Alex LoRe and Weirdear: Karol
Challenge Records International

Of the details in saxophonist Alex LoRe's bio, one in particular invites special attention, that being that the two albums preceding 2019's Karol—Dream House (2014) and More Figs and Blue Things (2016)—were issued on Greg Osby's Inner Circle Music. It's easy to see what it is about LoRe's music that might have appealed to Osby: both artists distinguish their music with intricate compositional structures and imaginative playing, and their recordings reflect the workings of keen intellects operating at higher-than-average levels. Don't get the wrong idea: LoRe's no Osby clone, but commonalities between the two can be identified.

Indicative of the sensibility in play on Karol, recorded in October 2018 at Acoustic Recording in Brooklyn, is the concept behind it. In place of a standard set of originals and covers, LoRe composed music for the album that was inspired by classical composers he'd studied, from early figures (Maddalena Casulana, J.S. Bach) to ones of a more recent vintage (Karol Szymanowski, Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, Julius Eastman). LoRe doesn't ape their styles or effect overly studious homages; instead, the pieces suggest he's drunk from their respective wells and channeled their artistic spirits. In short, the approach has more to do with allusion or evocation than direct quotation (in his own words, LoRe aimed to “take elements from both Eurocentric and Black American music traditions that inspire me and integrate them in a way that still retained the spirit of jazz”).

Aiding the Brooklyn-based saxophonist (alto, soprano) in the enterprise is his group Weirdear, featuring pianist Glenn Zaleski, bassist Desmond White, and drummer Allan Mednard; livening up the proceedings is guest tenor saxist George Garzone, who adds spontaneity to the two tracks on which he appears. “Skyward” instates the material's sophisticated allure from the start, especially when Zaleski's bright intro sets the scene for LoRe's smooth alto. With all four present, the music glides breezily, the quartet navigating harmonic variations on the opening piano figure with characteristic ease. The performance isn't without energy and passion (as witnessed by Mednard's aggressive drive), yet there's a coolness to it when the leader's tone exudes an elegant silkiness no matter how fiery the playing gets.

A good illustration of LoRe's implementation of the concept, “Orachle” was inspired by Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, yet whatever references to it there are emerge indirectly, the trajectories of the harmonic and melodic progressions indicating connections albeit subtly. The mellow quality of LoRe's tone, on the other hand, might have you thinking of Paul Desmond more than the Russian composer, while rivaling the leader's playing for attention is the sensitive, chamber-like execution of the quartet.

“Vanishing Act” might, as LoRe reports, borrow from the polyphonic style of sixteenth-century composer Casulana, but with Garzone present the tune registers as a straight-up bop exercise with a Lennie Tristano-like head as a springboard. Garzone makes the most of the opportunity by blowing strongly through his solo, after which the leader and Zaleski bring free-wheeling muscularity to their own turns. The classical influence on LoRe's music is conspicuous in his tribute to J.S. Bach, “Light,” which begins with a stately, chorale-styled episode before morphing into a freer jazz treatment (powered by a furiously stoked White and Mednard) that still retains connections to the melodic voicings with which it opened. That classical dimension also surfaces noticeably in the explorative title track, which drew for inspiration from some of Symanowski's piano etudes.

November 2019