Tineke Postma: Freya
Edition Records

The title of Tineke Postma's latest album resonates for the Dutch saxophonist and composer on multiple levels. Freya is a goddess of creation, love, and fertility in Norse and Frisian mythology, and Postma herself was born and raised in Friesland, a region in the north Netherlands. Freya also could be seen as a career reboot of sorts, as the album marks Postma's return to record-making since the release of her collaboration with Greg Osby, Sonic Halo, in 2014 and after taking time away to start a family. In keeping with the album theme, Freya is also a celebration of new motherhood plus Postma's first release on Edition Records.

Her star has steadily ascended since she began touring internationally as a leader in 2003. She's performed with Diane Reeves, Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock, has many albums under her belt, and received the ‘Rising Star' (soprano sax) award in Downbeat's 2019 critics poll. Wielding alto and soprano, Postma's joined on Freya by trumpeter Ralph Alessi, bassist Matt Brewer, and drummer Dan Weiss, with pianist Kris Davis also appearing on a few pieces.

Recorded in Mt Vernon, NY on December 22nd, 2018, her self-produced album is hardly an improv set, yet it does exude a relaxed, adventurous feel. That was by design: while her material is meticulously planned, she also wanted to allow the musicians joining her to feel free to impose themselves on the material. And although Davis does appear, most of Freya omits a harmony instrument, which prompted Postma to compose strong melodies that would ensure the pieces hold up in its absence.

Alessi and Postma are a strong front-line throughout, whether they're coiling closely around one another or pairing for unison themes. The trumpeter's as prominent as the leader, which gives Freya the feel of a fully integrated quartet album as opposed to one featuring a soloist backed by others. Brewer and Weiss are ever-responsive in the way they constantly attune their playing to directions pursued by the horn players. Hear, for example, how Weiss turns the beat around repeatedly as “Scáthach's Isle of Skye” wends its explorative path, the groove evolving elastically behind Alessi's funky solo and Postma's smooth turn.

Freya includes aggressive cuts—Alessi's particularly on fire in the title cut—but some of the best material is gentler, “Heart to Heart” a case in point. For this eight-minute exploration, the trumpeter softens his attack with a mute, which Postma complements with an alto performance that moves quickly from restrained to agitated, Brewer and Weiss with her every step of the way.

Many women inspired her during the writing of the album material, including her mother, grandmother, Allen, and even Pericles' wife Aspasia, who influenced Athenian culture in ancient Greece when she opened a school for philosophy and rhetoric. Davis joins the quartet for the homage “Geri's Print,” a touching tribute to the late pianist and composer, while “Aspasia and Pericles,” featuring the leader on soprano, honours the female scholar with a ruminative meditation distinguished by a soothing, free-floating treatment. If a subtle hint of a Shorter influence is audible in the melodic armature of “Aspasia and Pericles,” it might also be detected in Postma's soprano playing during the more aggressive “In the Light of Reverence.”

Mention also must be made of Chicago-based artist Chad Kouri, who created the striking cover image exclusively for Postma and did so while listening to the album material. It's certainly easy to draw a connecting line from the intertwining of the visual forms in the artwork to interactions between the four musicians on this fine fifty-one-minute outing.

March 2020