Clark Sommers: WaBaSH

An integral component of the Chicago-based jazz community, bassist Clark Sommers has honed his craft as a sideman with everyone from Kurt Elling to Jon Irabagon, with a multifaceted fluency that extends from mainstream jazz to more adventurous projects. And from time to time he also gets to flex as a leader, starting with his debut effort in 2013, Ba(SH) (Origin Records), a recording which documented his long-standing trio with fellow Chicago stalwarts Geof Bradfield on saxophone and Dana Hall on drums, a partnership that began in the 1990s. Ba(SH) had an accomplished follow-up in 2019 with Peninsula (Outside in Music). Now for WaBaSH, Sommers has added a pivotal fourth member: multi-instrumentalist John Wojciechowski, whose work on saxophone and flute adds texture and new harmonic possibilities to the band's music.

The album is fundamentally a collective enterprise, with each musician getting at least one composition, and with each piece taking advantage of Wojciechowski's presence, allowing him to augment Bradfield's substantial talents to generate music greater than the sum of its parts. Their complementarity is abundantly evident on the opener, Sommers' steadily churning "Points of Reduction," in which Wojciechowski's sinuous alto deftly balances Bradfield's muscular tenor. The piece really takes flight toward the end, with the two horns locked in a spirited dialogue that reveals Wojciechowski's added value nicely.

Irrespective of their composer, the other tracks take a similar form, with well-crafted themes articulated with two-horn harmonies which then give way to lengthy solo opportunities. Fortunately, both Bradfield and Wojciechowski have multi-axe abilities which help to give the tracks their distinctive flavor. Hall's moody "Kasbah" benefits from Bradfield's luminous soprano sax casting its light over the track's otherwise crepuscular aspect, while Wojciechowski's lyrical flute is the ideal companion to Bradfield's meaty bass clarinet on "Contemplation," Bradfield's only composition on the record.

While terrific solos abound on the album, the moments in which Bradfield and Wojciechowski engage each other in dialogue are the ones that truly stand out. Sommers' "Close the Loop" is a case in point. While the piece's funky groove gives the track its animating spirit, when Bradfield's assertive tenor squares off against Wojciechowski's feisty alto toward the end of the cut, the music goes to the next level. Similarly, Wojciechowski's sprightly "Ornette-Type-Tune," which closes the record, gives ample opportunity for the mutual improvisation that these four musicians are clearly capable of providing, a worthy nod to Ornette Coleman's own innovations in that regard.

Notwithstanding the strength of their own compositions, the quartet's members reveal their creative potential most potently on Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweet Way." Guiding a shape-shifting arrangement using multiple time signatures, the airtight rapport between Sommers and Hall helps to generate some inspired playing from both horns, and once again, their congenial convergence in collective music-making is noteworthy.