Liberty Ellman - Last Desert '2020

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. The Sip
02. Last Desert I
03. Last Desert II
04. Rubber Flowers
05. Portals
06. Doppler
07. Liquid

Last Desert represents guitarist Liberty Ellman's first leader date since 2015.
Its title was inspired by the world's leading endurance foot race known as the 4
Deserts Ultramarathon, which takes place over seven days and 250 kilometers in
the planet's largest and most forbidding deserts; Antarctica's "White Desert" is
the last one in the competition. Ellman's sidemen also accompanied him on 2015's
Radiate: alto saxophonist Steve Lehman, trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson, tubist
Jose Davila, bassist Stephan Crump, and drummer Damion Reid. Unlike many of his
guitar-slinging peers, Ellman rarely tries to dazzle with technique and
intensity. Instead, the identifying signature in both his playing and composing
is an intimate, communicative language that balances emotional intimacy and
economic melody lines with intricate rhythmic and spatial signatures. Opener
"Sip" is a case in point as Ellman's guitar muses through the intro with nuanced
basswork from Crump, brushed snare, tom-toms, and contemplative phrasing from
Finlayson and Lehman; Davila binds it to earth with sparse yet weighty notes.
Finlayson takes the harmonic lead on "Last Desert I" with Lehman and Davila
accenting his lines with carefully phrased responses. Crump and Reid surprise
with a lithe, groove-laden vamp before Ellman leads the frontline horns through
an intricate, harmonic passage before taking a chromatically astute solo. "Last
Desert II" commences with a quiet blurt from Davila, some skeletal notes from
the guitarist, and a wispy melodic head from Lehman up front with Finlayson, as
Reid's beat reveals a more muscular undertone before Lehman cements it with a
tough, inquisitive solo answered by a growling, simmering break from Davila with
arco backing from Crump. When Finlayson enters the foreground, the rhythm
section wraps him in Latin-tinged jazz-funk. "Rubber Flowers" is an angular yet
deft, engaging post-bop jam with killer solos from Lehman and Ellman that touch
on Barney Kessel and blues. The influence of Ellman's boss and mentor Henry
Threadgill (the guitarist is a longtime member of Zooid and Double Up) is
prevalent on "Doppler," with carefully syncopated dialogue between Davila,
Finlayson, and Lehman, as Ellman and Crump add funky comping before inverting
the chart. It's joyous, perverse, and captivating. That approach informs closer
"Liquid," too, but with a different emphasis: This is a dance tune from the
jump, despite knotty rhythmic and tuba accents. Ellman's solo smooths the
narrative with precise intervallic arpeggios atop horns that punctuate his
phrases before entering a near-pastoral phase of repetitive, languid questioning
comprised of stacked harmonies. Davila's short solo is an imaginative
masterstroke of melodic invention. Last Desert's compositions offer a harmonic
depth and rhythmic breadth in interplay that goes wider and deeper than anything
Ellman has done before. While he isn't the flashiest guitarist or composer, his
inherent lyricism, expansive tonalities, and luxuriant textures combine with
carefully controlled dynamics that allow his sidemen an in-the-moment
vulnerability to the music they play. These traits - evidenced so abundantly on
Last Desert - reveal Ellman as one of modern jazz's most skilled and appealing
composers and six-string stylists.



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