CD REVIEW
BIG NEIGHBORHOOD - 11:11
One of the most impressive groups in Seattle right now is Big Neighborhood. Their music is completely “accessible,” if one may use that term with prejudice to no one – a listener with broad exposure to jazz is likely to find it compelling, and no newcomer to jazz is likely to greet it with some of the epithets that often spring from newbies’ mouths, like “weird,” “hermetic,” or “full of itself.” Far from it, Big Neighborhood, which formed in 2004, demonstrates on its double-disc 11:11, a successor to last year’s Neighbors, that it can plum well-heeled jazz styles and find ways to refresh them to great effect and with clear appeal. The disc is a revelation, in fact, because guitarist David White is not yet a well-known figure on the Seattle scene, and saxophonist Chris Fagan has for a decade been a quiet one.
Certainly, their skills, and those of bassist Doug Miller and drummer Phil Parisot, make this fresh quartet a contender for national attention. The band has been winning great notices. It appeared to acclaim at this year’s Earshot Jazz Festival, and this disc, which appeared several months ago, now, has drawn praise. In The Stranger, Christopher deLaurenti noted the way its tracks “cogently shift from sunny boppish melodies to a pastoral calm and then burst into a propulsive groove conjured from Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way." On the front line, Chris Fagan’s dry alto saxophone tone contrasts nicely with David White’s shimmering guitar and occasional (and most importantly, tasteful) guitar-synth comping.”
On bass, Miller is well-known for his utter dependability and great flare primarily through his years with the New Stories trio with pianist Marc Seales and drummer John Bishop, although earlier, while based in New York and Indianapolis, he toured with the Count Basie and Ellington orchestras, Mel Lewis, and many other name players. He has also recorded here with Marius Nordal and Bill Anschell (including on his recent, stellar More To The Ear Than Meets the Eye), and with the late Don Lanphere.
Phil Parisot’s performance on this disc marks something of a coming-of-age for him; he locks the band in and propels it with great assurance. Certainly, the Garfield High graduate, who went on to study at William Paterson University and, in New York, under Rashied Ali and Carl Allen, has been an impressive figure since returning to Seattle since 2002.
Chris Fagan worked in New York from 1986 until 1995, other than for 1991-92, when he was in Amsterdam, teaching at the Sweelinck Conservatory. He has been in Seattle since 1995, and has won notice in a variety of settings, including with his own group, which recorded Signs of Life in 1997. He has been, however, a low-profile presence, notwithstanding talents that speak loud. In the Seattle Times, Paul deBarros noted his “juicy, piquant tone on alto, a brisk, non-clichéd sense of phrasing and a dynamite feel for swing.”
White, who like Fagan hails from California, has extensive experience of the New York scene, too. He worked there for 18 years. He has recorded five albums as a leader, and he displays a broad range of influences, even including a passage from Paul Hindemith’s 4 Stücke in the title track of 11:11.
White, Miller, and Parisot write pieces for the album, making for varied listening. That effect registers in some interesting ways, including psychological. One key to White’s pieces is his liner notes, which digress on matters related to the title 11:11, whose numerological design you might not otherwise recognize: “to reach the subconscious mind and trigger genetically encoded memories showing us that we are higher spirits merely manifesting physical experiences on earth.” As you might expect, then, his compositions have a mad-hatter quality: All their pieces make good sense, but they are combined in an antic, winning, way. White also points out in his liner notes, the music is marked by "shifting meters, contrapuntal voices, multiple and serialized sections, and contrasting moods,” and “new realities in the post-bop/modernist improvisational realm.” All those claims are borne out.
-Peter Monaghan, Earshot Jazz