The Mark Masters Ensemble "Night Talk - The Alec Wilder Songbook featuring Gary Smulyan"

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“With his latest album, Night Talk, the brilliant arranger and bandleader Mark Masters delves deep into the Alec Wilder catalogue, crafting a vibrant, richly hued collection to spotlight one of modern jazz’s most gifted and singular voices: baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan. Backed by the virtuosic Mark Masters Ensemble, a stellar line-up featuring four horns and an impeccably swinging rhythm section, Smulyan explores Masters’ imaginative reinterpretations with the emotional eloquence of a great singer paired with the dazzling agility of a master soloist. Night Talk embraces the shadowy grandeur of Wilder’s compositions, from the evocative noir-influenced cover photograph to the dark-tinged luxuriance of Masters’ orchestrations. The pieces are given thrilling new life by the remarkable ensemble, which includes saxophonists Don Shelton and Jerry Pinter, trumpeter Bob Summers, trombonist Dave Woodley, pianist Ed Czach, bassist Putter Smith and drummer Kendall Kay. The cream of the West Coast scene, these musicians have forged long-standing musical relationships with one another and with Masters, in some cases dating back as much as three decades.” 

- Kim Giles, New World ‘n’ Jazz

“…masterful…. Leader, arranger, producer, chief cook and bottle washer Masters has crafted nine tremendous settings reminiscent of the work of such creative minds as Marty Paich, Bill Russo, Gil Evans and, say, Gerry Mulligan…. If I don’t hear a better album this year I’ll not complain…. ”

 – Lance Liddle, Bebop Spoken Here

“Mark Masters is an accomplished arranger who comes up with hip, unusual ideas for jazz concerts and recordings.” 

– Thomas Conrad, JazzTimes

“Masters paints complex, intricate, detailed jazz landscapes, and he has always invited some of the most adventurous and innovative players into his ensemble.” 

– Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

In an earlier feature Mark Masters, his Jazz Ensemble and his work at the American Jazz Institute we wrote:

“What do Granchan Moncur III, Dewey Redman, Lee Konitz, Clifford Brown, Steely Dan, Jimmy Knepper, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, and the Duke Ellington saxophone section have in common?

Give up?

The music of each of these artists has been the focus of a reinterpretation by composer-arranger Mark Master who also heads up an organization called The American Jazz Institute.”

Well, it only gets better because to the above list we get to add the music of Alec Wilder in the form of Mark’s latest CD for Capri Records: The Mark Masters Ensemble - Night Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook featuring Gary Smulyan [74162-2].

With this latest release Mark and his associates continue to treat -

“Each musician’s compositional oeuvre [in this latest effort, Alec Wilder] becomes the object of a year-long arranging “project” for Mark who often puts on concerts of the reinterpreted music featuring musicians who have evolved, over the years, into ongoing members of the Mark Masters Ensemble.

After the musicians have had a chance to rehearse the music associated with these projects and perform it in concert, Mark then takes the ensemble into the recording studio to save the music for posterity. Some of it is issued on a self-produced basis, but more recently, many have been issued on Capri Records and you can locate copies of these AJI CDs via online vendors or order them through the AJI website.”

While looking for a broader context in which to place a feature about The Mark Masters Ensemble - Night Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook featuring Gary Smulyan I came across a number of Alec’s references to Jazz musicians and their music. I’ve included some of these below as they contain observations and insights which can be applied to Mark and the ensemble.

Perhaps the best place to start would be with this quotation which begins the insert notes to Mark’s new recording.

"Jazz musicians are a phenomenon. I don't believe the layman has any notion of the miraculous chain of events which occur when a jazz musician plays." — Alec Wilder

And these excerpts from Desmond Stone’s biography of Wilder also shed some light on Wilder’s perceptions of Jazz:

“Wilder loved jazz players because he felt they had an edge. He also believed that every great classical musician who liked jazz played the better for it, with a looseness alien to the more rigid academic musicians. "All the great musicians, … —I could mention 50 of them—they all love jazz. ...

Believing as he did that all music belongs in the same broad stream, Wilder refused to put jazz artists or any other kind of musicians into an isolation booth. He liked jazz musicians for the same basic reasons he liked Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, and the other greats of American popular song. He spent hundreds of nights listening to jazz improvisations because he believed that good jazz players take the same imaginative risks in synthesizing materials that the most inventive and sophisticated songwriters take, and that the source of jazz other than the blues and so-called originals is the standard songs.

Wilder loved jazz players for their passion and vulnerability, but he was also aware that their standards of performance were bound to vary with the improvisations. …  "Jazz improvisation is instantaneous; the musicians never do as well on a record date. Some of the most miraculous moments of jazz have gone right up the flue because no one got them on tape." Once, Mulligan, upon being told by a slightly tipsy lady that she was not very impressed by his playing in the preceding set, replied with his wry Irish smile, "Were you here last night?" That, said Wilder, succinctly defined jazz and its evanescence: sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. …”

And this perspective on “Wilder Jazz” from James T. Maher’s insert notes to Marian McPartland Plays The Music of Alec Wilder [Jazz Alliance TJA-10016]:

“One summer evening several years ago, Wilder was standing against the wall in a recording studio on Broadway listening to a septet of wind players, each distinguished in his musical field — commercial, recital, or jazz — rehearsing a new chamber suite he had composed for them. Almost as though they were improvising, they forced the secrets from their parts. Suddenly, the pulse was right. The dour set of Wilder's mouth relaxed. The aeolian texture of the piece emerged: the lines began to balance, each with its proper, constantly changing, sonic weight and color. The phrases took on eloquence. Solo passages began to sing.

The wintry mask dissolved. Wilder dug his fists deep into the pockets of his tweed jacket and began to smile. He was safe, and his music was safe. He gave in to the silent laughter of joy — the open, vulnerable laughter of a boy discovering the white wonder of a windless snowfall.”

It doesn’t take long to find parallels between these comments and opinions about Alec Wilder’s views of Jazz and its makers and Mark Masters, his ensemble and the music and musicians on The Mark Masters Ensemble - Night Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook featuring Gary Smulyan.

At the outset, like Wilder, Mark Masters takes his music very seriously; it’s not something that’s thrown together and thus recorded in some haphazard manner.

And as with the case of Wilder’s elation at observing the musicians jell during a rehearsal of his wind music, Mark has chosen to call his group an “ensemble” - which denotes a group that comes together to produce a single effect.

Put another way, the literal definition of an “ensemble” is when “all parts of a thing are taken together so that each part is considered only in relation to the entire whole.”

So what we get on the new recording is The Mark Masters Ensemble rendering selections from the Alec Wilder songbook in new interpretations performed by an octet of sterling musicians who blend together so well that the original compositions assume a new texture or sonority.

Moon and Sand, I Like It Here, Lovers and Losers and I’ll Be Around - all familiar Wilder melodies - are given new treatments thanks to Mark’s intriguing arrangements. And while you know it’s Wilder, his music never sounded like this before.

As to the “edge” that comes from taking risks in improvisations that Wilder so loved about Jazz musicians, Mark leaves lots of room for risk-taking with plenty of solo space given to each member of the group, and especially to the featured soloist - baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan. 

Joining Gary’s masterful bari in the reed and woodwind section are Don Shelton on alto, doubling on flute, and Jerry Pinter on tenor sax, doubling on soprano sax.

Bob Summers on trumpet, who has years of experience as a lead player or in the Jazz chair, and Dave Woodley on trombone form the brass section.

And all are ably accompanied by pianist Peter Czach, bassist Putter Smith and drummer Kendal Kay, each of whom is also an excellent soloist.

What you immediately notice upon first listening is how “tight” [together] the band is and how effortlessly they work through what are complicated and complex charts [arrangements].

This speaks to the high degree of musicianship on display, but also to a group that’s been well-rehearsed and well-versed in the music.

How else to explain the ability to get 53.59 minutes of music recorded in one day? Under any circumstances, that’s a lot of music to record, let alone, music that’s recorded well. 

The real treat with The Mark Masters Ensemble - Night Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook featuring Gary Smulyan is that not only does the Jazz fan get the music of Alec Wilder placed in a Jazz context, but it's been reimagined by someone with the experienced compositional and arranging skills of Mark Masters. Add to this the improvisational artistry of baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan and the creative and disciplined skills of seven more talented musicians, and you are in for a fascinating listening experience.