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Event
Adam Meckler Quintet Album Release Show @ Lilypad, Cambridge
Trumpeter-Composer Adam Meckler Pens New Music On Family, Nostalgia and Travel On His Second Full Length Album By The Adam Meckler Quintet.
Wander, to be released April 23rd via Shifting Paradigm Records, features explorative melodic and groove-oriented compositions performed by some of the Twin Cities premier forward-thinking jazz musicians.
Adam Meckler is known for his penchant for melody, and the nine compositions featured on Wander are certainly no exception. Melodic doesnt mean simple or bland. Mecklers compositions range from aesthetically pleasing to fierce and aggressive and back, with influences from R&B, pop and indie rock. The grooves on the album will keep toes tapping, but the beat isnt always easy to find. Compositions that feel great but are slightly off-kilter are commonplace in Mecklers catalogue, and were featured in full-force on the 2014 release from the Adam Meckler Orchestra When The Clouds Look Like This, which was listed as one of the best jazz releases of 2014 by iTunes.
Along with Meckler on the trumpet, the compositions on Wander are realized by a handful of prominent musicians from the Twin Cities, tenor saxophonists Nelson Devereaux and Joe Mayo, guitarist Zacc Harris, bassist Graydon Peterson, and drummer Greg Schutte. The band has been performing together since 2008 and has formed an obvious chemistry on display throughout Wander.
The albums name is taken from the J.R.R Tolkien quote Not all who wander are lost which has always resonated with Meckler. Ive spent a lot of time on the road over the last decade, he explains. That means leaving family and friends at home. While this can be difficult, travel often leads to discovery, and discovery is the catalyst for new art. The title is also apt because the album was recorded over the course of three different nights at three different venues.
The title track features Mecklers explorative voice on full display. The tune starts with a rubato melody in G minor, giving way to a bright groove that toggles between 4/4 and 7/4. Meckler masterfully blurs the lines between what is composed and what is improvised throughout the piece, with the entire band coming together to play in unison from time to time. The Sun Sets Slowly features a virtuosic bass solo from Graydon Peterson to begin the tune and quickly turns to a looping groove with a deceiving hiccup in the time at the end of each phrase.
Adams inspirations for the compositions on Wander come from many places, and One Creaking Birch Tree is in remembrance of the Door County, WI author and poet Norbert Blei. The title is taken from one of Norbs books about preserving the natural landscape in Door County, Meckler explains. Ill be doing a larger project on Norbs work with my big band in 2017. His work and connection to nature has always resonated with me.
The Call is a track the AMQ recorded for their debut album For Dad. It remembers the phone call Meckler received from his mother notifying him of his fathers fatal heart attack in 2008. A powerful and highly improvisatory tune, the quintet captures the anxiety of The Call in their eerie performance. Improvisation leads in to Little Wild Child which was penned while Mecklers son was still in the womb. My son was incredibly active in the womb, which is not really surprising considering who his parents are, Meckler said. Little Wild Child speaks of all that punching and kicking.
Lets Live is the newest composition on the album and was inspired by a number of conversations and observations surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement. According to Meckler, Lets Live is about working together to make this country a great place to live for all of its inhabitants.
On a lighter note, Drews Beard is a tune written after witnessing an impressive beard grown by a friend, and Atomium Jules is an ode to the Atomium in Brussels, Belgium which Adam witnessed while on tour with Youngblood Brass Band. The Atomium was an incredible sight and it was very fun to explore. It was supposed to be Brussles stamp on the world. Their Eifle Tower, if you will. Instead, hardly anyone outside of Belgium knows its there, Meckler said.
Though Meckler is best known for his large ensemble writing with the Adam Meckler Orchestra, heavily influenced by composers Maria Schneider and Darcy James Argue, this live outing by his quintet shows that even the grand ideas of modern big band composition can resonate in a small ensemble, and Wander captures this energy in full.
About Adam Meckler
Adam Meckler is a trumpeter and composer living in Minneapolis. His 18-piece big band The Adam Meckler Orchestra has become one of the most exciting bands on the scene. The AMO's 2014 album When the Clouds Look Like This was listed among 2014's Best Jazz Releases on iTunes. Meckler has toured extensively throughout the US and Europe with Youngblood Brass Band and Todd Clouser's A Love Electric, and continues to play regularly with a host of bands around the Twin Cities including Nooky Jones, Jana Nyberg Group, Graydon Peterson Quartet and Pete Whitman's X-Tet.
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LocationLilypad (View)
1353 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
United States
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| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
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