Artemis – The Legend Grows

By Fritz Byers

Artemis, in Greek mythology, is the goddess of free nature, wild animals, the hunt, and vegetation. (If Roman mythology is your thing, think Diana.) Her stature in the ancient world is marked by the countless shrines erected in her honor and by the pervasive cultural veneration directed toward her, in legend, literature, and visual art. If you want to verify her power, check out what happened to anyone who crossed her or even thought to intrude on her domain.

So Artemis is a suitable moniker for the daring all-female septet helmed by the pianist Renee Rosnes. The presence of female-led ensembles in jazz is, happily, no longer a rarity, so now that we’ve acknowledged the composition of the group, we can move on. Their accomplishment is Olympian.
The group’s eponymous 2020 debut was by any measure among the best releases of that year. The original iteration of the band included, in addition to Renee, the trumpeter Ingrid Jensen; the tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, the clarinetist Anat Cohen, the bassist Noriko Ueda, and the drummer Allison Miller. The singer Cecile McLorin Salvant joined for two tracks, but was considered a full-fledged member. 
You can’t miss the international flavoring: An Israeli, a Chilean, a French-Haitian American, and a Japanese, among others, organized by a Canadian. The recording opened with Allison’s composition, “Goddess of the Hunt,” which she called “a sonic exploration of the powerful traits that define women.” It’s both moody and infectious. I remember hearing it the first time and feeling immediately pulled in. Melissa, whose playing has captivated me for the last several years, contributed “Frida,” and Anat added a marvelous piece, “Nocturno,” inspired by Chopin but, in the hands of the band, transformed into a brilliant modernist exercise in the melding powers of the jazz vocabulary.
Three years have passed, and just as Kim and I were thinking we’d waited long enough, here comes Artemis’s new release, In Real Time. The rhythm core – Renee, Noriko, and Allison – remains, as does Ingrid on trumpet. The current iteration is a sextet, with the tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover and the multi-reed artist Alexa Tarantino on alto and soprano saxophones, and flute. The new voices fit beautifully, and the arrangements highlight the marked differences in tonality and style between the two saxophonists. 
Like Melissa before her, Nicole brings a deep immersion in the history of her instrument. I’ve heard her many times in performance, and I have noted the influence of Joe Henderson, Hank Mobley, and, most tellingly, Wayne Shorter (the album concludes with a stunning rendition of Wayne’s tune, “Penelope”), all woven through a sound that is entirely Nicole’s She’s in the highest tier of tenorists currently playing.
Alexa, on each of her instruments, brings a beautiful lightness of tone and a thoroughgoing immersion in lyricism, without even descending into trite fillips. 
If you’ve listened to Jazz Spectrum at all in the last decade, you’ve heard bunches of Ingrid’s music. As Renee says of her, “Nobody sounds like Ingrid.” The settings here are as fertile as any I’ve heard her in.
Allison has been thrilling us in recent years with her own stellar group, Boom Tic Boom, where she joins with the ingenious pianist Myra Melford. With Artemis, Allison plays an essential role as a composer (“Bow and Arrow”) and a timekeeper, and, to my ears, a spirit force throughout.
Renee, of course, has long been among the most interesting pianists and composers in jazz, and you get the feeling that Artemis gives her a home unlike any other she’s found across her exemplary career. 
A revelation here is Noriko’s composing chops – her tune, “Lights Away from Home,” is engaging and cheerful.
In Real Time is so far beyond a “follow-up to an acclaimed debut” that it feels almost churlish to mention the earlier release. This new recording is its own magnificent adventure, and it is, in many ways, without precedent, not just in the careers of the musicians but in the annals of the music.
This week’s Jazz Spectrum and Jazz Spectrum Overnight features several tracks from the date, and you can be certain you’ll hear more in the months to come