DAYNA STEPHENS -
LIBERTY
Featuring Dayna Stephens (saxophones), Ben Street (bass), Eric Harland (drums)
Available on Contagious Music – February 28, 2020
Upcoming Tour Dates:
Feb 26 - Dazzle, Denver, CO
Feb 27 - Kuumbwa Jazz, Santa Cruz, CA
Feb 28-29 - The Blue Whale, Los Angeles, CA
March 1 - EarShot Jazz Festival, Seattle, WA
April 29 - The Jazz Gallery, NYC
May 7 - Sunset Sunside, Paris, France
May 8 - Jazz Station, Brussels, Belgium
May 9 - Bumhuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
May 10 - Muri Jazz, Muri, CH
May 31-June 1 - Tamir Hendelman-Music of Miles Davis
Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa
July 3 - Saxophone Intensive, California Jazz Cons., Berkeley, CA
July 20-26 - Langnau Jazz Workshop w/Gretchen Parlato
September 22-28 - The Village Vanguard - Dayna Stephens Quartet
December 15-20 - The Village Vanguard - Kenny Barron Quintet
Following up
Gratitude
(a 2017 collection of songs that served as an expression of deep-seated gratitude for the immense love and support Stephens received while climbing his way back to health after fighting FSG, a rare kidney disease), which was lovingly embraced and lauded by the press and fans alike,
Dayna Stephens
offers us his ninth album as a leader,
Liberty
(available Feb 28th)
. Stephens, a master musician, one of the scene’s leading artists, and most respected woodwind aces, is in full flight on
Liberty
; free from the grips of ill-health, liberated from the constrictions that a harmonic instrument naturally imposes, able to express himself fully due to his own virtuosity, and unbound to explore the many streets, avenues and alleyways of this music, running lockstep with his more than adept band mates,
Ben Street
on bass and
Eric Harland
on drums.
Liberty is a broad term that can refer to many situations, and for this recording it takes on a few meanings. Playing trio as a saxophonist without any chordal harmonic support can be exposing yet very liberating. Making this recording with such masterful musicians as Ben and Eric, who I’ve known and had the pleasure of playing with for close to 15 years in various situations, made exploring rhythmic and harmonic avenues a real unforgettable and fresh creative experience. Capturing it at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio, one of the best sounding and most inspiring rooms ever to create music in, just makes this project that much more special.
One important common definition of Liberty says: “The state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.” It’s tough not to be aware of current events taking or loosing shape within our species. After all is said and done, we are all in so many ways privileged to be a part of a self-aware group of beings. We possess the powerful ability through memory and written language to look back at our past with vivid detail and great emotion, while showing the present moment what worked or not, and what gave us joy and fear. Balancing our multiple unique levels of diversity and world views with the awareness that we are all a part of a global community atop a spinning delicate crumb in space has proven to be a persistent puzzle for our species, leaving me to wonder if Liberty is capable of being one of those vast fields of common ground it once seemed to be. How do we burst these various fortified bubbles of feedback loops that shield us from realizing that we are all looking into the same mirror? If not with Liberty for all then with what?
More on
Liberty
with Dayna Stephens:
Ran
is written for my dear friend Randi Norman, a beautiful soul who’s also a filmmaker, art director/designer and music producer.
Faith Leap
is as a re-imagined version of
Giant Steps
played in a completely different way. I love the mood and beat that Eric set up.
Kwooked Stweet
is a contrafact of another Coltrane song titled
Straight Street
. Stephens wrote this while living in San Francisco, which also happens to be home to the world’s most crooked street.
The Lost and Found
has been a theme that has peppered itself through my life. It was on my first recording
The Timeless Now
in quartet form which included Ben and Eric along with pianist Taylor Eigsti. It then became the title track for Gretchen Parlato’s recording from 2011, and on
Liberty
it’s recorded in the form I first imagined, two voices + drums. Here I bring out the baritone sax, which is my favorite of the saxophone family.
At Least 37th Cousins
serves as a reminder that despite all the lines of fragmentation that exists in our species we are all cousins.
Loosy Goosy
is a squirrelly “rhythm changes” tune that was really fun to let loose on with the trio.
Tarifa
is about place I only played once, years ago, but which left a mark on me because it’s the only time my eyes have seen the homo-sapiens’ Motherland of Africa, and the closest I’ve been to actually setting food on the continent. Tarifa lies on the southern tip of Spain just eight miles from Morocco, and the straights of Gibraltar that divide the two continents unfortunately still remains a place of great division for our species.
Rhyming History
refers to a quote often attributed to Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), which states, “History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes.” Although written a few years ago it always seems to be timely.
Planting Flowers
is a tune written by Aaron Parks when he was 15 and I fell in love with it the first time I played it.
The Sound Goddess
was written for a long-time friend Nikki Ben Natan, a wonderful chef who doubles as a terrific sound engineer.
Wil’s Way
was also written for a dear friend, organist Wil Blades, one of my earliest compositions that proved to be really fun to stretch out on with Ben and Eric.
Recorded January 26, 2019 at Rudy Van Gelder Studios by Maureen Sickler,
Produced by Matt Pierson, Mixed and mastered by Chris Allen
This recording is dedicated to the loving memory of Dayna Stephens’ dear grandmother Yvonne Maryann Harvey Bullock and Victor McElhaney
