Facing Left

Facing Left

ASIN: B00004TR16

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Along with such players as Greg Osby, Stefon Harris, and Mark Shim, Jason Moran is making jazz that reflects myriad influences, from the traditional bop guard to Icelandic techno artist Bjork to contemporary classical and beyond. But theirs is not some studied attempt at a new music, or a stab at solo stardom created by labels and producers. Facing Left, like the New Directions group and Harris's lauded Black Action Figure, is serious, evocative, gripping, and explorative jazz. With dense, involving support from drummer Nasheet Waits and bassist Tarus Mateen, Moran begins Facing Left with the delicately erotic maze of "Later." "Thief Without Loot" darts over funky grooves with both acoustic and Rhodes piano, kind of a twinkling tightrope walk. Bjork is a favorite among many young musicians, and here Moran covers her moonlight missive "Joga" with elegance and a touch of Thelonious Monk. In fact, Monk surfaces often here (try the rambunctious Duke Ellington track, "Wig Wise"), mostly in Moran's touch. Also present is the luminous grace of Keith Jarrett, the logic of Herbie Hancock, and the lush romanticism of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Using rhythm like a conjurer's wand, Moran employs weird, stumbling beats in "Yojimbo" and "Battle of the Cattle Acts," while "Murder of Don Fanucci" rides a staggering military march. --Ken Micallef

From Jazziz
Turns out clutching tradition so tightly has side effects. Who knew? The young improvisors were only doing what they were told when they studied and absorbed the hallowed language of previous generations. But that vocabulary followed them, like an opportunistic ghost, when they sat down to write the original material that would fill the jazz albums of the 1980s and '90s. Bit by bit, the stock chord sequences and flatted thirds eroded what once was a discrete art - composing for small jazz ensemble, as perfected by Thelonious Monk and Wayne Shorter - into a blank, rote act of repertory reshuffling. Tunes so glossily competant you listen for any flicker of dissonant uprising, a moment when the scholarship is thrown off kilter. The kind of happytalk that makes you desperate for a four-bar cry of flawed humanity. Somebody, anybody, who means it.

The absence of this individual character might be considered a "game over" signal. It is, at the very least, another reason to pay attention to Jason Moran, the 25-year-old pianist and composer who has been developing over the past few years in various Greg Osby ensembles. Moran is not the second coming of Monk, or a Shorterian romantic, or the author of melody lines that can be traced back through the lineage to Art Tatum. Rather, on this, his second album as a leader, he presents himself as a child of his time - part scavenger and part seer, fluent in the cut/paste/splice devices of hiphop production and yet at home with the trippier realms of Bartok, Stravinsky and Bjork. Oh, yeah: He swings mightily, too.

And unlike many of his peers, whose compositional endeavors amount to endless rehabbings of 32-bar post-blues platitudes, young Moran is blessed with the courage of his own convictions. His tunes are odd in form and right-angled in structure - the kind of hinky music computer geeks would write if they could stop crunching code. They're informed by the more adventurous pianist/composers - Andrew Hill chief among them - and infused with sights and smells from faraway lands. In his lines, both written and improvised, you can hear the sprockety grinding of Machine-Age gears as well as the efficient hum of the silicon chip. One piece, "Wig Wise," is an old-fashioned march to the scaffold. Another, "Yojimbo," is built on a harrumphing ostinato figure and block chords as big as houses. There are drones, big powerful ones, that echo those devotional incantations of Love Supreme days. There are hymns, including Bjork's lovely "Joga," that amble along with dirge-like grace, as though following a funeral procession. Each of the pieces is less notable for its (often underdeveloped) melody than its overall feel: If Moran were a painter, he would already be past the fruit bowls and into some deep, stormy Impressionism.

What makes these settings so vivid is the unabashed joy with which Moran's musical compatriots - bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits - dig into them. Happy to tackle something other than stock 4/4 swing, this outfit exaggerates the offbeat accents and blows up the grandiose Bartokian assymetries, all the while paying attention to the fleeting emotional nuances embedded in the text. Moran's tunes are unfinished in the best possible way - they're platforms for further inquiry, mandates for exploration that are riddled with hanging questions. The trio understands this, and its lusty enthusiasm for such conceptual work is evident in the big cresting peaks and, even more deliciously, the subtle touches. Moran will start with a common device - say, the pulse-quickening accelerando that ends "Another One" - and then throw in all kinds of odd little wrenches. On that tune, as the pace quickens, he makes sure that he's not perfectly aligned with his rhythm-mates; the tension between tempos gives the piece its richness.

On the staccato "Thief Without Loot," Moran switches between placid electric and more crisply articulated acoustic. The rhythm team doesn't reinforce the melody's accents as much as it offers intricate counterpoint. It sounds, at times, as though Moran choreographed these rhythmic jabs; more likely, it's just that the dynamic of this trio reinforces evey bit of shading Moran sketches. Such ad-libbed accompaniment is improvisation of the highest order. Mateen and Waits are far enough inside the compositions to extend Moran's conceptual aims. They're listening intently enough to transform a capricious, offhand remark into a rallying point. And they're doing this because the writing, already full of blood and guts and life, demands it.

Tracks:

Later
Thief Without Loot
Joga
Wig Wise
Yojimbo
Another One
Lies Are Sold
Murder Of Don Fanucci
Twelve
Three Of The Same From Two Different
Fragment Of A Necklace
Battle Of The Cattle Acts
Gangsterism On Wood

Amazon.com

Along with such players as Greg Osby, Stefon Harris, and Mark Shim, Jason Moran is making jazz that reflects myriad influences, from the traditional bop guard to Icelandic techno artist Bjork to contemporary classical and beyond. But theirs is not some studied attempt at a new music, or a stab at solo stardom created by labels and producers. Facing Left, like the New Directions group and Harris's lauded Black Action Figure, is serious, evocative, gripping, and explorative jazz. With dense, involving support from drummer Nasheet Waits and bassist Tarus Mateen, Moran begins Facing Left with the delicately erotic maze of "Later." "Thief Without Loot" darts over funky grooves with both acoustic and Rhodes piano, kind of a twinkling tightrope walk. Bjork is a favorite among many young musicians, and here Moran covers her moonlight missive "Joga" with elegance and a touch of Thelonious Monk. In fact, Monk surfaces often here (try the rambunctious Duke Ellington track, "Wig Wise"), mostly in Moran's touch. Also present is the luminous grace of Keith Jarrett, the logic of Herbie Hancock, and the lush romanticism of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Using rhythm like a conjurer's wand, Moran employs weird, stumbling beats in "Yojimbo" and "Battle of the Cattle Acts," while "Murder of Don Fanucci" rides a staggering military march. --Ken Micallef

Customer Reviews:

Maybe the best JaMo album.......2005-12-31

"Black Stars" is really good too, but this one really has it from start to finish. I don't like it when Taurus Mateen starts playing electric bass on the more recent albums. I saw them live and the electric bass was much louder than the piano!!! Yuck.

But this is really, really interesting playing by all three members. I think Nasheet Waits is one of the best younger drummers. He has his own style, coming out of free playing but with some Jack DeJohnette in there too. He, Jason, and Mateen seem to play the beat real rubbery--not evenly. It shouldn't work but I like it.

Good idea to play a Bjork cover--a boon to get your girlfriend into the CD (she remains partial to "The Bad Plus," of course.)

Better than 5 Stars!!.......2002-09-21

This is my favorite Jason Moran album.The Musicianship from all three players; Jason, Tarus Mateen(Bass) and Nasheet Waits(Drums) is incredible for such young musicians. This is surely NOT his weakest effort,as said by another reviewer.This is his Strongest effort in my opinion. Jason keeps getting better and more creative with each release. There is no such thing as; this should sound like this;and this should sound like that;this song dosen't work etc.... True originality and creativity is to expect the unexpected, and that's what Jason Moran does and hopefully will continue to do for many years to come.

A good but not great sophomore disc.......2002-03-06

Jason Moran's been getting a lot of good press lately, especially from the NY Times' Ben Ratliff. I've found him an interesting & sympathetic figure--a young player who eschews the boring mainstream brew of Evans, Hancock et al which most young jazz pianists purvey, for a style predicated upon the more experimental areas of the Blue Note catalogue in its heyday (Andrew Hill, Jaki Byard & Herbie Nichols seem to be important influences, along with Ellington & Monk). But he's yet to deliver a fully satisfying disc, though his third disc, _Black Stars_, is surely his best yet, & his debut, _Soundtrack to Human Motion_, is also quite intriguing. _Facing Left_, his trio album, is surely his weakest effort, in which a bunch of interesting ingredients--his striking piano style, a good band, an eclectic mix of influences from pop song, film music & urban grooves--never really adds up. He dots the album with a little electric keyboard & organ but basically it's a straight piano trio; most tracks are very brief (2-5 minutes) & seem more like jumble sales of good ideas than convincing performances. "Twelve", a nice blues, turns out well, & is basically pinched from Moran's teacher Jaki Byard (compare the chords Moran uses once the solo gets going to Byard's blues "Mrs Parker of KC" on Dolphy & Little's _Far Cry_). "Wig Wise" actually suggests Herbie Nichols more than Ellington. Really, none of the tracks here is without interest, but they often impress without striking much deeper. Consider this disc as a small manifesto for the young player, & wait for him to really put out the masterpiece he surely has in him; meanwhile, check out his other two discs rather than this one. I look forward to his forthcoming solo CD.

My Favorite Jazz CD.......2002-01-19

This is my favorite jazz CD. I have over 100 jazz CDs, most of which are jazz piano, and Facing Left has vaulted to the top of the heap. Jason Moran's trio (The Bandwagon) present a remarkably eclectic, thoroughly engaging 57 minutes of music. Moran's playing is incredibly creative. I can't do it justice, except to say that it is different from any other jazz piano CD I have (lots of Jacky Terrasson, Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Cyrus Chestnut, among others). Anyone who can cover obscure Ellington ("Later," "Wig Wise"), a Bjork tune ("Joga"), a song from The Godfather: Part 2 ("Murder of Don Fanucci"), and a song from a Kurazawa film ("Yojimbo") along with writing great stuff himself ("Thief Without Loot", "Fragment of a Necklace," "Gangsterism on Wood," among others) all on the same CD is cool with me! In addition, Tarus Mateen and Nasheet Waits smoke on drums and bass, respectively. Great, great CD! (I dig the cover art, as well).

Comments from an absolute beginner.......2001-03-14

I attended the concert that Jason Moran Greg Osby and Joe Lovano held at Umbria Jazz Winter in December 2000.

Even if I'm not a big fan of Jazz, I _had_ to buy this CD, and now I'm listening to it every weekend.

Joga and Murder of Don Fanucci are among the tracks I like more.

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