This week on Jazz Spectrum – September 2, 2023

By Fritz Byers

The centerpiece this week is Passage, the new release from Johnathan Blake’s spirited and tasteful quintet, Pentad.

The previous blog post, by Kim Kleinman, reports on a live performance last weekend by Pentad, streamed from Smoke Jazz Club in New York City, which Kim and I shared remotely. I commend that post to you for Kim’s characteristically incisive impressions of the music. Messaging each other during the show, between our ricocheting raves about what we were hearing we agreed that the new recording, which has much in common with the live performance, warranted the attention.

Passage is Pentad’s sophomore release, following the band’s stirring 2021 debut, Homeward Bound. That recording rested atop my Best of 2021 list, and – spoiler alert – this one will likely occupy a similar spot in this year’s summing up. 

Pentad comprises the alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, the vibraphonist Joel Ross, the pianist David Virelles, and the bassist Dezron Douglas, all guided by Johnathan’s sense of order as the leader. (Most of the Smoke shows last weekend featured this group; for the show Kim and I heard, the alto saxophonist Steve Wilson replaced Immanuel, a notable difference but not a diminution.)

Johnathan is the son of jazz violinist John Blake, Jr, who passed in 2014. His presence and his son’s appreciation of him suffuse the record, although it is far from programmatic. Johnathan says, “Passage picks up where Homeward Bound leaves off. It’s a celebration of my father’s life and legacy.”

Across the four hours of this week’s show, you’ll hear the entire record, although not in the order of the record’s track list. This week’s show, like the record, opens with a brief, contemplative, and affecting drum solo, “Lament for Lo.” Next in the set is “Muna & Johna’s Playtime,” which opened the Smoke show. It is throughout a paradigm of the marvelous interplay among the bandmates; I have been particularly taken, over repeated listenings, by the trades between Immanuel and David, and, more subtly, the way Johnathan signals a mood or tempo change, and the ways the rest of the musicians respond, not in lockstep but in something much more graceful.

Before I leave the rest of the discoveries to you, I have to comment on the title track. Knowing its provenance makes the piece even more moving than it would otherwise be. But on purely musical terms, it’s a profound demonstration of Johnathan’s gifts as a composer, bandleader, and rhythm-keeper. I don’t have the musical knowledge to articulate technically the harmonic ideas he plays with throughout this piece. But I’ve heard enough music in my life to know that his concepts are intricate, challenging, and utterly suited to the band’s virtuosi. You’ll hear this, and more, at the start of Set 3, in which “Passages” is followed by the band’s cover of a gorgeous ballad, Ralph Peterson’s “Tears I Cannot Hide.” 

This piece showcases the vibraphonist, and it gives me occasion now to celebrate Joel, a remarkably lyrical soloist whose own recordings as a leader are among the most thrilling releases of the century so far. The title track from Joel’s pathbreaking 2019 release, KingMaker, opens Set 8, which will begin about 11pm Saturday. Catch it if you can.