By Robert Ham | Published June 2019
Pianist Dave Meder’s debut was a long time coming. Passage represent a decade’s worth of work, writing, performing and honing these originals and covers. That’s just standard operating practice for most. But for jazz artists, the effort can have both a positive and negative effect.
That’s abundantly clear on Passage. Meder’s originals occasionally suffer from a stiff, mannered quality, as if he, drummer Kush Abadey and bassist Tamir Shmerling were just going through the motions. But they occasionally push through, as with the wonderfully unbound rendition of Thelonious Monk’s “Work,” which does a marvelous job of both respecting the original performer’s signature style while updating it with rhythms that splatter as much as they swing.
What takes Meder and company out of their comfort zone is the appearance of guests Chris Potter and Miguel Zenón. Both saxophonists draw something out of the material that might otherwise have gone untapped. Potter, especially, pushes Meder to reckon with the his bulky tone and confident drive on “Elegy,” and the solo that the pianist responds with glitters as it refracts the core melody into a multicolored display. Zenón asserts himself early on “This Road,” a piano-and-saxophone duet, and the two play like modern dancers, occasionally working in tandem, but just as often watching the other’s moves and responding with bold shapes of their own.
Passage is, then, a great opening salvo for this young bandleader. Meder shows throughout that he has the ability and the style it takes. He just needs the right players and a little less time at the drawing board.
Passage: Work; For Wayne; The Old Rugged Cross; This Road; Break Points; Golden Hour; Passage; Healing Heart; Elegy; For You, For Me, For Evermore. (49:10)
Personnel: Dave Meder, piano; Kush Abadey, drums; Tamir Shmerling, bass; Chris Potter (9), tenor saxophone; Miguel Zenón (4), alto saxophone, Marty Jaffe (9), bass.
