Jorge Rossy Vibes Quintet - Beyond Sunday (2018) [Hi-Res]

The ever-surprising Jorge Rossy! The music world discovered him as the drummer in the pianist Brad Mehldau’s trio for a decade, and with whom he contributed to profoundly reinventing the “art of the trio” in one of the most important jazz groups of the time. Yet it was initially as a trumpeter that Jorge Rossy had been admitted as a student at the celebrated Berklee College of Music in Boston a few years earlier, and which had allowed him to join the elite ranks of world-class jazz musicians. Later, after leaving Brad Mehldau’s trio and back in his native Barcelona, the decision of the Catalan to devote himself to the piano—instrument which he played in various groups and recorded several albums (including the first under his own name)—surprised those who expected him to capitalize on the fame acquired playing drums with the pianist. And then in 2016 he emerged once again playing a different instrument, leading from the vibes a quintet that included some of today’s most prestigious jazz musicians, of which his new album is the second avatar.

Without having given up the drums—he has continued playing the instrument for the past ten years with Charlie Haden and Lee Konitz, Joshua Redman, Joe Lovano and even Wayne Shorter, without forgetting the FOX trio, which includes the French musicians Pierre Perchaud and Nicolas Moreaux who has also signed two albums on jazz&people, including one with saxophonist Chris Cheek—Jorge Rossy has in fact developed an affinity for the vibraphone, which is now his preferred instrument. “Immediately, I’ve had the feeling that the vibes in some ways was my ideal instrument, he explains. It was the summation of the other three. It had the elements of the drums, of course, because of playing with the sticks—technically I felt I could control it in terms of getting an expressive sound and control of dynamics and colors; then it had the keyboard like the piano; but it had also the role of the trumpet. It allows me to play the lines I have in my ears.” This enthusiasm for the vibes has led to a real desire to play music and, subsequently, to lead a group including some of the most important musicians of our time, and who are all old friends.

The members of this Vibes Quintet partly reflects Jorge's story, beginning with the presence of Mark Turner, who has become firmly established as one of the most original and uncompromising saxophonists of our era. In 1994, Jorge Rossy was already accompanying Mark Turner on “Yam Yam” the saxophonist’s very first album (which has since become a benchmark recording, and which also heralds the very first recorded trace of Brad Mehldau’s trio as a rhythm section, with bassist Larry Grenadier) and they have been fast friends ever since. The choice of Al Foster on drums is the result of a suggestion by bassist Doug Weiss, another friend for twenty years; the two drummers have nevertheless known each other for a long time, ever since the sessions in 1991 for the album “Who’s Smoking” by Paquito D’Rivera, who Jorge Rossy was playing drums with at the time. Their rhythmic complicity is evident throughout the new album. As for Jaume Llombart, the youngest member of the quintet, his presence is as symbolic due to the fact that, partly thanks to Jorge Rossy’s influence and to his ties with Jordi Pujol’s Fresh Sound New Talent label, Barcelona (where the album was recorded) is now a presence on the international jazz scene. His atypical style, with its Monk-like accents and refusal of any flamboyance, is one of the most singular today.

The result of a decade spent composing, notably in following the teachings of his friend Guillermo Klein, the repertoire written by Jorge Rossy reveals small delights. Themes whose distant origins are to be found in several standards that, via compositional procedures and creative writing, have metamorphosed into new compositions, faithful to the idea that jazz is a music of reinvention, of appropriation, and which allows those who assimilate its principles and techniques, to find their place onstage. Jorge Rossy found his own a long time ago, but the manner in which he now illustrates it on the vibraphone is not the smallest achievement of his experiences as a musician.

Mark Turner - Tenor Saxophone
Jaume Llombart - Guitar
Jorge Rossy - vibraphone
Doug Weiss - double bass
Al Foster - Drums