CD review: Tom Harrell – Infinity 2019: Video, CD cover

When pianist Bill Charlap featured Tom Harrell at a recent gig with his trio at New York’s Jazz Standard, he summarized the trumpeter’s genius as concisely as anyone could.

“It is our honor and privilege,” he announced, “To share the bandstand with a man who is a living, breathing melody.” For this latest HighNote release, featuring a razor-sharp quintet with saxophonist Mark Turner and guitarist Charles Altura, Harrell & company combine complex compositions, seductive rhythms, advanced harmonic concepts, vibrant solos and sheer inspiration in an album which transcends the jazz idiom. This is perhaps Harrell’s most imaginative recording to-date, with the scoring for the piano-less, tenor sax and guitar front line ensemble sui generis among his work.

“The trumpeter Tom Harrell has been doing this a long time, through various schools and vogues: He can play slow and fast and in between, sometimes all within a single line. But his improvising is always temperate and proportionate. He keeps you on the hook, but doesn’t shout, doesn’t stop the clock. Plenty of improvisers are specialists in now-ness, revealing a solo as a series of events, or present-tense flashes. With Mr. Harrell, it’s all one event. He’s always processing ahead and behind, and you feel as if you’re hearing the whole of the narrative at all times, from was to is to will be…Mr. Harrell has been one of the best composers, improvisers and bandleaders in jazz since the late ’80s, and he knows how to make contrasts sound exciting: playing slowly over a fast tempo, playing quietly but with power. But he also uses the contrast of his own sound set against that of the groups he’s playing in.” (The New York Times).

1. The Fast 06:39
2. Dublin 09:40
3. Hope 07:30
4. Coronation 06:57
5. Folk Song 06:03
6. Blue 05:40
7. Ground 07:19
8. The Isle 08:26
9. Duet 01:42
10. Taurus 06:01

Mark Turner, tenor saxophone
Charles Altura, guitar
Ugonna Okegwo, bass
Johnathan Blake, drums