Alex Sadnik: Flight

What is new to say through Charlie Parker's music? On Flight Alex Sadnik looks for answers with two different bands.

On the first side of the LP, his alto fronts a quintet with violin, pedal steel guitar, bass,and drums, but this is not a Bob Wills or Bill Frisell pastiche. The opening track, "Donna Lee," stretches and compresses Parker's speedy contrafact of "Indiana" into a medium waltz. Both Sadnik's alto tone and the metric liberties taken with the theme may remind listeners of the cool jazz masterpiece Lee Konitz Meets Jimmy Giuffre (Verve, 1959), but the next track approaches the blues "Parker's Mood" hard and rootsy, with all three frontline players getting gritty. Dave Easley in particular eschews the liquid sound often associated with the pedal steel, overdriving his amp and not hiding pick attacks with the volume pedal.

The second side features a piano-less quartet. Their tightly crafted and cooly played arrangement of "Yardbird Suite," which includes transcribed lines from Parker's original solo played in unison by the horns, evokes similar projects of the cool era, particular Gerry Mulligan's quartet, but passages where the bass and drums aggressively break up the time under Kris Tiner's trumpet solo are a reminder that the recording was made in 2022, not 1958. Sadnik's reconstruction of "Red Cross" stops, starts and changes tempo during the theme like an Atlantic-era Ornette Coleman piece, then consists almost entirely of the horns and bass variously accompanying a show-stopping solo by drummer Tina Raymond.

All the playing on this record is excellent, but Raymond stands out. Her frequent focus on the toms evokes past masters such as Art Blakey, Max Roach and Ed Blackwell without being imitative, and her approach to time is absolutely contemporary, as exemplified by the New Orleans groove she and bassist Billy Mohler play on the closing "Diverse/Segment," which stretches boldly without ever losing the pocket, even during four-way collective improvisation. Los Angeles has always had a cadre of outstanding jazz players who remain underappreciated due to the New York-centered approach of what is left of the jazz business and because of the lucrative alternatives of popular music, such as Mohler's work behind Ringo Starr, Lady Gaga and many others. Listeners unfamiliar with these players and their collaborative circles will find much to enjoy in the catalogs of the Big Ego and Orenda labels.

Note that this is an LP, and designed for the medium. There are two contrasting sides, the six tracks average six minutes each and the solos are relatively short and thoughtfully planned as part of the arrangements. Producer Chris Schlarb is a factor here; his Big Ego studio and label focus on guitar and vocal-centered alternative rock, Americana, and singer-songwriter projects, but include jazz projects such as this, Dave Tranchina's big band, Mike Baggetta's work with Mike Watt, and others. Big Ego offers an annual subscription to their vinyl releases, which gets these jazz records into the homes and ears of many listeners who likely would have not picked them up on their own.

Ultimately, Flight does not advance the thesis that Charlie Parker's music leads directly to Bill Frisell, Mulligan, Coleman, etc, but rather uses it as a pretext for some fun and friendly writing and playing.

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