Jason Seizer - Time Being (2008) [Hi-Res]

orn in Stuttgart, Germany in 1964, Jason grew up in a home in which music was an integral part of family life. From the age of four on, he was deeply involved with classical music on the recorder and the flute. A first listen to John Coltrane’s Ballads album changed all that. At the age of 21 Seizer took up the tenor saxophone and devoted himself to jazz. Jason first studied at the acclaimed Hilversum Conservatory in Holland before embarking in a multi-month sojourn in New York where he took lessons with, among others, Joe Lovano. As to other influences: “The intimacy and complexity of our relationships. My work as producer and sound engineer has helped me be more analytical about the music. Psychology is also important. I like exploring why music is what it is both personally and historically. In this respect, reading is important. I am fascinated by the complexity of people, especially people who are different.” And, of course, there are the musicians who have influenced Jason. “When I first heard Bird, I was blown away. I used to turn his music up loud when I drove around in my first car—an old Beetle. It just got to me!” Coltrane and Rollins had a big influence on Seizer—as did Joe Henderson’s playing and compositions.

The 1990’s saw Jason settled in Munich and playing with such top players as American drummer Rick Hollander, Belgian bassist Nic Thys, trumpeterPeter Tuscher, German pianistWalter Lang, and fighting friendly tenor sax battles with the likes of Johannes Enders. By the late 90’s, such major players as Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein and Bill Stewart were recording and touring with Seizer. Since the founding of PIROUET in 2002, Seizer has worked as producer and engineer for the record company, and “every single recording has influenced me—the music, the great musicians—every aspect, every production.” It was American pianist Marc Copland’s involvement in Seizer’s groups from 2004 through 2008 that brought Seizer’s play to a larger international audience. Three of Seizer’s four PIROUET albums resulted from their close collaboration.

In All About Jazz, John Kelman stated, “It’s easy to hear why Copland and Seizer are so comfortable working together. Both work close the center, but bring an introspection and slightly left-of-center harmonic abstractness…delicate but ever-present interplay, and performances that draw in rather than push out.” In his poetic liner notes to Seizer’s Fair Way CD, Copland marveled at Seizer’s “maturity and patience, so hard to find anywhere, with his searching for exactly the right phrase, the right breath, an awareness of the power of one note.” For Jason, “Playing with Marc was a beautiful experience. I felt a total freedom in what I played—the idea that there are no wrong notes—he was a real mentor for me and also very important for the label.”

Seizer’s present group features the phenomenal pianist Pablo Held. Their relationship goes back to Jason’s producing Held’s first Pirouet album, recorded in 2007 at the tender age of 21. Since then, the two have developed a close personal and musical friendship, working and recording in each other’s groups. Jazz Podium extoled CINEMA PARADISO, Seizer’s first album with his current band, as “Pure cinema for the ears! An acoustic opus magnum!”

Tracklist:
01. Jason Seizer - Between Now and Then (feat. Marc Copland, Matthias Pichler, Tony Martucci) (8:23)
02. Jason Seizer - Corrections (feat. Marc Copland, Matthias Pichler, Tony Martucci) (7:12)
03. Jason Seizer - Time Being (feat. Marc Copland, Matthias Pichler, Tony Martucci) (10:27)
04. Jason Seizer - Requiem (feat. Marc Copland, Matthias Pichler, Tony Martucci) (8:01)
05. Jason Seizer - All the Things You Are (feat. Marc Copland, Matthias Pichler, Tony Martucci) (7:36)
06. Jason Seizer - Trip to the Stars (feat. Marc Copland, Matthias Pichler, Tony Martucci) (8:13)