statement of the album. "Two" also pushes the pace up, with great vocal exchanges from the two horns.
"Don't Look Back"—so chill, bluesy, and swinging—is the perfect way to close things out. Marx shows his wide range of skills, Douglas spins a quote of "Desafinado" into an awesome statement, and Esposito bobs easily along with just a few carefully dropped hints of darkness amidst the dancing of his keys. It's jazz that pushes off the timeline, sounding as fresh as ever.
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Apri-May 2009
The Second Sight disc...Flying with the Comet was originally released in 1986 and the members might be dressed like bankers in the photos, but a conservative, Wynton-esque Young Lions set this is not. Comprised of composer Esposito, Siegel, bassist Allen Murphy (another area player), percussionist Frederick Berryhill, saxophonist Jeff Marx, and, making his first appearance on record here, New York trumpet god Dave Douglas, Second Sight boldly bridged mainstream bop with out styles, an approach that unsurprisingly made it difficult for the band to fit in with either camp during its existence. Douglas’s concise, brash lines on the explosive title cut clearly show that the then 23-year-old is a genius in the making, while Marx’s relentless Trane-chasing over the driving Latin rhythms of “Birthright” make one wonder why he’s not a bigger name. This reissue adds four excellent tracks to the first edition, and Esposito’s notes mention a 1987 album still in the can. Here’s hoping we'll be able to hear it soon - Peter Aaron
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France 11/08
REVIEW
Totally unrecognizable! At least judging by the booklet photos which show the quintet in suits and ties or the picture of John Esposito with a mustache and Dave Douglas with abundant blond hair (really!). Five young men, who in 1986 put together their first post-bop album and who, on paper at least, seemed a little set on looking backward at the time Miles released “Tutu” and when electric jazz had made a comeback. Nevertheless the revival revolts at the picture (and sound) of those musicians totally impregnated with the history of jazz, desirous of reviving the music of their forerunners of the sixties, like Ornette, Rollins and the more daring Blue Note recordings.
Certain of the musicians one understood later, held more or less promise for a major career on the jazz scene and one regrets not having heard more from Jeff Marx, who plays sacred tenor with the strength of Sonny Rollins. But it is thrilling to discover on this album for the first time the seeds that Dave Douglas carries of this future sonic language. Already the playfulness and the sound, already the exploding force, that petulance, the rebellious jesting which never leaves the trumpeter. One only has to hear “We Got Rhythm” where the current Douglas is already in place.
The rerelease on CD of the vinyl five cuts provide evidence of the road traveled by those who on their journey have the most to say in contemporary jazz.
Jean-Marc Gelin
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Cadence
The American Review of Jazz and Blues
SECOND SIGHT,
FLYING WITH THE COMET,
SUNJUMP SJR01
Flying with the Comet/Barbara/Song for a New Life/Discoverers/Birthright 42:09
John Esposito, p; Dave Douglas, tpt; Jeff Marx, ts, ss; Allen Murphy, b; Jeff Siegel, d; Frederick Barryhill, perc.
Densely structured, rhythmically imperious Avant-Bop, and that’s good enough to make for some interestingly intense ensemble brutishness with a deliciously nasty edge.
-Alan Bargebuhr
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Second Sight – “Flying with the Comet” (SunJump):
Pianist John Esposito is Second Sight’s Leader. He’s played with Stanley Jordan. Marx has worked with Eddie Henderson. Trumpeter Dave Douglas plays with Horace Silver. Bassist Allen Murphy has worked with Buddy Rich. Drummer Jeff Siegel’s credits include a stint with Larry Coryell. Percussionist Frederic Berryhill has played with Diana Ross.
Second Sight’s all-original music is in the late ‘60’s hard bop, modal mode of Mile Davis, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. From the cohesive, combustible ensemble playing in the title track to the vivid coloring of the last, the music on “Flying With the Comet” unfolds to reveal a picturesque contemporary jazz travelogue, evocative of many styles but always original.
On up-tempo tunes the music swings with surety. Siegel’s bustling drums and Murphy’s propulsive bass power the rumbling and shifting rhythms. Marx’s spiraling tenor and the soaring trumpet of Douglas play entwining lyrical lines, while Esposito combines a light melodic touch and a crackling rhythmic punch to provide glue and gusto.
On the gentle “Barbara,” reminiscent of Charles Mingus, the music unfolds layer-by-layer, swelling and blooming into fragrant blues-hued ballad.
-Stephen Israel
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Record Roundup
Hot House Dec. 1987
By Gene Kalbacher
Second Sight (West End Dec. 15), a promising hard-bop sextet, scores a direct hit on Flying With the Comet (SunJump). The members’ straight ahead allegiances stop short of outright obeisance, fortunately. Pianist John Esposito, who authored four of the five compositions, crafts intricately lined runways for his comrades: Dave Douglas, trumpet; Allen Murphy, contrabass; Jeff Siegel, drums, and Frederick Berryhill, piano. Second Sight, together since the start of 1986, is a group of individuals attuned to the whole and attentive, as soloists, to linear development and personalized phrasing as opposed to simply filling the space. A real sleeper, Flying With the Comet is a solid, rousing date…
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Second Sight is outta sight
Jazz group has chemistry, spirit and originality
-Kelly Lockmer
“Flying With the Comet” is a rewarding record for the casual as well as the serious jazz listener. The debut album of the New York based jazz group Second Sight. It is marked a sensation of genuine feeling – for the music, and in the music.
Each of the group’s six players has an impressive musical background. Leader, composer, and piano man John Esposito has headed several groups, has performed with the likes of John Stubblefield, Stanley Jordan and Bobby Johnson, and currently teaches at SUNY New Paltz. Acoustic bassist Allen Murphy’s performance credits include Chuck Mangione, Buddy Rich, and the Rochester Philharmonic. And so on. The experience and the expertise are there, and so is the chemistry.
Chemistry is essential in a piece such as Esposito’s “song for a New Life.” It starts with an attention grabbing 7/4 piano intro, and shifts to an intricate juxtaposed combination of rhythmic bass and restless trumpet, sax and piano. Such complicated arrangements require both individual skill and natural communication among musicians.
“Barbara” is the one ballad to be found on the record, and it’s beautiful. Introduced by the sweetest piano. It never loses that solo instrument’s delicacy. Saxophone lilting, trumpet hazy and subtle – all details are carried on a pale violet undertone of bass. The atmosphere is warm, calm and gentle.
The group has wisely saved its strongest piece for last. Jeff Marx’s “Birthright” is an exciting composition, which is brought to joyous life by the ensemble. It begins with a dramatic series of establishing chords, moving into the refrain that will bridge the four extensive features to come.
“Flying with the Comet” is worth a try, even for the least experienced jazz listener. It is lively, sincere, and a perfect introduction to jazz. The jazz lover will find shades of the greats with plenty of personality and original twists thrown in.
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Option Magazine
LPS
May/Jun 1987
SECOND SIGHT: Flying With the Comet This new group draws heavily on the post-bop and modal jazz traditions of the ‘60s and ‘70s. There is still plenty of turf to be plowed here, but it’s harder to be original now than it was 15 years ago.
Second Sight delivers because the players listen to each other empathetically and because of the high level of the writing and soloing. Some places where these qualities are most evident: “Song for a New Life,” when trumpeter Dave Douglas follows tenor saxist Jeff Marx’s heated solo, and there’s a delicious moment when the rhythm section immediately goes half time, adding lots of contrast to the number; the title track, when Douglas plays a great theme-and-variations solo (Monk would be proud); “Discoverers,” a waltz that sounds like something Wayne Shorter might have written. It was in fact written by the excellent pianist John Esposito, the group’s leader, who turns in four tunes and consistently good solos.
Bassist Allen Murphy and drummer Jeff Siegel round out this flexible rhythm section. Percussionist Frederick Berryhill is listed as a group member, but plays only on Marx’s McCoy Tyner-style “Birthright,” where Marx uses his Trane-derived tenor to show he’s no mere imitator. Beautiful recording and pressing. (SunJump Box 1117, Woodstock, NY 12498) – Bart Grooms
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PULSE!
Moore Bop; Stellar Lineup at Greenwich Village Jazz Fest
-- Gene Santoro
Second Sight is a rolling powerhouse of frenetic hard bop in the best tradition of Art Blakey’s perennial Jazz Messengers: This sextet swings like mad and bubbles over with lively, effervescent chops to spare. And even better, instead of just cloning the achievements of the past, they can put their own twisty little spins on it, as their first release, Flying With the Comet (SunJump Records), more than demonstrates. Take the title track, which kicks off with a startling, swooping chart for tight-meshed horns that glides into a shuffle as it evokes the speed and glorious tail of that heavenly wanderer. Trumpeter Dave Douglas and saxman Jeff Marx boast bold tones and agile fingers without degenerating into empty swagger; pianist John Esposito melds elements from McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock with some stuff of his own; and the muscular rhythm section (bassist Allen Murphy, drummer Jeff Siegel and percussionist Frederick Berryhill) pushes and pumps the bottom with all the fervor this upbeat style demands. Catch the glimpse of Second Sight, whether it's on an evocative ballad like "Barbara" or a blistering Latin-inflicted stomper like "Song for a New Life." They'll give you a real run for your money.
You can see Moore and Second Sight at this year's Greenwich Village Jazz Festival (Aug. 28-Sept 7), which finds about a dozen of New York's downtown jazz clubs packed to bursting with a rich array of musical offerings. A $10 pass gets you free entry at some venues and a 50% discount on the music charges at others: some clubs have table minimums. But it's a great deal for an awful lot of music, not to mention the jazz film series, lectures and workshops. Some of the fifty-plus crowd-pleasers scheduled: Sun Ra, Carmen McRae, Tania Maria, the World Saxophone Quartet, Gary Burton, the Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy Quartet, the Gil Evans Orchestra, the Don Murray Quartet,, Pheeroan Aklaff, the Mike Stern Trio, the Mike Stern Quartet, Hank Crawford, Valery Ponomorav's Universal Langauge featuring Ralph Moore, and the Tim Berne Quartet. For Further info call (212) 242-1785.
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Second Sight
"Flying With the Comet"
Second Sight is a powerful sextet co-led by pianist John Esposito and saxophonist Jeff Marx, who compose the group's material. also performing are a fine trumpeter, Dave Douglas; a brilliant drummer, Jeff Seigel; Allen Murphy on bass; and Frederick Berryhill, percussion. Passion and fire abound, as echoes of Coltrane, Tyner and Woody Shaw are interpolated by a younger generation. Especially enjoyable are "Song For a New Life" (Esposito), which alternates between an intricate 7/4 vamp and a melody set to chords in samba-time; and "Birthright" (Marx), a burning Afro-Latin tune which features remarkable tenor work by it's composer.
Armen Donellan
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Second Sight, a young group that has shown signs of working some intriguing personal variations of Blue Note classicism of the mid-60's.
By Robert Palmer
Friday, August 28, 1987
Copyright 1987 the New York Times
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6 - November 1987
Brief Encounters
By W. Royal Stokes
Second Sight, a sextet of players mostly on the young side, stretches it's basic bebop signature to encompass "outside" blowing and impresses with it's debut Flying With the Comet (SunJump SJR 01). Strong solos, tight ensembles.
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MusicMachine Jazz Notes
Second Sight
Flying with musical success
WOODSTOCK - It's taken a little time which seems to be the case with jazz many times but Second Sight is presently taking off with their latest release Flying With the Comet. They came out on top in the recent MUSICMACHINE Magazine Annual Critics Poll, which was voted in by music critics of the region's newspapers and radio stations.
These guys have put their time in, and the music they put out testifies to this experience.
Led by pianist John Esposito, Second Sight includes the talents of Dave Douglas (trumpet), Jeff Marx (saxophones), Allen Murphy (acoustic bass), Jeff Siegel (drums), and Frederick Berryhill (percussion).
Flying With a Comet features original material by John Esposito with the final cut composed by Jeff Marx. The compositions are finely crafted musical vehicles that allow the individual artists to take flight (and fly they do!) with moments of pure exhilaration, evidenced especially on the solos.
Second Sight brings to their collective playing years of devoted study, and playing outwith some pretty impressive and varied names, such as Dave Leibman, Larry Coryell, Lou Donaldson, Horace Silver, John Stubblefield, Chuck Mangione, Arthur Rhames, Buddy Rich and Diana Ross, just to name a few.
Like all good musicians, they give their all, which, in this case, qualifies them for enthusiastic reviews in the New York Times, Jazz World, Cadence, and Hot House, as well as a local and regional newspapers. A couple of reviewers noted Second Sight with a "hard bop" classification. Esposito pointed out, a categorizing that he felt was limiting. The bop influence is definitely in the grooves, but the music is much more diverse and with a combination of standard and complex chords that allows so much room for spontaneity and expansion within and beyond the structures, yet carefully sidesteps being labeled as avant garde.
Esposito, who is presently doing some teaching at SUNY New Paltz, told me that Second Sight is into their second pressing of Flying With the Comet, with impending distribution on the West Coast and in Japan. They have a new album coming out in the summer entitled Tiger Tracks, and they have gigs coming up in New York at Mikiels, the West End cafe, and St. Peter's Church. His label SunJump Records, is stretching-out with release of an improvised, jazz/rock/new music album by guitarist Jose Chalas.
Horace Silver put it in a nutshell; "I recently heard Second Sight, I was impressed both individually and collectively. Excellent solo playing and able playing. It is gratifying to hear some young guys playing with the caliber of musicianship that these guys have. Their original composition are worthy of much merit."
- Betty MacDonald
April 1988
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For Contemporary Musicians
March 1988The post-bop modernism style of jazz, to judge from its present semi-popularity and the large amounts of artistic wealth contained in the music enjoys robust health. Swinging young players are largely responsible. Wyton Marsalis, without question the most prominent prodigy and an increasing number of less celebrated marvels show great respect for their pedigree, especially their early bebop and improvising-on-modes progenitors, while each industriously devotes himself or herself to the development of a distinctive performance choice. They know that to have one's own dialect of the no-nonsense jazz language is to attain the peak of personal satisfaction -- and achieve artfulness.
The young lions, most whom are under age 30, primarily den in the boroughs of New York City, where they often tussle on club bandstands. A pack of them received their introduction to the real world of jazz -- the feral, soulful regions of the mainstream -- as part of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, a venerable place to spend time. Some have increased their creative roars alongside such notables as Betty Carter, Jack DeJohnette, Johnny Griffin, Roy Haynes, Dave Holland, Woody Shaw,and Jack Walrath.
Discussed here are 19 albums belonging to members of the prodigy generation. The majority of these recorded efforts are likely to stand test of time for their intrinsic musical worth, becoming treasured someday as remarkable early makers in certain musicians routes eminence. (Only a handful may suffer the fate of eternal out-of-print oblivion.) So hear a bit of promising future now...
As the case with MBH, the Second Sight sextet is little known outside New York. Their debut Flying With the Comet evinces the great enthusiasim and fair skills of the ensemble when evoking an updated '60's modernism.
Featuring a thrifty, direct approach apparently nurtured in recent stints with Horace Silver, trumpeter Dave Douglas offers improvisations throughout the album that advances his grasp of nuanced emotions, tempo, and dynamics. Douglas soars best....
Frank John Hadley
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Waxing On : The Prodigy Generation
Donald Harrison/Terence Blanchard:Crystal Stair(Columbia) ****
Out Of The Blue: Live At Mt. Fuji(Bluenote 8514)***1/2
Metropolitan Bopera House:Formidable
SECOND SIGHT: FLYING WITH THE COMET(SUNJUMP 01)***
Ricky Ford: Looking Foreward(Muse 5322)*****
Bobby Watson: Round Trip(Red187)****
Ralph Moore Quartet: 623 C Street (Criss Cross Jazz10280***1/2
Gary Thomas:Seventh Quadrant (Enja 5047)***1/2
Bill Easley: Wind Inventions (Sunnyside 1022)***1/2
Wallace Roney: Verses (Muse5335)***1/2
Curtis Lundy: Just Be Yourself (New Note1003)***1/2
Charnett Moffett: Net Man(Blue Note46993)**
Bert Seager Jazz Quintet: Time to Burn (Antilles7086)***
Makoto Ozone: Now You know (Coumbia40676)**
Marvin "Smitty" Smith: Keeper of The Drums(Concord Jazz 325)****
Steve Coleman And The Five Elements: World Expansion(JMT870010)***1/2
Geri Allen: Open On All Sides in The Middle(Minor Music1013)****
Greg Osby And Sound Theatre:Greg Osby And Sound Theatre:(JMT870011)
Michele Rosewoman: Quintessence(Enja5039)****
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March 1988 - 7
Jazz Radio
Pulling Coattails
Dave Casner
WSPN-FM 91.1
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866-3401
We continue to grow and our station is looking forward to a new library to house all of the fantastic new releases coming our way along with a protection system for all our new CDs. A special thanks to all who continue to service us. It's encouraging to hear so much wonderful new jazz. Check out Second Sight's Flying With the Comet.
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Restaurants and Entertainment
Music
20/20 vision, and it swings
The Half Note Cafe in Palenville frequently hosts music that strays from the normal offerings in local clubs. Last Saturday, this tradition continued with the jazz ensemble Second Sight.
The way most jazz club gigs are played around here is for the repertoire to be standards and the arrangements to be read out of the Real Book, which is the jazz musicians' Bible, since it doesn't contain the hokey arrangements found in most sheet music, but instead as interesting chordings that are good to improvise around. There were no Real Books in sight last Saturday, as Second Sight played a more orchestral sort of jazz, and no standards at all (at least while I was there).
There was however, a lot of new music. Drummer Jeff Siegel, who has only been composing for two years, is developing a distinctive compositional style, with, as may be expected, percussion playing an important part. But there's a lot more than that to Siegel's work: it draws on ethnic folk traditions; it has a flexibility with time signatures that calls to mind Brubeck's "Time Out," and it has sure sense of melodicism. Plus, there is Siegel the instrumentalist: active, inventive, experimental -- all without being overpowering or overplaying.
The sense of integration finds a parallel in John Esposito's piano playing. He lacks the usual sense of there being a gap between the right and left hands, a sense common among jazz pianists. Instead, Esposito has a sort of seamless parallelism in his playing, of having one hand with ten fingers instead of two with five. It also could be remarked that Esposito, in playing that American synthesis of African and European music we call jazz, is more influenced by the latter, as the classical antecedent is always perceptible.
Saxophonist Jeff Marx is a study in contrasts, exemplifying both a lacy sensitivity and wailing, distended reeds characteristic of R&B. His arpeggios, interlacing and adding momentum, like a snowball rolling downhill, engage the cerebrum, as though they were an elegant series of mathematical equations, finally pointing up the inevitability of a solution. But the wailing scream of gut-wrenched emotion is rooted in the viscera, a call of the wild.
Bassist John Menegon held all this interplay together, then soloed with combinations of single-note runs and three-note chords, displaying the combination of taste and technique that is characteristic of Second Sight itself.
George Chevalier
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July 5, 1990
Coalition Cooks
FM fosters magic, frees music from mercantilism
Amid what may perceive as a degenerating arts and music scene in Woodstock -- plagued by diminishing outlets, commercialization, unaffordable housing for audience and performers, and the loss of that undefinable creative energy that once characterized the community --there is a counterforce gaining momentum: The FM Artists Coalition.
A loosely-organized collective of (mostly jazz) musicians, poets, singers, visual artists and dancers, the group has been getting its "creative chops" together over the winter at a series of invitational forums held in private homes, hailed by performers and audiences alike as extraordinary in both their level of excellence and in the excitement they're generating.
Beginning this Sunday, July 8 at 3 p.m., the Coalition will take it public by opening a series of six "creative forums" to be presented throughout the summer at Byrdcliffe Barn, in cooperation with the Woodstock Guild. Each forum will feature performances of jazz, poetry, dance or theater, and a visual arts exhibit.
Dedicated to providing non-commercial outlets where artists of various media can present original works in an atmosphere of mutual support and cooperation, the FM Artist Coalition grew out of an informal meeting of musicians last summer at Woodstock home of pianist/composer John Esposito.
What does the "FM" stand for? "Food money," jokes Esposito, "or funny music." Getting serious, he admits the group's acronym stands for "forward movement." And a movement it has become.
"The main vision that we all share," says Woodstock composer and saxophonist Erica Lindsay, one of the group's organizers, "is to bring artists of different mediums together and give them an opportunity to share what they've been doing and generate new projects. In our society artists are so often forced into a competitive mode with each other. We want to break that down."
Bass player and composer Anthony Cox, also of Woodstock and the third member of the "work team" that helped get the Coalition off the ground, explains the need for new outlets: "In the late '70's and '80's, club owners started to only hire acts they thought could draw enough crowds to pay rising rents. Then they had to charge higher cover charges, which further narrowed what they felt safe in presenting musically. And they killed the goose."
"I think we're now in an era of healing from the commercialization of music," Cox continues, "taking it back for ourselves."
There are precedents for what the Coalition is doing: A Brooklyn-based musicians' alliance called M-base helped to inspire Cox to organize this one, and a Chicago group called AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) has been pursuing many of the same goals since 1975. And in the early 1970s, many "salon" type performance spaces sprang up around SoHo, but soaring real estate rates soon forced them out.
Still, "Rather than recreating something else, " Lindsay maintains, "this |Coalition| is a response to our own situation." Since that first meeting, some 100 artists and performers have been involved in planning and/or performing at the various concerts throughout the year. Dozens of new collaborations have already come out of the forums, including a new vocal group, a multi-instrumentalist ensemble, and other fruitful and stimulating exchanges between composers, lyricist, instrumentalists, singers and poets. While seeking to maintain a creative atmosphere, commercial success is certainly not eschewed by the group, and some has already resulted. One painter gained a New York gallery show as the result of her exhibit; a jazz ensemble garnered a recording contract, and several managment affiliations have been made (in addition to which, Esposito notes, gigs are now being traded back and forth whenever one musician can't make it).
Perhaps most importantly, the Coalition has helped create a growing sense of community among local performers. "Prior to this, none of us actually knew each other and were actually kind of in competition with each other, all trying to get the same gigs," says Cox. "Now we're starting to work together." "There's something reassuring, exciting and even magical about having 20 artists get up, one after the other, and present new and original work and have everyone be supportive of that,' adds Esposito. "And the audience response shows us that people are hungry for something real."
Kunle Mwanga, a record and concert producer who's attended some forums, likes the energy surrounding the Coalition. "As a person who's been around musicians over the years, I find it refreshing," he says. "It's also a strong political statement. It's taking power into your own hands."
The summer concerts, according to Lindsay, will stay true to the Coalition's commitment to excellence, collaboration and originality. The only difference, she says, is that unlike the "informal atmosphere" (read: late start) of the forums, these concerts will begin on time.
The line-up for Sunday's concert includes John Esposito's five-piece ensemble, Second Sight, plus vocalist Pam Pentony, poet Janine Vega in collaboration with pianist David Arner, dancer Susan Osberg and painter Lori Lawrence.
Second Sight will be playing Esposito's original compositions as well as a tune by trumpeter Dave Douglas. Band members include Jeff Marx on tenor and soprano saxophone; Douglas on trupet and flugelhorn; Allen Murphy on acoustic bass and Jeff Siegel on drums and percussion.
The quintet has released two albums (Flying With the Comet and Tiger Tracks, both Sunjump Records) and is currently at work on a third. Gene Santoro's review in Pulse magazine of Flying With the Comet noted the unit, "swings like mad and bubbles over with lively, effervescent chops to spare."
According to Esposito, "Second Sight refers to the "deep down knowing" or extrasensory perception that exists between band members. "It's that unspoken communication," he says, "that makes for richer musical exchange. Just as in a close friendship with someone you can sometimes understand the other's feelings without them being spoken, in a close musical relationship, you can just tune in to what the other players are trying to say and communicate on a whole other level as well. That's what I think we're able to do in Second Sight."
Esposito's compositions are rooted, he says, in "African-American improvised music," a term he prefers to "jazz," which he says evokes almost partisan feelings. "The term 'jazz' is a very commercialized term now and means quite different things to different people," says the pianist. "Once, when we got a letter from a record company in Georgia saying, 'We only record jazz albums, you should try a rock-fusion label.' Meanwhile, other companies were saying we were 'too mainstream jazz' for them."
Esposito credits many of the older generation jazz musicians he's played with as have given him musical roots -- J.R. Monterose, Jihn Stubblefield, Carter Jefferson, and late Arthur Rhames.
"These were guys who came up through Duke Ellington, Bennie Carter and the Charles Mingus bands," says Esposito. "Working with them gave me an awareness that's become central to my life and my music: that an intense spiritual and emotional reservior exists inside all of us and we can tap it by observing the structure of nature. Look out the window -- everything's in motion -- the bird's, the trees, the wind. Then there's the light, interplaying with it all." We are in motion, in flux all the time -- yet there's a constant harmony or structure to it all."
This same balance, between structure and flow, is what he attempts to bring to his compositions. "When I'm composing, I specifically seek to provide enough structure to draw out from the musicians what they have inside them," Esposito says. "The structure serves as a kind of 'container' so the creativity has someplace to go. At the same time, I try to provide enough space for them to move in." One tune to be performed this Sunday, "Whistle Flute Harvest," is a mixed-meter piece inspired by a Yergan (Central Africa) harvest tune. The tune gestated ten years; Esposito only recently wrote it in the middle of a rehearsal. Other pieces are more from jazz mainstream tradition, he says, and still others reflect his harmonic studies with his mentor Arthur Rhames.
Also at Sunday's show, vocalist Pam Pentony will interpret Esposito's settings of two poems by the late Italian poet, Cesare Pavese, taken from the latter's 1936 book, Lavore Manca ("Hard Labor"). One of the poems, "Encounter," was first performed with five voices at one of the winter forums and has since been adapted for this collaboration.
"It's hard stuff," says Pentony, who teaches voice, dance, theater arts, records commercials, and occasionally sings with the 12-piece Stardust Big Band. "The harmonies are more complex, the phrasing more difficult, and the time signature changes all the time -- sometimes every bar -- because it has to adapt to the poetry. This work has taken me to places I didn't even know I could reach."
Another highlight this Sunday will be collaboration between poet Janine Pommy Vega and pianist David Arner. Vega will read from a book poems she's currently completing, The Old Way, written during recent travels to Nepal, Peru and Czechoslovakia, and perform three poems with Arner. The pianist, an old hand at collaborating with dancers and poets, is loved locally for composing and performing scores to silent film classics such as The Phantom of the Opera and The Last Laugh.
One poem, "Atalaya (Watchtower)" was written in a Peruvian town on the edge of the jungle. "It's about being in the moment and the transformation of everything to everything else," says Vega. "It's like being nailed to the wall and at the same time singing."
Her rhythmic piece, "The Musician," celebrates "how in music there is no time but now, no love but what you're doing." On this piece, Vega says, "Arner plays a 5/4 rhythm on the balaton (an African xylophone made of wood) while she plays 4/4 on maracas -- "Every 20 beats we're together."
Vega and Arner performed "The Musician" at an FM forum last winter. "Your vision gros when something gets amplified by another artist," says Vega. "It's like one plus one ends up not being just two but 100,000... To be with great musicians who are actually listening to poems or looking at pictures is no ordinary thing."
Also Sunday, Susan Osberg, artistic director and choreographer of the innovative Workwith Dancers Company and co-curator of the Salon Project dance series at the Dia Art Foundation in New Yourk City, will present several new solo works. Osberg has studied both classical ballet and modern dance (with Merce Cunningham); recently, she's incorporated influences from Sufi dancing and Butoh and Quigong forms of Eastern dance, terming her new direction "dancing from the inside out." Osberg, who's also been teaching at Bard since 1985, uses a lot of improvisation in her dance and places special emphasis on interdisciplinary collaborations -- so she should be in step with the FM Artist Coalition.
An exhibition of oil paintings, linocuts, monotypes and drawings by Albany-based artist Lori Lawrence will complete the arts feast. Her work, which often depicts animated groups in social settings (cafe, beaches), has been described as having "a carnival atmosphere" and "a jazzy syncopated tempo." Featured will be large, vivid oil titled "Half Moon Cafe," which (appropriately) depicts a group of musicians in the act.
While many people have helped to make the Coalition a success -- musicians Dave Douglas and Santi Debriano, singers Teri Cox and Kathleen Myers, visual artists Tina Stack and Bea Conovor, lyricist Kathleen Sannwald and videographer Anna Edwards, to name a few -- much more help is needed for the summer concerts. Specifically, the group needs help with fundraising, volunteers to park cars, a recording engineer, a food concessioner -- and cash. Anyone wishing to donate to the FM Artist Coalition can send a check to Woodstock Guild, noting that it's specifically for this group.
Esposito, Lindsay, and Cox are excited about the group's affiliation with the Guild. "What we bring to it is a tremendous resource of world-class performers and artists working cooperatively -- which amazes concert organizers," says Esposito. "In exchange, the Guild has become our umbrella organization, providing space, advice and organizational assistance. Everyone wins."
Tickets for Sunday's concert ($9, $7 for Guild members) are available at Guild offices and Rhythms, both in Woodstock, and at Rhythms II, 54 Main Street, New Paltz. Season tickets for all six concerts cost $45. Reservations can be made by calling 679-5444.
Donna Boundy
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Music
Frequently Modulated
There's a logic to the ambitious scope of the FM Artist Coalition presentations, since the Coalition itself has defined it's goals ambitiously, to wit: "It's purpose [FMAC] is to cooperatively present original works by living artists from the various art forms non-commercial venues."
In 1989, the result of this intent was that 50 performing and visual artists were provided a new forum for their work; in 1990 the number increased to 60. Last Friday's concert at Kleinert Art Center was described as a preview for the FMAC concerts to be produced with the cooperation of the Woodstock Guild this summer.
For jazz artists, there is a profound freedom in playing in venues such as this; club owners, after all, are all in business to sell drinks for a profit, and not to provide aesthetic experiences for the cognoscenti. Locally, there has been a perception among publicans that "jazz audiences don't drink enough," and thus the normally acrimonious and mistrustful relationships that characterize musicians and club owners are even worse in the case of jazz performers. And this is just the monetary side -- it's easy to imagine the reaction of a jazz artist who has studied his/her craft for decades when a club owners says, "Play something the people know, not any of that far-out crap." In other words, surrender artistic control.
This profound freedom was a garden that bloomed in multifarious ways Friday. Freedom from cigarette smoke, from boisterous non-listeners; freedom to delve into the esoteric, to experiment. In some instances, freedom to make mistakes -- mistakes that were proof positive, not of incompetence, but of the ambitiousness of what necessarily implies the risk of crashing.
The program opened up with compositions by pianist John Esposito, works that incorporated short poems by women poets of Japan, and a whistle flute harvest song from Yergan tribe of Nigeria. The first part, "Victory Blues," opened to the triumphant horns of trumpetist Dave Douglas and saxophonist Jeff Marx above Esposito's rich block chords, which in their dramatic intensity evoked the grandeur, the sense of empire, or Brubeck's 'Blue Rondo a la Turk." Also like Blue Rondo, freneticism built to a climax, then calmed into a relaxed 12-bar blues.
The next part of the work was based on a poem the Empress Jito had written on the death of Emperor Temmu in the 7th century: "Over North mountain/Dark clouds rise/the stars go/Then the moon goes."
The haunting melancholy of the lyrical theme was complemented by the dissonance of the vocal parts, sung by soprano Pamela Pentony; alto Teri Cox, tenor Steve Johnson and bass Tim Strong. Later, Strong said he was, "always keen to perform at FM concerts --they challenge all my musicality." Even for these very experienced and competent singers, the challenge was daunting: go on stage, sing a work of extraordinary complexity in four parts, for the briefest period of time, without time to warm up, and make it sound good. This is precisely what they did, ending up well-balanced, in tune, and with a powerful emotion suitable to this somber and timeless theme of bereavement.
The second set featured bassist Santi Debriano, alone at first, playing his own compositions. Starting fast and frenzied with his bow, Debriano expanded the notion of what his instrument is capable of. Playing beyond the fingerboard, he elicited banshee wails from his bass; at other points he played pizzicato over muted strings, in effect turning his bass into a percussion instrument. The ancient marriage of percussion and chords, flamenco roule technique, was used to dazzling effect (as may be expected, it's a lot harder to do what it is, in effect, a drum roll on bass than it is on guitar). Debriano was joined by drummer Hal Miller later and an interesting interplay developed as they traded fours.
The last part of this set featured songs by composer/saxophonist Erica Lindsay and lyricist Kathleen Sannwald, sung by Strong. Starting upbeat and swinging, then evolving into a slow, torchy blues, reminiscent in some ways of "One For My Baby," these songs stayed within the blues idiom, while providing vehicles for the raw and resonant power of Strong's voice. Especially notable was the torch song, "Blue O'Clock In The Morning," with Sannwald's felicitous lyrics evoking vicious loneliness of the blue night giving way to the hope of the morning: "My heart will rise to be strong."
It should be noted that events of this type, because they are non-commercial and partly funded by the New York State Council On the Arts, are precisely the sorts of things that are currently imperiled by budget cuts. There is some logic to building prison cells rather than composers, but it escapes me.
George Chevalier
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Second Sight takes flight
February 20, 1992
When Second Sight was born, the name was meant to address the deeper, almost unconscious level of communication among highly accomplished musicians who speak without words. Since that time, circa late 1985, the concepts that brought these musical explorers together under the leadership of John Esposito have developed form and content.
Their 1987 debut release Flying With The Comet, garnered praise from Downbeat, The New York Times, Jazz Times, Cadence and a constellation of local and national publications, including some pretty impressive radio airplay for a self-issued album. Tiger Tracks, their second flight, followed with the same desire to remain out-of-the-usual orbit. Drummer Jeff Siegel says they are still working to get their strongest tracks down on tape. "The music is very difficult," he notes. "It takes a lot of work. Most people aren't doing this sort of thing."
Heading up principal composer and pianist John Esposito, this very intense quintet includes Siegel, Jeff Marx on saxophone, Dave Douglas on trumpet and John Menegon on bass. This Sunday, February 23, Second Sight will kick off a series of four concerts sponsored by the FM Artist Coalition at Joyous Lake, 42 Mill Hill road, Woodstock, at 4:30 p.m. (See sidebar for complete concert schedule.) The band will share billing with dancer Kathleen Kramer, a powerhouse tapper who is an absolute wonder, a delight to watch and listen to as she pats out percussive rhythms.
Esposito's muse is far-ranging, often traveling to uncharted lands. If you think you hear a hint of Liszt, a haunt of Bartok or Ravol, a hunk of Coltrane, you're close to at least some of his inspirations. "I've been dealing with the piano as an orchestra, and that led me to the visionaries," he says, referring to the composers who have inspired him to delve areas of harmonic and metrical complexity. Not surprisingly, his music is adventurous, steamy and forceful, and he can swing too. Esposito does not take -- or give --his musical gifts lightly, and he places a high premium on originality.
Like it's leader's sensibility, Second Sight's cohesiveness did not develop overnight. Take, for example, their work in the studio. Previously, they'd go in, rehearse, polish, do three tapes or so and end up keeping the first take. "Finally, we got the point," Esposito laughs. "Now, we go in with a piece, have a brief discussion as to format and then record it four or five completely different ways. We try to do as many different interpretations as seems relevant for that day. The aim isn't so much the finished products as [creating] a series of sketches. It's more flexible."
The process, he adds, "puts focus and responsibility on the players and make their own decisions. They really need to address the issue of what they are trying to say, of who they are. It's not pre-determined. You'd think it would be easier, but it's actually much more difficult."
A resident of Woodstock, Esposito soared off on his own after playing years of the blues, soul/pop and jazz with changing groups, mostly in the Albany area. A lone wolf, he eventually hooked up with guitarist Kevin McNeal and drummer Jeff Siegel, forming a group that lasted a little more than a year. He then hit the Apple, met his mentor-to-be Arthur Rhames and played with him about five years. Siegel and Jeff Marx came onto the scene and shortly after that, Second Sight opened it's eyes.
Second Sight is Esposito's way of making it through the jazz-nights, so to speak. It is, after all, inevitable that any musician worth his chops will have horror stories about the vagaries of the business, the traps and snares that lurk for even the freest of creative spirits. Add to this the fact that many artists fall too far under the sway of their teachers, and the road of influence may gradually become a rut.
While emulating other musicians is inescapable at some point in one's musical development, this necessary stage can be "very confusing and a little dangerous," says Esposito. If all you ever do is emulate, he says, "you never really address the question of why you are given a gift. It's surely not to mimic someone else's life. It's a little crazy, to work so hard to sound like someone else." "You are, " he continues, "a product of your own time and your own history. For better or for worse, you've got your own potential and own limitations."
Siegel takes this thought a bit further, confiding that working with Esposito and the other members of Second Sight has been an expansive thing for him. "A lot of people like to play the things they can do already," Siegel says. "I really like being in this group because it takes you to a point where you can really grow. And, hopefully, we're advancing the music, too."
It's hard, the drummer notes, to find such kindred creative spirits in this day and age. "A lot of musicians have a mercenary attitude and although it's mostly out of necessity, especially in New York, it becomes just like a job," he says. "You lose sight of the music. A lot of groups have gone by the wayside because of the economics of the music right now. It's hard to stay and grow as a unit."
"If you do survive," says Esposito. "you begin to become clear about your feelings about the very fundamental things in life. Birth, death and how people live are abstractions when you are younger. Besides, then you're busy learning how to play."
Nowadays, as a teacher, Esposito guides others through the process of learning how to play. "I enjoy examining with a student what makes Bud Powell sound like Bud Powell, or [likewise] Bill Evans or Coltrane or Charlie Parker," he says. "I like helping them explore what links are as well as the technical aspects. After years of study, the point becomes finding your own connection to the spirit in your own way."
And of course, maintaining that connection. Although chilling to consider, Esposito believes strongly that not being true to your creative energies can destroy you. It's an issue that's close to the bone for him. His friend, the late saxophonist and guitarist Arthur Rhames, was "one of four or five friends who were destroyed, literally killed, by that inability to keep faith with [themselves]," he says. "It wasn't really in [Arthur's] nature to compromise when everyone said that he had to do so. There's a very strong lesson there, not just for artists but for everyone. Forgetting about reflecting what you really see... instead of mouthing someone else's ideas -- just, you know, repeating the party line -- is destructive."
A persistent challenge for artists in this culture, according to Esposito, is the call to address a higher love than the one evoked by pop songs. "Addressing music on a level of 'I'm all yours, body and soul'," he says, falls short of, say, John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," which addresses the issue of divine love. "One is about physical love and the other is about something much deeper and more intense," Esposito says. "One is a pale reflection of the other. It's the difference between walking in the park and climbing Mount Everest. Right now, with the Second Sight," he laughs, "we're in the ice fields, clinging to the edge of the precipice, but we're on our way. We're pressing on."
Sunday's concert gives Esposito another chance to work with Kathleen Kramer, who knocked him out with her snappy tap footwork the first time he caught her act. The two first worked together at a recent benefit performance and had so much fun they decided to try and co-create on a more consistent basis. This presented a problem, however, because Kramer's studio didn't have a piano.
"I had a piano in Brooklyn that I was about to sell, but we split the moving costs and moved it up here," says Esposito. He adds that Kramer will perform with "at least the rhythm section of Section Sight, because she has more experience doing that than performing with a pianist."
Admission to Sunday's concert is $7 at the door. Advanced full series tickets for all four concerts ($21) are also available at the Lake. For more information, call 679-2299.
Debra Bresnan