Honey and Salt: Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg

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Honey and Salt: Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg
Studio album by Matt Wilson

Publication
(s)

2017

Label (s) Palmetto Records

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

18th

running time

1:04:00

occupation

Studio (s)

Pipersville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

chronology
Amanda Monaco, Lauren Sevian, Gary Versace , Matt Wilson: Glitter
(2017) 		Honey and Salt: Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg Denny Zeitlin , Buster Williams & Matt Wilson: Wishing on the Moon
(2018)

Honey and Salt: Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg is a poetry and jazz album of Matt Wilson , the 17 and 18 October 2016 in Pipersville, Bucks County received, Pennsylvania and on August 25, 2017 Palmetto Records was published . The album title Honey and Salt is borrowed from a collection of Carl Sandburg's poems from 1963.

background

“Avid drummer Matt Wilson created a musical suite on his latest release, Honey and Salt, that enlivens the bare, stoic verse of one of the great American poets, Carl Sandburg . Wilson lists his connections to this writer in the liner notes ; both are from the western US, both are of Swedish descent, widely related by marriage, and Wilson was born just one town from Sandburg's birthplace, Galesburg , Illinois. In addition to geographical relationships, the eclectic drummer had a distant family relationship with the poet that went back three generations. Wilson has been fascinated by the poet's work since he was working on a college paper on sandcastle and surprisingly discovered the man's interest in jazz music . "

Matt Wilson has long been interested in Carl Sandburg's poems: his debut as a bandleader, Wave Follows Wave (Palmetto, 1996), was named after a Sandburg poem; Humidity (Palmetto, 2003) contained a sandcastle adaptation of “Wall Shadows”; and An Attitude for Graditude (Palmetto, 2012) presented the Sandburg-inspired “Bubbles”. However, this project (started in 2002 with the help of a Chamber Music America New Works scholarship) is totally inspired by poetry and coincides with the 50th anniversary of Sandburg's death (who died in July 1967), looking to January 2018 and the 140th anniversary of his birth. Matt wilson commented on the project:

“I think I came to Carl Sandburg more than I was doing this term paper at university and discovered that he liked jazz, which connected it to my world. When you leave home, you often get a new sense of pride in your roots. I started visiting him again when I moved to Brooklyn. I wrote Wave Follows Wave after I bought a book of Sandburg's poems on 7th Street in Brooklyn. "

The album Honey and Salt: Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg begins with Sandburg's work about a man eating a bowl of soup. The 63-word poem “Soup” opens with a slow blues beat . Guitarist Dawn Thomson's inconspicuous voice sings or speaks the poet's words as she follows Wilson's wavy melody line. Trumpeter / cornet player Ron Miles and woodwind player Jeff Lederer weave a serpentine line throughout, while Thomson plays some jagged guitar lines.

The comedian Jack Black

For the project, Wilson hired a group of jazz musicians, "interestingly not as musicians, but as readers"; bassist Christian McBride reads Sandburg's “Anywhere and Everywhere People”. In “Wilson's Sensual Music” to “Night Stuff”, with the deep sounding bass clarinet by Jeff Lederer, the sounding, Grace Slick- like voice of Dawn Thomson can be heard. Guitarist John Scofield reads out the playful “We Must Be Polite”, “which Wilson drives with a New Orleans shuffle and a honking, squeaky solo” from Lederer's. "Prairie Barn" is read by Lederer, who treats Wilson like a piece of Americana , "with its lonely, softly played guitar lines played over the percussive wind bell effect of the drummer."

The comedian Jack Black , whose connection with jazz is due to his marriage to the daughter of bassist Charlie Haden , reads on “Snatch of Sliphorn Jazz”. "Paper II" is the poem that Wilson treats in the most straight forward way of jazz; Guitarist Bill Frisell reads the verse about Thomson's guitar chords. Lederer and Miles unmistakably evoke the Blue Note era in their game . “The rough baritone of bassist Rufus Reid reads the lines from Sandburg's“ Trafficker ”, a gloomy vision of a rather desperate, unsuccessful woman of the night. Wilson uses his wobbly brushes as wind walks and a subdued Miles sets the night scene. "

The short poem "Paper I" presents the voice of saxophonist Joe Lovano , who in turn stands above Thomson's guitar chords. Lovano's cool cadence and sleek twists and turns give the verse a hipster vibe: “Are you a writer or a wrapper?” You could almost replace the word “rapper” with the “wrapper” of the poem, and for the modern listeners it would be a whole give new meaning, said Ralph A. Miriello in his review. Aside from Wilson's own reading of “As Wave Follows Wave”, the final reciter is the composer and pianist Carla Bley , who deals with the poem “To Know Silence Perfectly”. “The album ends with the happy 'Daybreak'; in Wilson's 'typically happy way', the drummer plays another mixture inspired by New Orleans jazz , a jambalaya of intertwined clarinets and trumpet lines. ”Sandburg himself can be heard in“ Fog ”; his voice was taken from a recording from 1968 and contrasted with a moody solo drum improvisation by Wilson.

Track list

  • Matt Wilson: Honey and Salt: Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg (Palmetto MEGA2184)
Matt Wilson (2017)
  1. Soup 4:52
  2. Anywhere and Everywhere People (Christian McBride, reader) 3:57
  3. As Wave Follows Wave (Matt Wilson, reader) 3:47
  4. Night Stuff 6:28
  5. We Must Be Polite (John Scofield, reader) 3:47
  6. Fog (Carl Sandburg, reader) 2:54
  7. Choose 3:12
  8. Prairie Barn (Jeff Lederer, reader) 2:15
  9. Offering and Rebuff 3:24
  10. Stars, Songs, Faces 2:58
  11. Bringers 4:24
  12. Snatch of Sliphorn Jazz (Jack Black, Reader) 3:31
  13. Paper 2 (Bill Frisell, reader) 5:25
  14. Trafficker (Rufus Reid, reader) 1:50
  15. Paper 1 (Joe Lovano, reader) 0:44
  16. I sang 4:07
  17. To Know Silence Perfectly (Carla Bley, reader) 2:38
  18. Daybreak 3:49

reception

Honey and Salt was named Album of the Year at the JJA Awards of the Jazz Journalists Association in 2018. The Down Beat gave the album the highest rating of five stars; whose author, Jim Macnie, praised Wilson's Honey and Salt as a reminder not only of “how whimsical a poet the master really was, but also how talented a drummer and arranger Wilson is. The program changes and changes, but each round leads a really discreet approach to the verse at hand. The core ensemble is versatile enough to cover this diversity. "

Photography of Carl Sandburg by Al Ravenna (1955), which is also on the cover of Honey and Salt is

Jazz journalist Ralph A. Miriello wrote in the Huffington Post , “But merging two art forms is always a tricky business. While jazz and lyric always have something in common, mixing the two can be problematic. Those who wish to hear the poet's unvarnished words could be cast off by a musician's interpretation. Those who are more interested in the musician's vision may miss the message in the poem. ”However, according to the author, Wilson managed to overcome the tightrope here. With Honey and Salt , he has created "a masterful collection of music that both honors the veracity of Sandburg's poetry and enriches the experience of hearing the verses by combining it with his wonderfully complementary music."

As usual, Wilson's energetic playing is the driving force behind the entire album. “The man exudes a feeling of vitality and joy with every beat of his drum and every impact of his pelvis. He brings a range of emotions into all eighteen poems, each of which has been expressed here musically. The poems are all from The Complete Works of Carl Sandburg , published in 1970. Wilson's lifelong admiration for the poet Carl Sandburg has now been enshrined in Honey and Salt , a true musical expression of appreciation. Carl Sandburg is an American sweetheart. With Honey and Salt Wilson have created a great new way to rediscover the poetry of this master of American verse. "

Jerome Wilson wrote in All About Jazz : “There have been many combinations of jazz and poetry over the years, but the sheer eclecticism of this project makes it special. When you sing and recite the poems in front of such a crazy quilt of musical approaches, you appreciate the diversity of Sandburg's writing. ”For the author, the only comparable project is Carla Bley's collaboration with the poet Paul Haines , in which the epic Escalator over the Hill was produced, but this work is “more compact and light-hearted. It's a free-running suite with a mischievous humor that goes with the theme. This is quite simply the best work of Matt Wilson's career. ”Also in All About Jazz, Mark Sullivan reviewed the album. He wrote, Honey and Salt “captures the combination of savory and sweet that characterizes the work of both the poet and the drummer. Populist art, but with an advantage. Wilson has created one of the most effective combinations of jazz and poetry here, supported by a great band and a star cast of guest speakers. "

Carla Bley (2009)

Andre Gilbert wrote in JazzTimes that Honey and Salt could be considered one of the most recent series of ambitious releases of jazz performances with poetry. But it really is a quintessence of Wilson, with the same loose and smooth sensibility that has inspired many of his previous albums. The album is divided into three chapters with a beautiful epilogue and is based on the conversational rhythm tandem of Wilson and Martin Wind (acoustic bass guitar) and the Mutt-and-Jeff match of Ron Milese's elegant, cool cornet and Jeff Lederer's Earthy bass clarinet, Alto sax, tenor saxophone and whistling clarinet.

The enlightening wildcard is guitarist and singer Dawn Thompson, whose sweet, jokeless introduction to the opening track, the crispy blues "Soup", introduces the tensions that enliven the project. The verse describes a famous man's famous lunch with almost surreal, repetitive detail, a portrait of a "frozen moment when everyone sees what's at the end of each fork," to quote Sandburg's misanthropic antithesis, William S. Burroughs . In addition to Thompson's vocals, the album includes several instrumental tracks and pieces that are recited by musicians that Wilson has recruited. His casting decisions, including Carla Bley on the unaccompanied final blessing "Knowing the silence perfectly, always met the reward."

“With the exception of Lederer's intentional recitation of 'Prairie Barn', Wilson says the readings followed the recording of the music. The results are better than anything that could have been planned, like Wilson's ancient setting for the playful absurdist verse 'We must be Polite', which John Scofield provided with poker aplomb. 'When I sent it to John, it came back in a very different way than we expected, like he was reading to his grandchildren. In the end, it was more powerful than if it were overdone. I just said, "Read it as you think."

In many ways, honey and salt is a work in progress. For concerts, Wilson recruited musicians, friends and even music critics to recite Carl Sandburg's poems with the band. it's another way Wilson found to invite people into his musical world. His affinity for Sandburg as an artist reflects his ongoing campaign to encourage jazz musicians to find new ways to connect with audiences. "

“Sandburg belonged to a time when writers of all directions had visibility and influence that went far beyond the possibilities of today's popular imaging culture, and the remarkably productive writer took his role as a writer seriously. He was the first poet to speak before Congress, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning Abraham Lincoln biography is still praised for its lively prose (if not its historical basis). But it also developed in the age of electronic mass media. '[He was] a semi-regular game on television that appeared on What is My Line. and this Gene Kelly Special, where he wrote a poem for Kelly that Nelson Riddle set to music, 'says Wilson. 'Marilyn Monroe loved him!' "

Ron Miles (2009)

Much like Wilson's music seems timeless and utterly contemporary, Sandburg's uncomplicated verse captures universal truths that fit today's headlines with terrifying accuracy. Christian McBride's knowing recitation of “Everywhere and wherever people” swirls like an X-ray image of our reality TV age (“There are people who want to be seen so much / they almost always manage to be seen”). It is indeed striking, and at times depressing, how forward-looking Sandburg could be. With its martial, gung-ho music, Wilson's most direct take on "Choose," a short verse from Chicago Poems published in 1916 while a generation of European men perished in the trenches of World War I.

Matt Collar gave the album 4½ (out of 5) stars in Allmusic, writing, "If fellow Illinois poet Carl Sandburg and drummer Matt Wilson shared a trait, it would be a surprise." Sandburg got on with an ironic, whimsical Ton wrote about everyday life, was also a fan of jazz and folk music, "and his poems testify to a musical, lyrical quality that is at the same time intellectually resourceful and soulful." The same applies to Wilson, whose sandcastle tribute Present "a playful, imaginative jazz", "which spans the boundaries between avant-garde improvisation, ruminating folk and swinging, bluesy post-bop ." The band around Wilson play with an organic exuberance and transform Sandburg's poems into songs, such as Sandburg's " Soup ”in an earthy blues ,“ Night Stuff ”in a chamber piece and“ We Must Be Polite ”in a sizzling New Orleans second-line jam.

The other tracks are equally captivating, as Wilson emphasizes the clearly American quality of both Sandburg's lyrics and the sound of jazz and folk music, such as the marching band-like "Stars, Songs, Faces" and the ambient country twang of "Prairie Barn". The playful surprise of the album also includes the appearance of well-known guest artists who recite Sandburg's poems. Perhaps the most surprising and enjoyable aspect of Honey and Salt is how cleverly Wilson has combined his music and Sandburg's writing without sacrificing or limiting the listener's ability to limit both at the same time.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Mark Sullivan: Matt Wilson: Honey And Salt. All About Jazz, September 10, 2017, accessed March 31, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ralph A. Miriello: Matt Wilson's “Honey and Salt”: Music Inspired by the Poetry of Carl Sandburg. Huffington POst, September 18, 2017, accessed March 31, 2019 .
  3. ^ A b Matt Wilson Takes Jazz to Carl Sandburg's Poetry. JazzTimes, November 15, 2017, accessed March 31, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Review of the album Honey and Salt by Matt Collar at Allmusic (English). Retrieved March 21, 2019.
  5. ↑ Discographic information at Discogs
  6. ↑ JJA 2018 Winners
  7. ↑ Jim Macnie: Matt Wilson's Honey and Salt. Music Inspired By The Poetry Of Carl Sandburg. Down Beat, August 1, 2017, accessed March 31, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Jerome Wilson: Matt Wilson: Honey And Salt. All About Jazz, August 27, 2017, accessed March 31, 2019 .