Jake Noble: Letting Go Of A Dream

Making art is about a search for authenticity, a search for the truth. But the truth is complicated, and our perceptions of it can change over time. The concept for Letting Go Of A Dream, the debut recording from New Orleans-based bassist Jake Noble, began as a tribute to some of his well-chosen truth-telling heroes: pianist Bill Evans, bassist Charlie Haden and saxophonist Kenny Garrett. But Noble, in the crafting of these original tunes, found that things evolved. Yes, he still nods to Evans, Haden and Garrett, but he also pushes aside some curtains to enter into a journey of discovery, with each tune representing a step towards self-acceptance.

"What Could Have Been" took its inspiration from Bill Evans' "Time Remembered." Opening with an extended piano trio introduction, this wistful, bittersweet exploration of missed opportunities brightens with the entrance of Autumn Dominguez's sweet and sour alto saxophone tone. What could have been? What might have been? Truths we will never know; elusive truths that are well served by the musical examination here, with Dominguez taking the sound into the realm of anguish, and then regret.

"The Push Factor" has an upbeat, Kenny Garrett vibe, and "Acceptance of the Journey" goes through a half dozen gear shifts, mirroring the changes and stumbles and detours, the winding roads and inevitable switchbacks that life brings, while "Farewell To The Kid From Spring" is the first take laid down in the recording session, a duet featuring bassist Noble and pianist Seth Collins. This off-the-cuff warm-up has a sense of longing, of looking back and knowing it is an impossible direction; the journey only goes one way and must be accepted.

Noble wrote "Alice's Point Of View" was inspired by one of his New Orleans neighbors known for her positivity, while it nods to the Sammy Fain tune "Alice In Wonderland" (a Bill Evans favorite), written for the 1951 Disney tune of the same name, while the closer, "Theme For A New Age," featuring Mike Clement on guitar, seems to look to the future, in an optimistic mood.