Giant Step Arts continues Modern Masters and New Horizons series with new live album by Tarbaby
Due out June 28, 2024, You Think This America is the first solely trio album from the long-standing cooperative of pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits.
“Clarity of vision, creative earnestness and eye toward the basics sets the music made by Tarbaby apart.” – The New York City Jazz Record
What’s in a name? In jazz, it can be different things. Some, like the Modern Jazz Quartet, tell you all you need to know. Others, such as M’Boom or Mahavishnu Orchestra, draw you in with their mystery. Tarbaby, moniker for the venerable trio of pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits, is a serious name for one of the most serious bands of the last decades. Taken from a character in Uncle Remus, a collection of African American folktales published in 1881, the name, as Evans, who as a child was read the stories by his father, explains, “is basically things that are indigenous to this music that we play and being stuck to those traditions and then speaking with our own voice.” Waits goes further about how the name has been perceived: “There’s always some type of reference to the physicality of it as opposed to the decision-making or intellectual part of the creativity. A lot of that has its foundations in certain aspects of our culture in this country in terms of preconceived notions about members of the society, the Black members.”
The group has a shared history dating back decades in various settings, including Tarbaby’s formation in the late 1990s. They have had five albums to date, always studio sessions and always with guests, most notably Oliver Lake. Now, over 15 years after their debut, they step out with You Think This America, a bold new take on the piano trio, recorded live at New York’s Hunter College in 2022.
Even though Evans, Revis and Waits are based in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York, respectively, their camaraderie transcends distance, even through a computer screen conversation. “This brotherhood and this family that we have formed, it’s great to be in a position where all is good, all is valid,” says Revis. “The one thing about us is that we all have very unique musical personalities that just happen to meld together really well, a three-headed monster.”
The date continues the band’s tradition of being untraditional, mixing member originals with unusual cover choices, so tunes by Evans and Waits are heard alongside Ornette Coleman, Andrew Hill and David Murray. Really demonstrating the trio’s range are renditions of The Stylistics’ soul ballad “Betcha By Golly Wow” and the freebop of Sunny Murray’s “Tree Tops”. Evans explains that selecting tunes is completely democratic: “Everyone brings in different things. Sometimes it’s just an idea. It’s fun. I mean, it’s hard because some of it I haven’t heard, you know. There were new tunes but it’s exciting to me to check things out.” Discussing the evolution of a piece, Murray’s “Mirror of Youth” comes up. “Me and Orrin worked with David Murray some years ago,” says Waits. “We played this tune that was banging, but when Tarbaby played it, something was missing. But Revis had an idea, he put a different spin on it. And it took us a minute for it to work. But it came out slick though. It came out completely different, which was nice. It’s a flavor that we don’t usually have. It was good, but we had to throw it in in the mixing bowl a little bit.”
Adding the unpredictability this time around is the live setting, in many ways the best way for jazz to be heard. The members, veterans of hundreds of recordings sessions and thousands of concerts, thrive under pressure. “All of us started our recording careers with you go into the studio and you knock something out in four hours,” says Revis. “There was a certain urgency about it. So, for us, the fact that it’s live, I don’t know if that really made any kind of a difference because we kind of have that mind frame anyway.” The ten tunes, whether written by one of the members and part of their long history, or something brand new to the group, all shimmer with the process of discovery, moments in time to be savored for their unrepeatability. Even when exploring different works by the same composer, as is the case with Coleman’s “Dee Dee” and “Comme Il Faut”, completely different aspects of the trio’s language become evident.
Though earlier albums did have trio tracks, it is bracing to hear the players distilled down for an entire set, an extended peek into a conversation only deep friendship can yield. “This was an opportunity for us to let other people hear the root of those other recordings,” says Waits. “Part of the mission of the band is to explore a lot of different templates with regards to band composition so this is another one.”
© Jimmy Katz
You Think This America 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. 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.”
###