Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Walt Blanton: Monuments

429

Walt Blanton: Monuments

By

View read count
Walt Blanton: Monuments
The notion of forming a group with the intention of playing completely improvised music is something that Las Vegas trumpeter Walt Blanton says has always fascinated him. While the concept of performing free-form jazz is nothing new, it is a bold move for an artist, like Blanton, not usually associated with the genre.



After experimenting with sounds and concepts for about a year, Blanton, along with pianist Tony Branco and drummer John Nasshan felt the time was right to roll tape on their daring musical experiment. The resulting seven tracks, recorded in one day during the summer of 2006, comprises Monuments; an adventurous musical joy-ride full of unexpected twists and turns.

Blanton is a powerhouse of a trumpeter who can play with lyrical restraint, culling notes from the middle register, and having fun with short melodic spurts, as he does on "Lester Rides Again and "In And Out." There are moments, however, when brilliant tone and commanding technique take over, as on "Life Force." For the majority of the disc, it is Blanton who plants the initial musical seed for each piece, creating themes with noticeable traces of post-bop and contemporary mainstream jazz, singed with an abundance of melancholy and satire.

The interplay between piano and trumpet is astonishing. Branco seems to anticipate Blanton's every move, accentuating the nuances of the trumpeter's rhythmic momentum. The pianist enjoys dancing along the outer realm of tonality—with Don Pullen-like fervor—on the title track and serves up elongated, patiently developed rumblings on the lengthy and multi-faceted "Life Force.

Always colorful and rhythmically adventurous, Nasshan maintains an incessant drive, keeping things grounded and swinging. His subtle cymbal work on the serene "Song Without Words melds easily with Branco's light-as-air clusters.

A conceptual winner, void of unnecessary posturing, Monuments is a fun time had by three exceptional musical minds.

Track Listing

Monuments; Song Without Words; Suite For Lulu; Life Force; Alone; Lester Rides Again; In And Out.

Personnel

Walt Blanton: trumpet; Tony Branco: piano; John Nasshan: drums.

Album information

Title: Monuments | Year Released: 2008 | Record Label: Origin Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.