Giant Step Arts continues Modern Masters and New Horizons series with new live album by drummer Nasheet Waits. His quartet featuring Mark Turner, Rashaan Carter and Steve Nelson. Due out June 28, 2024, New York Love Letter (Bitter Sweet), live recordings made during the pandemic, is a deeply personal statement from the lifelong New Yorker.
“First-call among his generation for multiple bandleaders, famous or obscure, who want a drummer to render a 360-degree range of styles with authoritative execution, high musicality, imaginative intention and inflamed-soul spirit.” – Ted Panken, Jazziz
With New York Love Letter (Bitter Sweet), only his third album as a leader in career starting in the early 1990s, drummer Nasheet Waits has crafted a musical memoir of growing up in New York, becoming part of the jazz scene and the hardships of being a musician during pandemic lockdown. Recorded live in Central Park’s Seneca Village, less than a 100 yards away from where, in 1826, Andrew Williams, a 25-year-old shoeshiner, was the first African-American to buy land in what became Seneca Village, the first free Black settlement in New York (becoming part of Central Park in 1857), in 2021 and Hunter College in 2022, these gigs were part of Giant Step Arts’ “Walk With The Wind” and “Winter Concert” series, co-curated by Waits and Jimmy Katz.
New York Love Letter (Bitter Sweet) is biographical in myriad ways besides being a document of people navigating the unnavigable. The band represents different eras and relationships for Waits and the music moves from site-specific to homage to personal reckoning. Says Waits: “During that time of reflection and isolation and being in New York for pretty much the entirety, it had me reflecting back on my childhood as well, these titles and my experiences and my thoughts filtered through my experiences here in New York.”
With Waits are three generations of highly respected jazz artists. Of peer tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, Waits says: “Mark is really a very thoughtful musician. We’ve been crossing paths over the last 25 years.” Younger bassist Rashaan Carter “is disciple of Antoine Roney, just like myself. Antoine is like an older brother to me and he’s informed me about a lot in regards to the music and the culture and he did the same for Rashaan. So I feel close to him that way.” Completing the band is the nearly 50-year veteran vibraphonist Steve Nelson, of whom Waits says, “He is always so striking with his improvisations, with the way that he colors the music. It is personal unto him. And there was no piano out in the park, there was no keyboard, so if you wanted a chordal instrument it had to be vibes. And if you say vibes, Steve Nelson is the first name that comes to my mind. And I really wanted to hear Steve and Mark interact.”
” The program mixes original compositions with carefully selected covers. Of the former, “Moon Child” captures the moment “a young boy raised in Greenwich Village gazes outside his bedroom window and wonders what life has in store.” “The Hard Way” is a scathing commentary on the injustice of the Central Park Five’s erroneous conviction for rape (becoming timely as one of them, Yusef Salaam, now represents a Harlem district in the City Council). “AW” commemorates Andrew Williams as well as celebrates Waits’ son August.
The opening numbers are by pianist Jason Moran (“Snake Stance”) and late pianist Andrew Hill (“Snake Hip Waltz), both of whom Waits met in New York, worked with extensively and whose music he admires greatly. There is also a shared aesthetic, says Waits, “that serpentine quality, not only in the title but also in the nature of the composition, which is a quality that you really have to inhabit being a resident of New York City. You realize how important being able to snake in and out is because you will come across situations and scenarios everyday that you don’t necessarily want to take part in. So those songs spoke to that movement. There’s always something unexpected around the corner and both of those songs have some wrinkles in them that make them a little unexpected.”
Closing the album are two very different John Coltrane compositions, “Central Park West” and “Liberia”. While the former “almost seemed obvious and it’s such a beautiful song and it sang so beautifully out in the open. It seemed like a way to purify the land that we were standing on and as an offering to those people, especially who were in Seneca Village who had laid ground there some centuries before”, the latter runs even deeper as a spiritual dedication to the memory of Civil Rights activist Marcus Garvey: “. He was about self-determination in the Black community. He was also about returning to Africa. That was his dream so that’s what made me think of ‘Liberia’.
© Jimmy Katz
New York Love Letter (Bitter Sweet) has all the wondrous qualities only possible with live recording. There is a palpable feeling of musicians blooming together after a long, imposed winter away from shared creativity. And listen closely to “Central Park West” and you can hear birds chirping and nearby kids laughing at play. This is snapshot of a tumultuous period, one that Waits says, “was kind of desperate. It kind of felt like you didn’t know what was going to happen at certain times, with your life or your family. There was so much uncertainty so to be able to commune around the music was really powerful. That’s what it represented to me, the spirit of the community. That goes with the album title because folks always have feelings about New York, the negative aspects, but there’s love in there too and you can see it exhibited at that time, especially within the community of musicians and people who love and enjoy the music. It seemed like it was really needed and we were glad to be a part of it.”
New York Love Letter (Bitter Sweet) is the latest entry in Giant Step’s new series Modern Masters and New Horizons. Specially curated by trumpeter Jason Palmer and drummer Nasheet Waits, the series features artists who have helped shape the modern jazz landscape along with rising voices doing the same for the next generation. Specially curated by trumpeter Jason Palmer and drummer Nasheet Waits, the series features artists who have helped shape the modern jazz landscape along with rising voices doing the same for the next generation. Artists currently slated to contribute include Waits, Palmer, saxophonists Mark Turner, Neta Raanan, Ben Solomon, Rico Jones, drummer Eric McPherson, “The Fury” quartet of Mark Turner, Tyshawn Sorey, Lage Lund and Matt Brewer and the Edward Pérez/Michael Thomas Band.
Giant Step Arts
Founded by Jimmy and Dena Katz in January 2018, Giant Step Arts is an innovative, artist-focused non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning and showcasing the work of some of modern jazz’s most innovative artists. In an era where it is increasingly difficult for musicians to earn a living, Giant Step Arts offers artists the creative and financial resources to create bold music free of commercial pressure and with total control of their artistic projects.
For the musicians it chooses to work with, by invitation only, Giant Step Arts:
• presents premiere performances
• records these performances for independent release
• provides the artists with digital downloads and CDs to sell; artists retain complete ownership of their masters
• provides the artists with photos for promotional use
• provides PR support for the recordings
Katz says: “Giant Step Arts exists to aid musicians in realizing their artistic dreams. It does not sell music and artists retain full rights to their music. We work tirelessly to raise funds with the goal of helping more musicians.”
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