Clark Sommers Lens: Intertwine
Outside In Music

Jazz musicians typically draw for inspiration from legends such as Coltrane, Miles, and Ellington. Credit Clark Sommers for pulling from a rather different artist pool for Intertwine, his follow-up to 2020's Peninsula. On an album influenced by jazz, rock, R&B, and soul (a few African tinges surface too), the bassist cites Donny Hathaway as a particularly strong influence, so much so Sommers titled the serene'n'soulful “Weeks & Weeks” after Hathaway's bassist Willie Weeks. Yet while Intertwine also references Hendrix in titling another track “James Marshall,” it's still very much a contemporary jazz date, not some watered-down jazz, R&B, and rock pastiche.

The album's formally credited to Clark Sommers Lens, a fiery unit fronted by the bassist and boasting saxophonists Chris Madsen (tenor) and Geof Bradfield (soprano, tenor, and bass clarinet), guitarist Matt Gold, and drummer Dana Hall. As the personnel indicates, the harmonic role generally assumed by a pianist is here handled by Gold, a move that gives the music a fresh sound. The album title finds its most concrete application in the interplay between the horns, with Madsen and Bradfield playing off one another and sometimes voicing unison lines. More generally, Intertwine refers to the conversational interactions between all five as they work through Sommers' compositional forms. For the most part, he's content to cede the spotlight to his partners, with the bassist smartly working two short unaccompanied solo tracks into the programme. As he's credited as the composer of all twelve pieces, there's little question as to who's in charge.

The project's ‘rock' side is audible in The Doors-like intro to “Also Tomorrow,” though Gold quickly leaves Robby Krieger behind as the performance blossoms into a soulful quintet statement, the horns singing and the groove punchy. Whereas the saxophonists' interplay and soloing dominate the opening track, Gold naturally takes the lead in “James Marshall” and evokes his legendary precursor in using angular phrasing and chords. Gold having asserted himself, Madsen and Bradfield then step forth to flesh out the performance with blues-tinged explorations, Sommers and Hall responsively echoing their lead with an ever-mutating groove. With “Second Guesses,” Lens opts for a boppier tone, the music straight-up swinging and the horns serving up solo expressions as lithe and robust.

Sommers' serene solo track, “Harbor,” sets the stage for the sinuous “Ancient Voices,” at ten minutes a suitably adventurous travelogue highlighted by tasteful percussive ornamentation, a trance-inducing pulse, purring woodwinds, and a moody, mysterious tone. In contrast to its subdued pitch, “Silent Observer” is exuberant, this one wrestled into shape by an eruptive Hall and Bradfield's acrobatic soprano before the full quintet takes over. With the horns blending smoothly, the quintet can get up to a luscious, velvety sound, as the sultry “Invisible Arrow” illustrates. At album's end, Hall jumpstarts the title track with a funky intro that brings the album's extra-jazz focus into sharp relief.

Caveats? Hardly any, a somewhat overlong set-list the only one worth noting. The material's solid from start to finish and the players and performances first-rank, but ten minutes could have been clipped from the seventy-three-minute running time without greatly diminishing the album's effectiveness or impact.

October 2022