Liner notes by David Schiff
Need a lift? (And who doesn’t, these days?) This album will elevate your spirits.
We live in trying times: an epidemic, violence, isolation, rage, despair, numbness, exhaustion. What role can music play in these dark surroundings? The music on this album emerged during lockdown; much of it rehearsed and performed outdoors (to the delight of homebound neighbors), when indoor gatherings were impossible. It offers us a range of reactions, from protest and resistance to reassurance and compassion, and even a musical escape to the tropics. That checks all of my boxes.
Peter Kogan, symphonic timpanist, jazz drummer, rock drummer, composer, arranger and producer— the French might say auteur— arranged all the music on this album, and composed every number but one, Cedar Walton’s Hindsight. Much as they all speak to the present moment, they also reflect Kogan’s lifelong involve- ment with jazz and blues.
Kogan launches the album with a darting drum solo that builds to the percussive onomatopoeia of Pow, Pow, Pow, Pow—Yeah! The tune recalls the funky hard bop of the ’60s, but its phrase structure is complicated, tricky to parse, on edge. Each of the solos, by Jake Baldwin on trumpet, Pete Whitman, tenor sax, and Abebi Stafford on piano, charts its own course, blowing the blues away from Pow to Yeah. They all grab our attention with the lyric energy that informs every track on the album.
Just Before Midnight (Etude no. 3) is the first of three compositions that explore unusual harmonic terrain. The slow, atmospheric opening bars lay out a progression of augmented triads— built out of major thirds— that use up all twelve tones without quite feeling atonal. This tone row then becomes the foundation of hard-driving improvised choruses, laced with contrasting phrases that notch up the dissonance level from chords with three notes to those with five or six. Yet all these technically “dissonant” harmonies manage to sound celebratory. Solos are by Nick Syman, trombone, Pete Whitman, sax, Mitch Van Laar, trumpet, Will Kjeer, piano, and Kameron Markworth, bass.
John Coltrane pushed open the possibilities of musical expression both spiritually and politically. He recorded Alabama in 1963, after black children were killed in a bombing in Birmingham, and to many listeners it sounds like a musical transcription of a speech by Martin Luther King. The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, tragically demonstrated that racist violence has not disappeared, even far from Alabama, in a northern city known for its cultural institutions that Kogan and his fellow players call home. Sadly, Coltrane’s musical sermon remains ever more relevant, as the title Owed to J.C. (Ode to John Coltrane) tells us. Peter Kogan’s homage, like Coltrane’s original, juxtaposes a meditative chant with an urgent call to action, here a quintuple groove with a strong West African feel, a vision of change. On tenor sax, Pete Whitman honors Coltrane’s legacy, as do the intense solo choruses by Abebi Stafford and Charlie Lincoln. For this listener, Owed is the spiritual core of this album.
Isle of Kai is dedicated to the son of Minnesota Orchestra trumpet player Charles Lazarus and his Hawaiian-born wife Mele Willis. The tune, co-written with guitarist Elliot Levy, refers to visits Kogan made to the Virgin Islands and his two years working with the Honolulu Symphony. The arrangement may summon up the tropical para- dise of your choice. The aptly laid-back soloists are Geoff LeCrone, Mitch Van Laar, Will Kjeer, Kameron Markworth.
Back to reality.
...And Another Thing (Etude no. 1) pushes harmonic and rhythmic exploration further, almost past the brink of tonality, with dense harmonies moving in parallel and a four- against-six groove in its first phrase, balanced by three-against-four in the second. The theme is an invertible counterpoint of contrasting ideas, just like Bach, which gradually finds its way to a united front. Solos: Pete Whitman, Jake Baldwin, Abebi Stafford, Peter Kogan.
Peter Kogan comes from a very musical family. His brother Robert is a conductor and cellist, his sister Alice Kogan Weinreb recently retired after playing flute in the Na- tional Symphony Orchestra for over forty years, and his cousin Danny Kalb achieved fame as lead guitarist of The Blues Project, a band, founded in 1965, whose sound blended folk, rock, blues and jazz — and Kogan played drums with the band in its earliest phase. The soothing, soft rock melody of I Dream of Danny Playing Guitar actually came to Peter Kogan in a dream. Fortunately for him and us he keeps a music notebook bedside. Guitarist Geoff LeCrone solos beautifully in a very personal manner, and Will Kjeer on piano adds a soulful touch.
Several tracks on this album are homages, either explicitly (Owed) or implicitly, reminding us of the jazz giants whom Peter Kogan has admired for so long. The hom- age to the late, great piano master Cedar Walton (1934-2013), is one of his own compositions, Hindsight, which was brought to Kogan’s attention by pianist Will Kjeer, and in a new arrangement here by Kogan. Its blues-inflected chromatic harmonies resonate well with Kogan’s own compositions. In addition to Kjeer, the solos are by Mitch Van Laar and Pete Whitman.
The Winter of our Discontent (Etude no. 2) was written during the first winter of COVID lockdown. It mirrors the caged-in uncertainties of that time by pairing a quintuple groove with harmonies that jazz musicians term “sus chords,” with an unresolved, “suspended” fourth taking the place of the more comfortable third. Solos: Will Kjeer, Nick Syman, Mitch Van Laar, Geoff LeCrone.
And to close, we have a lagniappe, as they say in NOLA—a little something extra we didn’t see coming: Song Without a Word. It is a fully composed piano solo, a charmer that evokes folk rock and Chopin. It would make a surefire encore in the concert hall. The pianist here is Dominic Cheli.
David Schiff is a composer and writer. His music has been performed by major orchestras, chamber ensembles, and jazz greats including Regina Carter, Marty Ehrlich, Myra Melford, David Taylor, and Peter Kogan. His books include The Ellington Century (2012), and The Music of Elliot Carter (1998).
Songs and Timings
1 Pow, Pow, Pow, Pow — Yeah! quintet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5:55
2 Just Before Midnight (Etude #3) septet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7:26
3 Owed To J.C. (Ode To John Coltrane) quartet 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8:14
4 Isle Of Kai septet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8:58
5 ...And Another Thing (Etude #1) quintet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6:04
6 I Dream of Danny Playing Guitar quartet 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6:20
7 Hindsight sextet...............................................................................................................................................5:43
8 “The Winter Of Our Discontent” (Etude #2) septet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................. . . . . . . 7:09
9 Song Without A Word Dominic Cheli, solo piano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4:59
Quintet is Jake Baldwin, Pete Whitman, Abebi Stafford, Charlie Lincoln, and Peter Kogan. Recorded 1/17/22
Septet is Mitch Van Laar, Pete Whitman, Nick Syman, Geoff LeCrone, Will Kjeer, Kameron Markworth, and Peter Kogan. Recorded 1/17/22
Quartet 1 is Pete Whitman, Abebi Stafford, Charlie Lincoln, and Peter Kogan. Recorded 1/17/22
Quartet 2 is Geoff LeCrone, Will Kjeer, Kameron Markworth, and Peter Kogan. Recorded 1/24/22
Sextet is Mitch Van Laar, Pete Whitman, Nick Syman, Will Kjeer, Kameron Markworth, and Peter Kogan. Recorded 1/31/22
Solo piano by Dominic Cheli, Song Without a Word, recorded in Los Angeles, March 21, 2022.
All tunes written and arranged by Peter Kogan except Hindsight, written by Cedar Walton and arranged by Peter Kogan. Isle of Kai composed by Peter Kogan and Elliot Levy, arranged by Peter Kogan.
Project Info and Thank Yous
Recorded at Creation Audio, Minneapolis, MN, January 17, 24 and 31, 2022. Recorded and mixed by Miles Hanson and Steve Wiese
Mastering by Steve Wiese
Cover photo by Leslie Shank. All other photos by Andrea Canter.
Graphic design and package layout by Dave Graf Produced by Peter Kogan PeterKoganMusic.com
Dedicated with love to my wife Julia Bogorad-Kogan, whose constant support made this CD possible.
Thanks to Peter Lloyd, Jonathan Kalb, Wade Clark, Dave Graf, David Schiff, and Pete Whitman for their invaluable help — and to the inspiring musicians on this album. Peter Kogan’s “Monsterful Wonderband” (the septet) and “The Peter Kogan Quintet” perform regularly around the Twin Cities