Ryan Keberle & Catharsis: Music Is Connection :Alternate Side Records
The talented trombone player/composer Ryan Keberle has been on my watch list for quite some time, so when he and his group Catharsis releases a new album I make it my business to check out what these musicians are up to. This is the twelfth year that Catharsis has been making music as a group and this latest release Music is Connection is their sixth album. Leader Ryan Keberle is joined by members Peruvian bassist Joege Roeder, drummer Eric Doob who originally hails from Boston, the Chilean guitarist/singer Camile Meza, and since 2018 the multi-reed and brass player Scott Robinson who makes a guest appearance on this album.
The Keberle family was originally from Bloomington, Indiana before his family relocated to Spokane, Washington where Ryan was raised. His father Dan was a professor of classical and jazz trumpet and a Director of the Jazz studies program for thirty four years at Whitworth University. Ryan's mother taught piano and was a choir director at their church. With such strong musical genes, Keberle took classical violin and piano lessons before he became inspired by the powerful horn-based sound of the rock/jazz groups of the late nineteen-sixties like Blood Sweat and Tears, Tower of Power, and Chicago. He retained his piano work and took up the trombone as his main instrument while still in his teens.
Keberle enrolled at Whitworth before transferring to pursue his music at Manhattan School of Music in 1999. There he studied with trombone ace Steve Turre and graduated in 2001. That year he was selected as Artistic Director of the newly formed youth orchestra for the Jazz Classic Program of the New York Symphony, along with receiving a prestigious excellence award from his alma mater at MSM. In 2001 he did post graduate work as a selected artist to attend Julliard's then new Jazz Program. There he studied with talented trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and composition with David Berger and was one of the first students who graduated from the Julliard Jazz Program. As a student he help support himself playing mostly piano as a professional. As a trombone player, he soon became a sought after session member of many a prestigious orchestra including David Berger's Orchestra, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and the Maria Schneider Orchestra.
Ryan Keberle (photo credit unknown)
As an artist, Keberle has continued to find diverse projects to stimulate his expressive psyche. Besides forming Catharsis in 2012, he also formed a chamber jazz ensemble Reverso with French pianist Frank Woeste and French cellist Vincent Courtois and either Greg Hutchinson or Jeff Ballard on drums. Reverso has since released five gorgeous, often classically inspired albums that have received rightful acclaim. Because of his love of Brazilian music, especially the Música Popular Brasileira, Keberle took a sabbatical in Brazil in 2017 to immerse himself in the style, culture and nuances of this vibrant music. That year he formed and recorded with his Colletiv da Brasil group and released two well received albums Sonhos da Esquina and Considerando.
Catharsis is perhaps the most exploratory of the trombonist's groups and Music is Connection is another theme based album that continues Kerberle and partner's expansive vision. There is something special about the tapestries these talented and intuitive musicians create with the trombone, keyboard and voice sounds of Keberle, the guitar and voice inventiveness of Meza, the elastic and probing bass of Roeder, the expressive trumpet of now departed Michael Rodriguez, and the propulsive percussive drive that Doob skillfully supplies. These guys have a cellular connection that is nothing short of marvelous. The addition of guest multi-reedist Scott Robinson just adds another layer of colors and textures available to this very exciting group sound.
Whether they are exploring the connections between music and our feelings with their original piano-less, two-horn format on Music is Emotion, or are challenging our comfort level with their hopeful, politically oriented ideas and lush orchestrations on Find the Light, Shine a Light Catharsis is operating on a level of creativity that few groups reach.
Camile Meza, Ryan Keberle and Scott Robinson (photo credit unknown)
Music is Emotion opens with Keberle's "Throwback Moves" a reimagined song originally heard on the groups take from the 2013 debut album. Here we find a penetrating electric guitar solo by Meza, synchronized bass and powerful drum work by Roeder and Doob and some entrancing synchronous playing of Meza's marvelous voice and Keberle's in step keyboards. There is a feeling of music as portal into dance in the way these guys play with such foot moving vibrancy and drive.
"Sound Energy" is slow ballad that combines electric guitar accents with keyboard lines before Keberle's trombone enters the mix. Meza's voice as an instrument is a true gift and her communicative interaction with Keberle's voice or keyboard or trombone are telepathic.
Meza brings her version of Chilean composer/singer/poet/teacher Victor Jara's "Lo Unico Que Tengo." She originally recorded this love song- in English "The Only Thing I Have"-on her 2013 album titled Prisma. On this version, besides her transcendent voice, we hear just how simpatico her voice and Keberle's trombone can be, beautifully complimenting each other's musical ideas in a aural conversation of intimacy and emotion.
Jorge Roeder brings an excitable, off to the races composition "Hammersparks" and the sparks are indeed flying. As Keberle wrote, Roeder provides an "insane bass line" that few can handle, but the Peruvian seems to shine. Doob has his hands full with this one, but he executes the maddening pace with propulsion and grace. Guitar and trombone trade bends and slurs and then meld lines with grace and style.
"Key Adjustment" is another reprised Keberle composition from the debut album. The musician likes to revisit and reimagine his songs with different musical orchestrations and altered rhythms. Opening with a bass pedal point line, the guitar enters with a cascading of finger picked notes. The bass switches to a probing line that is accompanied by Doob's cadenced drum work. Keberle orchestrates the music with his large palette of sounds and textures. The guitar, the voices, trombone, bass, drums and keyboards all are all utilized with tremendous effect.
Milton Nascimento's "Vera Cruz" is a bewitching composition that answers Keberle's endearment to Brazilian music. Meza's voice seems to have the flexibility, range and control that makes it a secret weapon, like Nascimento's falsetto, only with more warmth. Keberle offers a warm, melodic trombone solo.
"Sonic Living" is a musical commentary about how the new generation, through the impact of cell phones, musical videos and social media have lost the art of listening to music that is unattached to the images. Careful uncluttered music listening today gets short shrift, scant attention, and Keberle is especially concerned as an educator how this trend can seriously effect negatively aspiring musicians.
"Cycle" was a short song orchestrated by drummer Eric Doob. Through the use of overdubbing and post production electronic effects, the drummer creates a layered piece. Over a repeating piano riff, he adds multiple sounds and instrumentation- trombone, voices, drone electronics, bass and synthesizer swell, all melding into a choir-like chant.
Keberle's "Arbor Vitae" is the only piece on the album that adds the memorable sound of guest saxophonist Scott Robinson. His Getzian take on this samba-like composition is perfectly matched to the vibe of this song. His breezily fluid solo tenor work is inventive, light and always a joy. Meza's voice inflections are light as a feather and Keberle and Robinson revel in their intuitive interplay.
The last two pieces are "Shine Intro" a two minute guitar, trombone and cymbal lead into the final composition "Shine" which is music inspired by the late French composer, the short-lived Lili Boulanger, who died at the age of twenty-four despite her rising star as a composing star that was being mentored by Ravel and Faure. The music features a ascending theme that brings in the ripping electric guitar work of Meza, the boisterous explosion of Keberle's trombone, the pulsing bass of Roeder and the percolating drums of Doob.
Music Is Emotion is an artful album that deftly uses sonic colors and textures, smart orchestrations, and excellent musicians to communicate that emotion can truly be found in beautiful music.