In The Unknown (I Will Find You)

ニューヨークの作曲家兼ドラマー、ウィリー・ロドリゲスがリーダー2作目が登場!!

このアルバムは、悲しみ、記憶、そして精神的な再結集の探求によって形作られています。非常に個人的な起源を持ちながらも音は広がりがあり、確信のない中でのつながりへの旅を反映しており、音楽こそが再会が可能に感じられる唯一の空間となっています。

ベースを使わない型破りなトリオを率いるロドリゲスは、音楽の名手レオ・ジェノヴェーゼや限界を押し広げるサックス奏者イングリッド・ラウブロックと手を組み、流動的で限りのないコレクティブを結成します。スタイルの制約から解放されたこのトリオは、音楽を多方向に展開させ、開放的な形式と深く応答的な即興演奏を通じて実現させています。

これらの構図は固定された構造ではなく感情的なキャンバスとして機能し、信頼、直感、共有された経験によって等しく形作られています。 伝説的なヴァン・ゲルダー・スタジオで録音された『In The Unknown (I Will Find You)』は、3人の非常に創造的な声が深い交わりの中で生き生きと表現した、探求的で親密な音楽的声明です。

Willy Rodriguez(ds), Leo Genovese(p), Ingrid Laubrock(sax)

In The Unknown (I Will Find You) is drummer, composer, and bandleader Willy Rodriguezs second album. This set offers a deeply personal odyssey through loss, memory, and spiritual connection. Rodriguez enlisted tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, who endured a similar period of struggle and loss. He also tapped pianist and keyboardist Leo Genovese in a bass-free trio. Spoken word contributions are by Allan Harris, with sound design by Chris Connors. Rodriguez has made an impact across creative music culture serving in Mon Lafertes Grammy-winning Norma band, playing on Mars Voltas most recent, eponymous album, and releasing his internationally acclaimed debut, Seeing Sound, in 2024. The music and sounds here reflect a firm rooting in avant jazz, but also a new role for modern electronics in modern jazz. The compositions emerged from Rodriguezs experience of losing his mother to cancer. That period transformed his relationship to creativity and grief. The first sound we hear on the title-track opener is Harris intoning, "All I did, was smile, and smile and smile..." before Laubrock and Genovese enter with an intimate modal progression that alternately rumbles and whispers as Rodriguezs deft kit work surrounds and elevates his bandmates. The tone is initially mournful, but as the drumming grows more intense and episodic, the trio responds accordingly with flurries of dialogue and dynamic and textural shifts. In "The Perplexity of Eternity," a processional piano pattern introduces the piece and is framed by Rodriguezs snare, cymbals, and kick drum before Laubrock enters, twinning Genoveses phraseology. Harris speaks, "And these mine eyes/Shall see all times/How they are lost in a sea of vast eternity." Genoveses percussive chording offers the saxophonist room to improvise using glorious tones, blasts, and near whispers on her horn; the drummer paces her as Genovese adorns the space between with dark blocky chords. By the time we reach "Its Ok to Let Go," a rare balance between structure, surrender, and response emerges from the trio, as Connors adds insistent, ambient electronics to the emerging palette of sound. Laubrocks improvised solo is played in circular cadences. "A Room Full of Confusion," the albums longest cut, is pregnant with emotional resonance. Its haunting melody emerges through sparse, almost fragile phrases by Genovese; his chord voicings add harmonic texture to Laubrocks long, breath-like responses of acceptance and resolve. "Where I Saw You Last" is governed by percussive piano notes played inside and outside the instrument before Laubrock breathes into her horn and plays thumping fingered responses. Organic hand percussion informs the piece to float, hover, and dive, never abandoning the restrained meditative quality even as it arrives at its most outside moments. Closer "Follow the Light" finds Genovese playing an organ solo, with droning chords and periodic runs that evoke blues and fugues with rich harmonic juxtapositions. It offers the kind of acceptance that evolves into spiritual exploration. In The Unknown (I Will Find You) requires patient listening the first time; it reveals discipline, empathetic playing resulting in profound creativity. ~ Thom Jurek