Mark Turner, Lathe of Heaven

[Tom Storer]

Mark Turner Quartet, Lathe of Heaven (ECM)

Mark Turner, tenor sax; Avishai Cohen, trumpet; Ben Street, bass; Marcus Gilmore, drums.

This is the first recording by Mark Turner's quartet, a group that has been performing for several years. It was worth waiting for.

It certainly won't be to everyone's taste. It's quite an austere sound, with slowly moving melodies, little to no traditional swing, and no chordal instrument to clarify harmonic movement. The atmosphere is cool and cerebral on the surface, but with no little passion in the solos. It's cool but intense. The passion is contained, but definitely there.

And Turner and Cohen play gorgeously, with great deliberation (in a good sense) and focus. They create a sense of mystery and yearning with their carefully phrased, unhurried lines. Beneath them, Ben Street is a discreet pivot, playing few notes and anchoring the structure, while Marcus Gilmore plays quietly but with more speed and seeming liberty than the horns. I get a sense of the fractal, with the drums expressing form at a smaller, more frequent level and the horns overarching with a larger, slower expression. It's very intriguing and original.

I said there was little to no swing, but there's no mistaking that it's jazz. Jazz rhythms are there, in a kind of distilled, suspended form, and the tradition comes through in the saxophone and trumpet solos. I find myself thinking of Kenny Wheeler sometimes when I listen to Cohen here, which I've never noticed on his own recordings.

For me this is a beautiful and important recording. It's very particular, and might not match the tastes of more straight-ahead listeners. But if you don't love it right away, it might grow on you.

[bluenoter]

[pig pen]

Very nice review Tom. You've captured a lot of what I was thinking as I listened. This recording came in to me at the same time as Stefano Bollani's Joy in Spite of Everything as well as Jeff Ballard's Time's Tales. I found that I was drawn more immediately to Jeff Ballard's fun interplay with Lionel Loueke and Miguel Zenon (he has to be my favourite alto tone right now) as well as Bollani's brighter melodies (as well as Mark Turner and Bill Frisell's not inconsequential contributions). I think that the Lathe of heaven might be a recording that I go back to over time.

[Ron Thorne]

[relyles]

One of my favorite recent recordings. I heard this quartet live a couple of years before they recorded the music on this release. I have said this in other contexts - as much as I enjoyed the performance when I first heard them, the recording benefits from additional time spent together as it is a much more cohesive sound now. This was confirmed when I heard them live again in September performing 5 of the 6 compositions from the recording. Turner is definitely one of those musicians that not all listeners appreciate - recently I read a negative review of this recording and I also read a not so favorable review of one of the performances in the tour I caught. For me Turner has been possibly my favorite tenor saxophonist of his generation from the minute an associate at J&R hipped me to him when his first Warner Brothers CD was released in the nineties. Tom's description of the music is accurate. For some it is cold and without emotion. For me, it is a compelling listening experience and a must have for those who are predisposed to appreciate Mark Turner's world.

[Tom Storer]

I'll be seeing this quartet on Friday. Looking forward to it!

Turner also sounds great on Tom Harrell's recent "Trip," a piano-less quartet recording with Ugonna Okegwo and Adam Cruz. Those who are put off by Turner's cerebral aspects should give this a lesson, he plays more traditionally. He plays a fantastic bluesy solo on the opening piece, "Sunday," and blistering bebop-ish lines on a couple of other tunes.