Andy Baker: From Here, From There

Andy Baker has crafted an uplifting recording featuring his trombone plus trumpet, upright bass and drums—no chordal instruments. From Here, From There is a fresh take on swing/bop ballads that melds top-notch instrumentalists—Baker, Russ Johnson on trumpet, Clark Sommers on bass and Dana Hall on drums—with beautiful compositions and cover arrangements. Baker luxuriates in "the incredible freedom you get, without explicit chords, to stretch the color of the solo and negotiate anything from there."

The sparse 4-piece orchestration works well on many fronts: the warm-toned horns are given free rein to explore the compositions without crashing into chords; harmonies are framed strikingly using just two notes at certain times and dynamic counterpoint at others; solos shift deftly between tonal, bluesy and "outside" lines; and the bass and drums emerge pristinely from the sound mix, highlighting the driving energy of the quartet.

The first piece, "Close Your Eyes," lays the foundation for the album's concept. The quartet takes this melancholy standard, written in 1933 and performed by luminaries such as Art Blakey, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett, and they apply a more muscular treatment. Baker gives a master class on getting the trombone to solo deftly and melodically, sketching in the harmonic minor contours of the composition. Johnson's trumpet solo takes more of linear hard bop approach. As across the album, he strikes a tasteful balance between straight eighths sans vibrato and a looser approach. Add in well-constructed solos by Sommers and Hall and the decades of individual experience plus the chemistry of the group become evident.

The inventive composer Baker wrote six of the album's nine tracks. Their contrasting moods reinforce the wide possibilities of a non-chordal format. "The State of the Estate" is a catchy jazz anthem with a call-and-response format reminiscent of "Moanin.'" The song "Softly" opens freely with mallets on tom toms and segues into a slow, steady pulse with quartal harmony, bringing to mind Ellington's "Money Jungle" or just perhaps, "Maiden Voyage" if played as a processional.

Kudos also are due to Baker for the clever choice of two more standards on the recording. "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing," by Billy Strayhorn, was written for a slow tempo with a sophisticated harmonic progression. Baker's quartet reconstructs the piece with a more robust tempo set up via bass groove, cymbal-crashing fills that otherwise would be the responsibility of a pianist, and scripted contrapuntal lines from the trombone and trumpet. The standard "Skylark" is performed as a duet by trombone over a half-time walking bass. It does not get much purer or lovelier than that.

From Here, From There ultimately is a reflection on Baker's early years based in London refining his sound and last two decades building deep musical relationships around Chicago. It is well worth a listen no matter where you live on the jazz spectrum.