John Vanore & Abstract Truth: Easter Island Suite

The spirit of Oliver Nelson and the thousand ghosts of Easter Island loom large over John Vanore & Abstract Truth's Easter Island Suite. The Nelson side of the equation has its roots in trumpeter Vanore's attendance at a Nelson-directed summer program at Indiana University, which led him, as a student, into deeper explorations of Nelson's work, including 1961 classic Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!). Hence, the name of his ensemble: John Vanore & Abstract Truth. As for Easter Island—the loneliest place on Earth, it is located in the middle of the southeastern Pacific Ocean, 2000-plus miles from Chile, 1300 miles from the nearest inhabited Island. It is a place that has captured and held Vanore's attention for 30-plus years—a stark, windswept, ecologically denuded place that is home to the towering, enigmatic lava statues called Moai that have stood sentinel on the island's perimeter for centuries—stern, foreboding, immutable contenances casting their gazes upon the surrounding sea.

Vanore & Abstract Truth explore this isolated place with the sweeping four-part Easter Island Suite, expanding Nelson's vision of Blues and the Abstract Truth with expanded instrumentation—heavy on the brass, with two reedists and three or four-piece rhythm sections.

The set opens with "Movement 1: Discovery," representing the first landing on the island by Europeans in 1772. A French horn solo that exudes a sense of forlorn wonder—by George Barnett—is followed by an ensemble section signifying perhaps awe at the encounter of this new landscape that leads into a probing tenor sax solo by Mike Falcone, who sounds as if he is standing on a promontory beside one of the statues, the wind whipping the tall grass around his legs.

"Movement 2: Gods and Devils" and "Movement 3: The Secret Caves," recorded in 2012, unfold in the same manner as the opener— exploratory ensemble sections and inspired solos all around. The music of the suite was recorded between 1989 ("Movement 1: Discovery" through 2024 ("Movement 4: Rano Raraku"), a time span that speaks to Vanore's obsession with the subject at hand. And it bears mentioning that the sound is as cohesive as if he had recorded it in one single session; such is the Vanore's mastery of arrangement and artistic focus.

"Movement 4: Rano Raraku (Journey to the Lake)" is a 15-minute masterpiece. It opens with a fanfare of horns underlain by an otherworldly guitar-piano-bass-drums rhythmic reverie. The title refers to the volcanic crater from which the statues were quarried. The rhythm section contribution is stark and off-center, but strikingly gorgeous. It seems initially—construction-wise—similar to Miles Davis Nefertiti from the 1968 Columbia Records album of he same name, with the rhythm section setting the tone and pace. Greg Kettinger lays down a scorching guitar solo, and Ron Thomas gets room for an elegant and nuanced piano solo that closes things out on a beautiful, cerebral and hauntingly engaging exit from the island.