Zach Adleman: We Make: Stories For A New Day

For someone not that long out of college, New York City-based drummer Zach Adleman has kept a full dance card, leading to the release of his impressive debut recording, We Make: Stories for a New Day, on which Adleman leads a nimble sextet through its paces on 11 charming and upbeat songs, nine of which he composed and arranged.

In 2019, the New Jersey native won the Detroit Jazz Festival's annual J.C. Heard National Drum Competition. Two years earlier, he had earned a Grammy Award for a performance on saxophonist Ted Nash's big-band album, The Presidential Suite (Motéma, 2016)—all while pursuing a master's degree in music performance at the Juilliard School, which he received in 2021. Adleman makes good use of those creds here, anchoring a first-class rhythm section, soloing sharply and most of all writing pleasurable charts on whose blueprint everyone can rely and rest easy.

The rhythm section (Adleman, pianist Luther Allison, bassist Jared Beckstead-Craan) remains in place on every number, as do trumpeter Austin Ford and trombonist Steve Davis. Alto saxophonist Sarah Hanrahan is heard on seven numbers, Steve Wilson on four, including a sublime flute solo on the mellow "Song for Wedgewood," which sounds much like a tune Thelonious Monk may have written and indeed leads to Monk's quirky "Evidence," which closes the nearly hour-long session—and wherein Wilson takes a show-stopping turn on alto.

Hanrahan is an engaging soloist in her own right, as are Ford and Davis, while Allison never fails to deliver more than a few clever and inspiring phrases. A word or two must be said about the album's lone standard, Cole Porter's "Night and Day," as it is a highlight, not only for its rhythmic muscle but for dynamic solos by Hanrahan, Allison and the leader. It is also the only track that fades with the ensemble in full flight. It says a lot about Adleman's evolving skill-set that none of his themes suffers greatly by comparison.

Adleman has come a long way in a relatively short time, and based on an inclusive appraisal of We Make, his future seems even brighter and more productive.