Christian Dillingham, photo: Alex Callejo
Take heed of the western wind, take heed of the stormy weather
Dedicated to the late-father of double bassist Christian Dillingham and issued earlier this month on his birthday the flavour on opener ‘Dimepiece’ written for the bassist’s wife is characterised by the pedal steel guitar playing of Matt Gold.
The piece opens out into a brittle nicely staccato piano solo from Julius Tucker. And drummer Quin Kirchner hustles the rhythms along. Later there’s plaintive vocals from Jodee Lewis on Bob Dylan’s extraordinary ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’ which was on 1964’s The Times They Are A-Changin.’
What is this weight in my mind
And what is this new sense of time
It’s the open fields and the friends that are gone
And I’ve been in the low lands too long
A take on ‘Lowlands’ works just as well. The more jazz side of this album we liked best. But nevertheless the raucous version of this Gillian Welch & David Rawlings Soul Journey (2003) song of regret is bloody agreeable.
There’s jazz standard input coming from the inclusion of Irving Berlin’s ‘What’ll I Do.’
I wonder – and it’s a reasonable bet given how Charlie Haden-like Dillingham is in places – if he knows the Brad Mehldau-Haden live version found on Long Ago and Far Away released in 2018. We went back to listen to both treatments back to back which proved worthwhile. Doing so unlocked an electric light in appreciating all of Halcyon somehow.
And think of Haden’s own country music side going an extra mile or two explored on Rambling Boy.
Turning to the Dillingham title track, it has a joyous bluesy urgency to it. If you’re a Bill Frisell fan the mood here fits in very well with some of Frisell’s more Americana flavoured recordings.
We don’t know too much about classical and jazz player Dillingham who is in his mid thirties, hails from Brookfield, Ohio, who was educated at Youngstown State University and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and who has taught jazz bass at Indiana University.
Recorded just before Christmas in Chicago
The personnel on this latest recording is different from 2023’s all-originals quartet affair Cascades the lead instrument of which was saxophone. But listen to the two together and you get a strong idea of the Dillingham approach which cleaves to strong melody, meaty riffs and chunky grooves.
But the version of 1920s song ‘What’ll I do’ doesn’t really fit into the Americana and countrifyfied spell that this new album often dwells in enough.
Too Good To Title
Much better is the choice of Duke Ellington’s ‘TGTT’ (Too Good To Title) which was on Duke’s Second Sacred Concert (1968) recording complete with an ethereally compelling Alice Babs vocal.
Liking the piece we went down the rabbit hole a bit and listened to a 1990s version in a supremely mellow Art Farmer meets Tom Harrell treatment of the song found on an Arabesque album that has just about made our day.
Elsewhere an original of Dillingham’s ‘Twice Lost’ is very moving and shows what a serious artist he is. There’s room for more avant-garde free form sounds found on ‘Peace Awaits’ which is full of drama.
And I’ve been in the lowlands too long. These bass lowlands go that bit deeper than most.
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