Wayne Shorter influenced
Saxophonist/composer Andrew Rathbun on tenor and soprano saxes on Lost in the Shadows along with guitarist Nate Radley, double bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Billy Drummond on this December 2023 studio recording features Rathbun originals plus interpretations of tunes such as Wayne Shorter’s ‘Pinocchio,’ a piece that first appeared on Miles Davis 1968 Columbia album – Nefertiti.
A tune you never tire of. The evergreen has been covered by many down the decades including in the 2000s in an appositely thoughtful Spirit Song take by Charlie Haden Quartet West icon Ernie Watts.
Well curated blend
Also on the well curated Lost in the Shadows is a much less heard piece, a version of Hale Smith’s ‘I Love Music’ interpreted by Ahmad Jamal on the pianist’s 1970 trio album The Awakening.
The Rathbun discography includes work with Kenny Wheeler
Rathbun, who hails from Canada and lives in the States, has had a prolific career including in the early 2000s featuring his fellow Canadian Kenny Wheeler on an album called Sculptures (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2002) whom the saxophonist met (according to Nate Chinen, writing in Jazz Times) when Wheeler was teaching in Banff.
It’s no surprise that there’s a Wayne Shorter piece here. You don’t say. We aren’t making that claim up. Because Rathbun told the cool US jazz blog Jazz Trail in a 2023 interview that: ”He’s had a massive influence on me as a player and as a writer. I have included a Wayne tune on most of my last few records (we played “Etcetera” on Character Study) and it’s hard to quantify just how much I love his music. He had a huge influence on my soprano playing. The philosophy that he had for both his art and his life is also deeply thought provoking.”
Treatment of Joe Chambers’ ‘Hopscotch’ works wonders
It’s serious music making. Tunes like the Rathbun title track have an ache and momentousness to them. The saxophonist in timbral terms and the way he attacks a note reminds me of the sound of Seamus Blake a bit and like Blake he has a gravitas to his playing and huge facility that takes you into his own tunes and a place beyond technique where meaning is able to function and so the tune even if it is new to you is able to be processed.
Highlights include Radley’s introduction to ‘I Love Music’ with its soft, poetic flavour. When Rathbun comes in there’s an understanding between the two that is clear. Also an appealing feature of the album is the way Drummond rustles up lots of off-kilter surprises on Joe Chambers composition ‘Hopscotch’ a vibrant piece that figured on Monk saxist Charlie Rouse’s Two Is One issued by Strata-East in the 1970s.
