María Grand: Reciprocity
Biophilia Records

The profound experience of bringing new life into being permeates Reciprocity, María Grand's latest Biophilia outing. The tenor saxophonist's follow-up to 2018's Magdalena was written and recorded in two days in early February 2020 when she was five-and-a-half months pregnant with her son, Ayní, and thus captures the close bonds she not only had to the life within but also to her bandmates, acoustic bassist Kanoa Mendenhall and drummer Savannah Harris. While Reciprocity is a trio recording, full stop, in another sense it documents quartet performances of a kind, given the physical presence of the child moving inside her during the studio sessions.

The saxophone trio format is intimate and exposing; further to that, added pressure is placed on the participants when the playing of each is so integral. Grand, Mendenhall, and Harris needn't worry, however: the performances are without exception engrossing, and the absence of a second front-line partner is never a factor when Grand's playing is compelling and her melodic expression rich. She's a player who's obviously absorbed the music of her forebears yet has also forged her own robust style. A key part of the recording's appeal lies in her decision to augment the instrumental playing with vocals, with all three credited with singing. That vocal dimension proves thoroughly enhancing to the recording.

Interspersed throughout the album's thirteen tracks are seven “Creation” compositions that reflect Grand's interests in everything from stem cells to Kabbalah mysticism; all of the writing's credited to her except for “Canto Manta” by Venezuelan singer Jesús Hidalgo. Joy is communicated immediately when “Creation: The Joy of Being” opens the recording with the vocal proclamation “the joy of being exactly who I am” before a ruminative trio meditation takes over. Even at a slow tempo, the rapport between the three is evident; Grand carries the melodic weight, naturally, but the expressions of Mendenhall and Harris are as central to the unfolding, and the deft transition midway through to a faster tempo also speaks to the telepathic connection the three share.

After Grand's interest in sound healing ceremonies declares itself during “Fundamental Pt. I” in the trio's chant-like droning of lines from Khalil Gibran's The Prophet, the intricate second part finds the trio operating in jittery, kinetic mode. The stop-start attack deployed here returns during “Creation: Interlude,” with a wiry Mendenhall and Harris buoying a humming Grand. The singing dimension isn't a minor add-on, by the way, but key to the presentation. The vocal hook grounding “Now, Take, Your, Day” makes it the one of the most memorable cuts, especially when the funky chant's coupled with a hard-grooving pulse. For the rubato meditation “Prayer,” Grand sets the horn aside for an earnest vocal her partners support with conviction, and her treatment of Hidalgo's “Canto Manta” is also horn-free, Grand here preferring to deliver the song's haunting melodies with her voice.

There's nothing tentative about the saxophonist's powerful, full-bodied attack, and much the same could be said of her trio mates. Elasticity informs the playing throughout, with the bassist and drummer adapting instantly to the leader's sudden shifts in direction. In “Whabri,” for example, the feel alternates between bluesy swing and daring freeplay like it's the most natural thing in the world. In similar manner, “Creation: A Home In Mind” segues from a pensive, ballad-styled intro to high-energy fury in the second half. Reciprocity impresses as an efficacious and substantial statement by Grand, one that flatters her as player, composer, and bandleader.

May 2021