Artemis: In Real Time

Artemis double down on their fiery yet regal 2020 self-titled, Blue Note debut with a punchy, calligraphic flare (thanks in part to their younger contemporaries, in demand multi-reedist Alexa Tarantino and hellfire saxophonist Nicole Glover), catch fire, and watch it spread.

An early, sure-fire contender for the tops-of-twenty-three list barrage, In Real Time is really very hard to resist, even when it falls out of step. "Balance of Time," though intoxicating in texture, seems out of sequence just when the pace is hitting another early high. (As a kindly piece of advice, perhaps its placement in future set-lists should succeed trumpeter Ingrid Jensen's split tempered or split tempo'ed "Timber," a taut, hot-wired reverie held together by Renee Rosnes' ringing Rhodes. Just sayin.')

Multi-cultural as well as multi-generational, Artemis continue blending the best of us into a froth which never goes flat. One listen to their sly take on the late Lyle Mays' twisting "Slink" is all the proof needed, which makes the remaining seven performances on In Real Time a full blown bonus all the way around.

With its constantly rotating switchbacks, "Bow and Arrow" is a modal, bareback ride through Blue Note sessions past and present, with a sparkling "March of the Wooden Soldiers"-like front line. Presided over by composer Allison Miller's core urban swing, the tune ignites with the hooky exaltations of Jensen's biting tenor and Tarantino's pure alto. "Bow and Arrow" is a tune which—like "Slink" before it, like In Real Time as a whole—never lets up from start to finish.

Born from a one week residency at Birdland, NYC, the music retains and multiplies the tensile strength and elasticity which only comes from a week of live workouts; the women in the band made sure of that. Bassist Noriko Ueda especially pops in all the right places. Her upbeat "Lights Away From Home," is one example of many, but her supple, just-under-the-surface movements throughout Tarantino's freewheeling waltz, "Whirlwind," just might take the prize.

"Empress Afternoon," from Rosnes' Life on Earth (Blue Note, 2002) with Christian McBride and Zakir Hussain, is no less electric and adventurous here than it was there. Spearheaded by the whole rhythm section and given wings to fly by Glover and Tarantino's hyper drive call-and-response, the performance wraps and unwraps, wraps and unwraps at a grand, roller coaster pace.

Rosnes, who may be at the peak of her powers here, arranges an impassioned, fragile blues for Wayne Shorter's "Penelope." First heard on Etcetera (Blue Note, 1965) "Penelope" is a melody which has always seemed present as well as prescient, and Jensen's emotional, muted trumpet and Rosnes' freeform arpeggios give way to Glover's late night, afterglow sax; she picks up where the master—Shorter—left off. A triumph of no small degree.