SLUGish Ensemble: In Solitude

This is an extremely satisfying and enjoyable album on so many levels. First of all, it is infused with lovely, dancing grooves. The opener, "Del Sur," sets the pace with a provocative, snakelike bass clarinet solo. It all falls into place like a song one has known forever. Most of the songs name-check the streets of the Miraloma neighborhood in San Francisco, where Steven Lugerner lived during the pandemic and where he came to embrace solitude.

In the liner notes, Lugerner recalls a class he took with saxophone legend Jane Ira Bloom at The New School in New York City. Lugerner revisited a particular writing method where he would "have a practice session, take a nap, wake up, turn on a recording device, press record, and capture three minutes of improvisation."

Bloom then told her students to "transcribe what you improvised, and identify something you liked that could be a melody, bass line or harmony in a new composition." Lugerner adapted this approach using the Acapella app, designed for singers to layer vocal parts, which got him into writing regularly again.

This approach indeed served him well, given the results. It helped him tap into the infinite and the emotions reflecting that expansive, unlimited perspective of a dream-like yet grounded musical world.

"Portola" reflects the hustle of the busy thoroughfare in San Francisco; the start-and-stop traffic is almost visible. It upshifts in the song's back end with a baritone solo as vast as the sky. "Moraga," the album's longest song at over 8 minutes, features pianist Javier Santiago in an uplifting groove, while Lugerner, on reeds, travels leisurely through the Inner Sunset on the way to Ocean Beach and a spectacular sunset, while Justin Rock overlays an aching, love-drenched and rock-tinged guitar solo.

"No Justice, No Peace," a tribute to Ahmaud Arbury, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, is the album's most emotional song. Starting off quite dour, it builds momentum and complexity, conveying anguish and solidarity. The final songs, "La Bica," "Juanita," and "Myra," reflect a wide variety of emotions: tranquility, intensity, simplicity, complexity, and wonderous beauty.

But as wonderful as the music is, what makes this modern jazz album so beguiling, immersive, mesmerizing, riveting, and alluring? Well, to put it as simply as possible: Languidly intensive grooves that go ten miles deep... to the very center of the earth and directly into our hearts and minds.

The languid, melodic grooves seem to burst into a thousand pastel-hued fractals of life-infused joy. Languid is the natural, slow flow of life itself. Somehow, Legurner and company find that life-affirming groove on every single song and then dance to its ecstatic flow.

How Lugerner accomplishes this repeatedly on each of the exquisite selections is a mystery, but he never fails. It flows with a sense of truth, harmony, humility, resilience, acceptance, giving, kindness, and love. And wonder, lots and lots of wonder... in-the-moment wonder.

Extraordinarily listenable, impossibly deep, In Solitude is a triumph.

In Solitude is Steven Lugerner's best album since 2011's exceptional Narratives (self-released). It was a long wait, but it was most definitely worth it and, so far, is perhaps the most outstanding jazz album of 2023.

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