Tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger met trumpeter Steve Lampert on a West Village gig in New York City in 2010 and, as their musical friendship deepened, so did Preminger’s admiration of the elder statesman’s compositional chops. A few years on, he asked Lampert to write a piece featuring himself with an ensemble; he launched the recording of that composition—Zigsaw: Music of Steve Lampert—on his own label, Dry Bridge Records, this past October.
The mostly improvised piece lasts almost 50 minutes and fills one track. A straight-forward enough undertaking, it would seem. But beyond the track’s opening salvo—a downward-arpeggiated chord—there is nothing straight-forward about this composition. In the liner notes, Lampert wrote that he envisioned the piece as a zigzagging dream that circles back upon itself 12 times. Each cycle comprises a 24-bar vamping melody section underneath a soloist; an open improvised section; a progressive reiteration of two of the 24 bars; and a “fantasy” section, replete with guttural electronics and filled, at times, with sheer musical abandon. Complicated stuff. Like a dream, though, it makes sense on an intuitive level.
The Noah Preminger Group—an uber-talented sextet featuring saxophonist John O’Gallagher, trumpeter Jason Palmer, pianist Kris Davis, bassist Kim Cass, and drummer Rudy Royston, along with Preminger—joined with Rob Schwimmer on clavinet and the continuum fingerboard (the source of the eerie electronica) to execute Lampert’s challenging compositional constructs. In the hands of a less exacting group, these constructs could easily devolve into a surreal bit of noise, minus any intentionality. But the players’ commitment to finessing the many winding turns of this piece is what makes it exciting—and surprisingly fun to follow. —Suzanne Lorge
Zigsaw: Music of Steve Lampert: Zigsaw. (48:49)
Personnel: Jason Palmer, trumpet; John O’Gallagher, alto saxophone; Noah Preminger, tenor saxophone; Kris Davis, piano; Rob Schwimmer, haken continuum/clavinet; Kim Cass, bass; Rudy Royston, drums.
Ordering info: www.noahpreminger.com