SLAMCD541 David Haney – Day for Night at Jackstraw

This album presents two jazz sessions recorded 8 years apart in the same studio – Jackstraw Studios, Seattle, USA – by two quite different ensembles, both led by pianist David Haney.

The first three tracks document what was a rare chance encounter and the only meeting of the trio comprising David Haney and the two great jazz veterans Julian Priester and Buell Neidlinger in 2000.

On the remaining three tracks, recorded 8 years later in 2008, Haney leads a sextet of members of the Primitive Art Ensemble.

David Haney: piano
Julian Priester: trombone
Buell Neidlinger: bass
Marc Smason: trombone, shofar
Doug Haning: contra alto clarinet
Dan Blunck: tenor saxophone and flute
Frank Clayton: bass
Juan Pablo Carletti: drums

“Priester’s mournful tone and subdued approach give the session a thoughtful and melancholic pitch. Lightening Tooth and Thunder Foot, is wholly improvised, a fascinating blend of deep song on brass, low throbs from Neidlinger and staccato piano interventions. It’s a fascinating dialogue, moderated from the keyboard, constantly shifting. The two composed pieces work the same way. Like everything of Haney’s it repays careful and patient attention…Carletti, who I believe is Argentinian, doesn’t swing like a North American player. He blends marching accents, accelerating rolls, free spots and cleverly timed gaps, the perfect accompaniment to Haney’s intriguing conception. The other players are well chosen. Smason is a good stand-in for Priester, Blunck wails and the low clarinet sound fills in the picture just right. The three pieces are organised round tightly coded piani parts that draw on elements of modern composition but still manage to retain something of the mood of a late-night, down-home jam. That’s an extraordinary combination to pull off, but Haney has to be considered some kind of vernacular avant-gardist or high-brow populist. Pick your musical paradox. He has it covered.” – Brian Morton, Jazz Journal

“Priester dominates the first three tracks. His inventiveness is spellbinding. He stretches out and alternates between the assertive and reflective. All the time he is himself playing in the tightly controlled way that has characterised his career…The opening rapid pace of the ‘Possession of Foxes’ extends everyone’s technique. I suppose this is two short albums. The second one gives space to younger musicians to show what they can do. The first three tracks reassure us that Priester in his seventies is energetic, questing and inventive.” – Jack Kenny, Jazz Views

“Although the personnel and instrumentation of these sessions differ greatly, the improvisations and expressive nature of each session acts as a connecting thread. The other key similarity between these two sessions is Haney’s drama as a composer. Haney’s remarkable compositions combine with sensitive and animated musicians to create a passionate experience. The musical personalities of the members of the Priester-Neidlinger-Haney trio serve to make the first session an automatic attention-grabber. Priester’s rich, warm tone is inviting and his presentation moves seamlessly between playful and solemn melodies Neidlinger offers a rhythmic complexity and maturity not often heard on his earlier recordings…the sextet is more adventurous in their efforts to discover the expansive possibilities of their instrumentation. The odd timbres of Smason’s shofar and Hanning’s contra alto clarinet give the performances an added layer of aural intrigue.” – Dustin Mallory, Cadence

“The trio here works extremely well together, well-balanced, thoughtful and creative in often subtle ways. There is a certain gracefulness here, a soft, lovely overall charm that draws you in. Mr. Priester has a superb sound on his trombone and is featured with a fine solo at the beginning of “Lightening Tooth and Thunder Foot”…Even when playing quietly, this trio creates a most sympathetic, hypnotic vibe. The last third of this disc is the sextet which was led by Mr. Haney…The overall vibe similar, restrained, free and well woven…I dig this part of the disc since it shows how a six-piece ensemble can play free and focused without ever screaming or going too far out.” – Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

All compositions by David Haney except for “Lightening Tooth and Thunder Foot” by David Haney, Julian Priester and Buell Neidlinger
Trio recording August 22, 2000, Jackstraw Studios, Seattle, WA
Sextet recording May 24, 2008, Jackstraw Studios, Seattle, WA

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