Ben Wendel: All One
Edition Records

To create his latest release, NYC-based saxophonist Ben Wendel could have recruited three or four musical partners, devised a set-list of originals and covers, and hit the studio for a day-long blowing session. What he did instead is significantly more interesting and imaginative. Yes, musicians do accompany him on the album's six pieces, but one at a time, and not just pick-up musicians either but upper-tier artists such as Cécile McLorin Salvant, Terence Blanchard, and Bill Frisell. Wendel didn't stop there, however: having written arrangements for woodwind chamber ensemble, he performed all the parts himself: playing tenor and soprano saxes, bassoon, EFX, and hand percussion, Wendel produced incredibly dense backdrops—apparently thirty different woodwind parts for Salvant's fabulous reading of “I Loves You Porgy”—to make All One a release unlike any other you'll hear this year or any other for that matter.

His story's interesting too. Growing up in Santa Monica, the Vancouver-born Wendel played in a high school band with later Brainfeeder associate Terrace Martin and Alfred Darlington (aka Daedelus) and in the years since has explored any number of creative directions. The Kneebody co-founder has worked with Kent Nagano, Joshua Redman, Prince, and Julia Holter, done film scoring, taught at USC and the New School in New York, and headlined three separate times at the Village Vanguard. The structural approach he adopted for All One was, in part, a product of the pandemic: working in isolation, he layered stacks of woodwinds, consistent with the idea he'd concocted of a recording featuring a singer or instrumentalist accompanied by woodwind ensemble. All six collaborators benefit when heard alongside his huge, lustrous backings. As laborious as it might have been to painstakingly assemble them, they feel alive; further to that, saxophone soloing occasionally appears, which fosters the illusion of live interplay between the guest and Wendel.

Three originals and three covers make for a rewarding forty-three-minute recording. All of the attention Salvant's received in recent days is borne out by her stirring turn on the Gershwin song, but as beautiful is the choir of bassoons and saxes accompanying her. The sound of her warm, clear voice soaring over the woodwinds (and Wendel's saxophone wailing) is hard to beat, though the vocal José James gives to the chestnut “Tenderly” comes close. His ultra-smooth delivery of Jack Lawrence's lyrics is definitely a release highlight.

On the instrumental tip, lovers of trumpet-and-saxophone interplay will find much to love about “Wanderers” when Blanchard and Wendel go toe-to-toe. With a muscular, rhythmically charged foundation as a springboard, the two declaim joyously, Blanchard unleashing a high-register rumination and the saxophonist enthusiastically responding to his beckoning call. Frisell's enduring “Throughout” receives a fresh update when his instantly identifiable guitar appears with Wendel's saxes and bassoons. Woodwinds nirvana is reached in “Speak Joy” when flutist extraordinaire Elena Pinderhughes appears, her playing a thing of, well, joy when it's backed by bassoon patterns and (woodwinds-simulated) bass. Don't skip the closing “In Anima” either, as the blues-drenched lament includes the leader's most blazing tenor solo, as well as a memorable contribution from pianist Tigran Hamasyan.

April 2023