Jeff Lederer: There's a Yearnin' - Music For Winds and Voice
little (i) music

Three years ago, saxophonist Jeff Lederer issued Schoenberg on the Beach, an audacious jazz song cycle based on music of the Second Viennese School and performed by Lederer and his partner, vocalist Mary LaRose, alongside jazz artists Hank Roberts, Patricia Brennan, Michael Formanek, and Matt Wilson. It would appear that blurring the lines between jazz and classical comes naturally to Lederer as his latest project There's a Yearnin' does something similar, if from the opposite direction. This time, pieces by jazz alto saxophonists Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, and Oliver Nelson are delivered in a chamber-like manner, with Lederer (on clarinet and alto saxophone) and LaRose now augmented by the Brooklyn-based Wildebeest Wind Quintet: flutist Michel Gentile, oboist Katie Scheele, clarinetist Mike McGuiness, bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck, and French hornist Nathan Koci. While the music, recorded at Guilford Sound in Vermont, might be grounded in the tradition of classical notation, improvisation is key to the recording too.

Beyond the audacity of the project, it's significant for presenting the first recording of a woodwind sextet by Dolphy, a revamped treatment of Coleman's Forms and Sounds, and new arrangements of Nelson's works for winds and voice. It should be noted, however, that the three aren't evenly represented: Dolphy gets one track only and Coleman three (the third movement of his piece is mistakenly attributed to Nelson on the package's back cover) to Nelson's five (the set's rounded out by one from Lederer). The three weren't arbitrarily selected either, as each tackled notated composition as part of his artistic practice.

The works chosen by Lederer didn't enjoy long shelf-lives, however: Coleman's was commissioned in the late ‘60s yet suffered neglect, while Dolphy's, obtained by Lederer during a visit to the Library of Congress in Washington, wasn't even performed in his lifetime. Coleman's son, drummer Denardo, provided Lederer with Ornette's material, and flutist Oliver Nelson, Jr likewise supported the presentation of new treatments of his father's music. Acknowledgement of LaRose's contributions also should be made, as in addition to singing on the release, she brought to the project a long engagement with Nelson's music that includes writing lyrics inspired by it and adding a vocal component to the arrangements.

Coleman's idiosyncratic ‘voice' comes through vividly in Forms and Sounds, whose three parts Lederer elected to distribute (not ineffectively) across the release rather than present them together. A dense entangling of woodwinds arrests the ear in the opening movement, with Schoenbeck delivering a strong solo exploration at its centre before the thick forest re-establishes itself. As intricately woven, the second movement's spiked by Lederer's wailing alto sax interlude, like the bassoonist's unaccompanied. The formula repeats for the blustery third, with clarinetist McGuiness enjoying his turn in the spotlight.

Only the second movement of Dolphy's Woodwind Sextet appears, leaving one to merely speculate on how the missing first and presumed third might have sounded. Regardless, the piece is striking for the sophistication and maturity of the writing and arrangement; one's impression of the material is significantly bolstered by Gentile's flute soloing too. Originally written in 1982 and newly arranged for winds and electronics, Lederer's Cruxifiction (not a word) ruminates on the theme of silenced dissent for nine minutes, the tone shifting from chamber dirge to abstraction and mayhem and the composer and Scheele leading the charge with clarinet and oboe, respectively.

On the Nelson tip, a bluesy swing animates “Images,” which features LaRose singing in unison with flute while Schoenbeck grounds the performance with a bass-styled pulse. “Nocturne” is naturally shadowy by comparison, with LaRose delivering her lyrics with theatrical flair, the woodwinds effective at evoking the peaceful night-time mood. Things turn dramatic for the folk-gospel lament “There's a Yearnin',” the woodwinds accompaniment to her vocal part particularly effective. The jazziest and bluesiest of Nelson's set is arguably “Three Seconds,” though the cheeky closer “Lem and Aide” might have something to say about it.

June 2026