Reviews
Mike Fahn
Close Your Eyes…and Listen
Sparky 1 Productions
Released 2002 Time: 56
Musicians: Mike Fahn (valve or slide+ trombone), Charles Blenzig
(piano or synthesizer), Jay Anderson (bass), and Tim Horner (drums),
with Steve Cardenas (guitar)* or Rick Margitza (tenor sax)**
Songs: Without Changes*;
Will Call**; Survivor’s Suite*;
Heart Forest**; The Burren+, *; Get Sparky*, **; On Time*; Close
Your Eyes**
Rating:
Acknowledged masters
on the valve trombone are few and far between. But Mike Fahn
qualifies, at least to the ears of this reviewer,
and to those of the late Leonard Feather. Feather has praised
Fahn for his “bronzed, burnished sound” and his “technique
and ideas to spare, with each note in the right place at the
right instant.”
Fahn was born in Queens
in 1960 and grew up on Long Island. He started on trumpet at
age 7, then baritone horn; he switched
once more when his father, a jazz drummer and big fan of Bob
Brookmeyer, gave him a valve trombone at age 11. His family moved
to Los Angeles when he was 16, and Fahn names Don Menza, Dick
Berk and Maynard Ferguson among his mentors. Other influences
included Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, and Tom Harrell, along
with J.J. Johnson, Frank Rosolino, and Bill Watrous, when he
eventually took up the slide trombone. His West Coast experience
was seasoned by playing with Bob Cooper, Jack Sheldon, Bill Perkins,
and Terry Gibbs, to name a few; he was recipient of the Los Angeles
Jazz Society’s Shelly Manne New Talent Award in 1987. With
Mary Ann McSweeney, his wife and a composer/bassist/leader in
her own right, Fahn returned to New York in 1993. His experience
since has included gigs with a veritable “Who’s Who” of
jazz on the East Coast.
This album has a thoughtful,
introspective feel, a welcome change from the frenetic histrionics
that characterize much of today’s
music. This is not to say that the effort lacks excitement; it
is merely to underscore that notes are well chosen, and not wasted
or scattered around with abandon. Taken in its totality, the
CD has a unity and integrity that are noteworthy. The opener, “Without
Changes,” sets the tone with trombone, guitar and bass
solos; it is a darkly hued bossa nova, one of three compositions
by McSweeney. (On the other two, “The Burren” and
the wry “Get Sparky,” husband Fahn is co-composer.) “Will
Call,” by bassist Anderson, is boppish; it provides the
album’s up-tempo highlights, with dazzling solos and creative
interplay between Fahn and Margitza. Keith Jarrett’s “Survivor’s
Suite” returns to a more contemplative, pensive mood with
expressive performances, developed over nearly 8 ½ minutes.
Margitza’s “Heart Forest,” similar in length,
is a funky ditty, but with a core of ironic poignancy that lends
it an unexpected profundity.
“The Burren,” inspired by rocky formations on the
West Coast of Ireland, opens and closes with an overdubbed slide
trombone choir. The sound, though lush, has a coldness and distance
that dramatically capture the essence of the place. Following
another stellar bass solo, Fahn’s facility on the valve
instrument is breathtaking. Anderson’s second composition, “On
Time,” is a wistful minor-key swinging blues that manages
to generate a certain heat, in spite of itself. The album concludes
with one well-chosen standard, Bernice Petkere’s “Close
Your Eyes,” which features brisk solo work by Fahn, Margitza,
and Blenzig on piano.
www.mikefahn.com
Featured
Artist: Mike Fahn Reviewed by: Don Williamson
CD
Title: Close Your Eyes...And Listen
Year:
2002
Record
Label: Sparky 1 Productions
Style:
Straight-Ahead / Classic
Musicians:
Mike Fahn (valve & slide trombones); Rick Margitza (tenor
saxophone); Steve Cardenas (guitar); Charles Blenzig (piano, synthesizer);
Jay Anderson (bass); Tim Horner (drums)
Review:
We had heard a hint of Mike Fahn’s at-that-time work in progress,
Close Your Eyes…And Listen, when he recorded last year on
his wife’s first CD, Thought Of You.
Now, Fahn has released his debut CD. Even though his wife, Mary
Ann McSweeney, doesn’t play on Close Your Eyes…And Listen,
her presence is felt. For, she is involved in composing two of
the tunes on the CD. In addition, the sound of Fahn’s valve
trombone accented by strong bass work continues on his CD, this
time bassist and long-time friend Jay Anderson substituting for
McSweeney. Fahn’s objective, or so he says, for the first
CD that he has led is to present a total composite of his musical
interests, even as he stays within thematic continuity. And he
does that. His choice of musicians, in particular, assists him
in attaining his goal. Guitarist Steve Cardenas is an effective
foil for Fahn’s rising and falling linearity, for the lushness
and ease of Cardenas’s sound broaden the textures of each
of the tracks.
Those
textures involve logic and the movement of lines. Even musicians
like Rick Margitza adopt the feel of Fahn’s musical concept,
as it cuts away unnecessary embellishments, tears apart a tune,
frames it in a minimalistic setting and allows conversational
give-and-take, one line of dialogue moving at a rapid pace at
the same time that another persuades more deliberately.
In
other words, much of Fahn’s music on Close Your Eyes…And
Listen involves counterpoint. Take Anderson’s “Will
Call,” for example. Both Fahn and Margitza gamely hurtle
in unison from the starting point and down a slippery slope of
unpredictable twists and turns with no chance of escape. Soon,
it becomes evident that the takeoff actually launches Fahn’s
cleanly articulated and furious solo, much of which would be forbiddingly
difficult on a slide trombone. But when Margitza comes in on alto,
his pace is several steps slower than Fahn’s, Margitza’s
sax statement becoming a contrapuntal framework surrounding Fahn’s
work, similar to what Bob Brookmeyer and Gerry Mulligan had done
a generation before.
The
track giving the CD its title, “Close Your Eyes,” follows
a similar approach. That is, Margitza leads on alto after Anderson
and pianist Charles Blenzig establish the bass-note movement.
Yet, when Fahn comes in, it’s not to harmonize or to join
in the melody, but rather to encircle Margitza with the same piano/bass
theme. By elasticizing the bridge, Fahn dislodges the metrical
certainty of the piece, which serves him and Margitza well when
they improvise. Free to allude to the melody in snatches and at
whatever speed suits them, the horns use the tune as a basis for
improvisation, “Close Your Eyes” providing a foundation
rather than a mechanism of restraint. During the first and last
choruses, trombone and sax discuss through complementary conversational
threads of notes, rather than harmonizing for the effect of an
enlarged sound.
When
Fahn does emphasize harmony, it involves self-harmonization. On
his and McSweeney’s “The Burren,” meant to recall
their traveling experiences in Ireland, Fahn performs the four
parts of the composition without accompaniment but with reverence.
The overdubbing allows the creation of a trombone choir as a single
instrument’s effect is quadrupled, reminiscent somewhat of
the famous trombone work behind The Four Freshmen. Setting the
stage for the deepened textures to follow, Anderson and Cardenas
contribute matured and atmospheric solos that extend the meaning
of the piece. Fahn’s attention to a broad pallette of colors
recalls the orchestral flow inherent in the arrangements of Gil
Evans or Maria Schneider, rather than head-and-solos tradition
of small groups.
Inspired
more by trumpet players than by trombonists, Fahn uses the valve
trombone as a means not for technical feats, but rather to explore
the tenor spectrum of sound with a trumpet’s facility and
a trombone’s timbral appeal. As more and more jazz trombonists
complain of shrinking performance opportunities, Mike Fahn has
developed not so much a compromise as a reinvigorated solution.
Tracks:
Without Changes, Will Call, Survivor’s Suite, Heart Forest,
The Burren, Get Sparky, On Time, Close Your Eyes
Saturday
evening in the Brasserie at the Bel Age Hotel, an attractive new
jazz room, Mike Fahn offered what amounted to a master class in
the art of playing the valve trombone.
In the entire history of jazz, only a handful of musicians have
succeeded in achieving improvisational control of this demanding
vehicle. Fahn seems to have all the requisites: a bronzed, burnished
sound, technique and ideas to spare, with each note in the right
place at the right instant, and a crisp attack that is peculiar
to this instrument.
On most tunes he set up a mood via a long, a capella introduction
that led one knew not where; it might turn out to be "Alone Together"
or "In a Sentimental Mood." As this series of cadenzas ended,
the thythm section would ease in and Fahn presented the melody,
followed by his own variations and those o his sidemen -- chiefly
Tom Ranier at the piano.
On
one number, Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweet Way," Fahn switched
to the more orthodox slide trombone, but this clearly is not his
true medium; he becomes just another capable soloist, whereas
in his manipulation of the valves he is very close to being one
of a kind.
The set came to a spectacular end as the quartet let loose with
a furious rendition of "Billie's Bounce," with Fahn in phenomenal
form, Trey Henry chording away in a splendid bass solo, Ranier
taking over for a suspenseful, unaccompanied interlude, and the
drummer, David Hocker, getting in his licks.
Given the right exposure, Fahn could well be responsible for a
renaissance of a horn too long neglected in jazz circles.
—LEONARD FEATHER
January
14, 1990, L.A. TIMES by Leonard Feather
Mike
Fahn "Steppin' Out" Cexton CR2288
Here are four extraordinary musicians who deserve more acclaim
than they have earned. Fahn is without question one of the few
contemporary masters of the valve trombone. Patitucci, of course,
has distinguished himself with Chick Corea playing both acoustic
and electric bass with equal dexterity. He is also a composer
of great promise and was responsible for five originals in this
set.
Tad Weed, who composed "My Love," combines chops and imagination
in this admirable acoustic group. Peter Donald rounds out the
quartet efficiently, except where his drum solo shatters the mood
at one point. The production is careless: the titles are listed
in the wrong order. The last four cuts are actually "Mardis" followed
by "Tenderness," "Love" and Monk's "Well You Needn't." Recording
(at Chick Corea's Mad Hatter Studios in Hollywood) is first rate.
Mike Fahn at this writing is on the road as a sideman with Maynard
Ferguson. He deserves prominence on his own; it is hoped that
this splendid album will help expedite that objective.
