Pat Donaher - Occasionally (2021)

Boston-based alto saxophonist and composer Pat Donaher has explored a range of ensemble configurations on his recordings, from his debut On Any Given Day (featuring Ralph Alessi) to Nu Currency with his group No Sale Value (featuring Jenny Scheinman), to the intimate Who We Are Together with pianists Camille Jentgen and Hwaen Ch’uqi. On Occasionally, his fourth, Donaher assembles a top-tier sextet for pieces he wrote mainly to commemorate specific occasions.

The album is itself an occasion, a showcase for the leader alongside outstanding trumpeter Jason Palmer, with pianist Carmen Staaf and guitarist Tim Watson achieving a warm textural blend while bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Allison Miller hold it down with consummate versatility and inventiveness. There’s a high level of virtuosity throughout, as the music demands, but Donaher’s ear for nuance, varied instrumentation and other keen subtleties is also what makes Occasionally a must-hear.

“This is the first album I’ve made that focuses more on compositions than improvisations,” Donaher writes in his liner notes. “Over the years I feel that some of the best tunes I’ve written have been for special occasions, gifts for family or friends. Others are a little less specific, but bring me to a particular place or moment that had a big impact on me.”

In the latter category, Donaher includes the funky “Whoosh/Oomph,” the theme song for his former band Oomph when they played the “loud and smoky and sticky” bar Detour in New York’s East Village: a quite humble venue, yet important for adventurous jazz of the time. “It’s so cool that Tony Scherr, one of THE ‘downtown guys’ I looked up to when I got to New York, is playing this,” Donaher marvels. Another pair of pieces, “624 (What We Imagined)” and “624 (What We Became),” pay homage to Room 624, the jazz classroom at Eastman School of Music, where Donaher attended before moving to New York in 2001 1999. The first version features just the horns of Donaher and Palmer with Staaf on piano, a trio format intended as an “homage to my college mentor Michael Cain, and his album Circa that blew our minds,” Donaher says.

Donaher wrote both “Wedding Day” and “Valiant on Valance” to celebrate nuptials, the former for his brother, the latter his cousin in New Orleans (“complete with a parade and a trip to Tipitina’s, and lots of gumbo,” Donaher recalls). Named for Valance Street, the tune grew out of Donaher’s informal musings on the famous Ahmad Jamal “Poinciana” beat, “a favorite of our trumpeter Jason Palmer,” he adds. “D2” is a spirited tribute to Donaher’s nephews, Declan and Dennis, with a groove inspired by go-go (a passion shared by Donaher and Allison Miller alike). The program takes a more solemn turn with “Black Suits, White Smoke,” as Donaher memorializes his late father, a teacher at a Jesuit high school whose funeral was attended by “a sea of black suited, white collared priests,” Donaher remembers.

“Bouncin’ Off the Walls” is Donaher’s response to the 2020 quarantine — not a place, not a person or occasion, but a crisis that prompted the hurried creation of alternate collective musical spaces. And hopefully, in the end, opportunities for growth and new, unexpected directions. Donaher put his hat in the ring, as so many did, with livestream concerts and other offerings. And so the closing rubato tone poem “Warm and Fuzzy (For Everyone)” strikes just the right mood as we ponder next chapters.