Return To Casual＜限定盤＞

2006年のデビュー以降ハービー・ハンコックやジェイソン・モラン、テレンス・ブランチャード、マリア・シュナイダーなどと共演、常にシーンの先端で活躍を続けるサックス奏者ウォルター・スミス3世のブルーノート移籍第1弾作品。

現在名門ヴィレッジ・ヴァンガードにて初となるリーダー公演を行っているスミス。本作は2014年に自主制作でリリースした『still casual』の続編とも言える作品で、ピアニストのテイラー・アイグスティ、ギタリストのマシュー・スティーヴンス、ベーシストのハリシュ・ラガヴァン、ドラマーのケンドリック・スコットが参加。さらにゲストとしてトランペッターのアンブローズ・アキンムシーレとピアニストのジェイムズ・フランシーズも加わり、本作へ熟練の深みを加えている。

アルバムには9つのオリジナル作品とケイト・ブッシュのカヴァー1曲を収録。すべての楽曲は数週間のうちに作曲されたという。過去数年間、彼はスティーヴンスとの共同プロジェクト「イン・コモン」で作曲に対する様々なコンセプトのアプローチを模索し、洗練させてきたが、その成果を存分に堪能出来る1枚。

180g重量盤LPもリリース。

Return to Casual is Texas tenorman Walter Smith IIIs Blue Note debut. He brings back the same band from 2014s Still Casual: pianist Taylor Eigsti, bassist Harish Raghavan, guitarist Matthew Stevens, and drummer Kendrick Scott (who also appeared on the saxophonists 2007 debut, Casually Introducing). Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire also returns on several cuts. This diverse ensemble delivers Smiths compositions with canny interplay, lyric and rhythmic invention, and gorgeous soloing. The opener and first single "Contra" is titled for a computer game Smith loved and played as a child. Its head is knotty and clever. Smith, Stevens, and Eigsti deliver the adventurous cascading melody in driving yet lyrical post-bop language. The bridge offers some of the most dramatic group interplay on the entire set. Akinmusire joins in on "River Styx." The swinging twin brass/reed head hardly prepares the listener for the manner in which Eigsti and Stevens open the harmonic gates for the frontline. During Smiths wandering, resonant solo, Akinmusire traces his lines skeletally, minimally, brokenly, then turns outward in delivering his own solo. "Shine" commences as a minor ballad with skeins of repeating lyric lines falling from piano, tenor, and guitar. They dovetail into one another before coming together on the lyric. Eigstis solo ripples with sonant arpeggios, pulsing left-hand chords, and graceful swing. The winding saxophone and piano interplay is dramatic, almost cinematic in intensity. The only cover here is Kate Bushs "Mother Stands for Comfort," from Hounds of Love. The band takes the circular intro more slowly than the original. Smiths horn delivers the vamp with the piano, and though its only a droning two-note pulse, he imbues it with emotion as Stevens mutes his fingerpicked strings. Scotts brushed tom-toms hover between atmosphere and restrained power as power as Raghavan stretches the time signature. "Quiet Song" is actually a soaring, euphoric, midtempo jam whose far-reaching braid of harmonics and rhythm recall the early Pat Metheny Group. "Amelia Earhart Ghosted Me" is a post-bop sprint framed in minimal changes by Raghavan and Eigsti. The horn players exchange striated harmonic lines, then rotate solos and go head to head on the melody in staggered cadences of breathless post-bop. James Francies guests on "K8+BYU$." The tune is a mashup of two originals, including the first song he ever composed. While Smiths saxophone floats the melody with Raghavan and Stevens, its the solo interplay between Eigstis piano and Francies synth that offers timbral color and blissed-out harmonic assonance. Halfway through, the band slows it down and Smith re-enters in vamp-like call and response with Eigstis ringing piano. Return to Casual is a delight. Smiths compositions are sumptuous, lush, sometimes songlike, and full of subtle yet profound timbral and color ideas that emerge at the most unexpected times. The bandmembers went from being colleagues on Still Casual nine years ago to being a group of players who trust, rely on, and encourage one another in a program of sublime music making. ~ Thom Jurek