Loren Stillman – Winter Fruits – Pirouet

by | Nov 29, 2009 | Jazz CD Reviews | 0 comments

Loren Stillman – Winter Fruits – Pirouet PIT3042, 51:09 ****1/2:

(Loren Stillman – alto saxophone; Nate Radley – guitar; Gary Versace – organ; Ted Poor – drums)

Sometimes it can be a burden to be labeled a prodigy. Undoubtedly, that has been true of Loren Stillman. Still in his twenties, Stillman has released his tenth disc as leader and second for the European label, Pirouet, Winter Fruits. Winner of numerous awards including two Outstanding Performance Awards (1996 and 1998), the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award, as well as being a semifinalist in the Theolonius Monk Saxophone Competition, Stillman, despite all the accolades, up till now had yet to record a defining disc. Winter Fruits changes all that.

Featuring young guns Nate Radley on guitar, a player of consummate taste and imagination, organist Gary Versace, who is redefining contemporary keyboard playing, and visionary drummer Ted Poor, just in his mid-twenties but turning heads in downtown NY circles and indeed around the world, Winter Fruits represents some of the finest jazz of the new millennium. Incidentally, these four musicians have formed a band, Bad Touch, and have independently released a disc, Like a Magic Kiss (containing three cuts, “Skin,” “Man of Mystery,” and “Like a Magic Kiss” included on Winter Fruits), that I’m anxious to hear.

Stillman, who has mastered the ethereal, mystical school of jazz composition (not unlike his alto counterpart, Peter Epstein, especially on his landmark outing, The Invisible), handles the majority of songwriting credits, with Poor contributing two of the more provocative numbers, “Muted Dreams” and the title cut. How to describe the music? Warmly abstract approaches it. Hardly hummable, the songs have their own quirky logic and, despite their sinuousness, sound perfectly natural, even inevitable. The most ambitious, “A Song to Be Played,” morphs through a challenging array of moods only to emerge with a quiet serenity that overwhelms with its understatement. It takes deep emersion into the world of jazz composition and playing to produce music this sophisticated yet approachable.

Looking for the next generation of jazz genius? Look no further than Loren Stillman and friends, who are bringing into being some of the most provocative music around.

TrackList:
Muted Dreams
Skin
Man of Mystery
With You
Like a Magic Kiss
A Song to Be Played
Winter Fruits
Puffy

– Jan P. Dennis

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