by Nick DeRiso
On Triangulation, Boston-based guitarist Mitch Seidman has complete command of both the bebop R&B fission and the gentlemanly poise of early idol Kenny Burrell. That means tunes of lyrical strength and technical skill, linked by this remarkable ability to blend seamlessly with his fellow musicians across a varied soundscape.
For all its congeniality, though, Triangulation is marked by a pleasing unwillingness to fall into mimicry. Unlike so many, Seidman and Co. haven’t let their deep appreciation for the past morph into jazz necrophilia.
Recorded live on May, 16, 2010 at the Open Music Collective in Brattleboro, Vermont, Triangulation also features drummer Claire Arenius and bassist Jamie MacDonald. Together, they play both in tandem and in contrast, crafting witty new concoctions and creating subtle tensions that tease out new pathways in more familiar tunes.
That’s clear from the opener on Triangulation, an Atilla Zoller composition called “Blues Grotesque (aka Homage to O.P.).” Seidman displays a tasty refinement, sounding playful and unflappable even as Arenius wails away at the skins behind him.
From there, the template is set for Seidman, a professor at Berklee College of Music and contributing editor to 20th Century Guitar Magazine. Throughout, he boasts a clean, straight-ahead sound that is largely untouched by the subsequent influence of fusion on the instrument.
Seidman can be delicate and sure, as with his own lovely composition “White Pearl,” where he selects each note with a reliably mellifluous, Jim Hall-esque narrative precision. Then, he’s effortlessly connecting with the Wes Montgomery legacy, interweaving Montgomery’s harmonic fingerprints and his laid-back feel on Zoller’s tune “Struwelpeter.”
MacDonald is wonderfully atmospheric then brightly swinging during featured solos on both “White Pearl” and “Struwelpeter,” as well.
The deeply talented Arenius, a professor at Massachusetts’ Amherst College, makes a key contribution with “When Worlds Touch You,” the unexpectedly pastoral title track to a 2002 Arenius Trio release.
Rather than bash away on her showcase tune, Arenius uses the brushes to add a rich underpinning to this lyrical, Scott Lafaro-like performance by MacDonald, a New Hampshire music instructor who founded the Open Music Collective and has worked with Harvey S.
That suppleness quickly gives way to the angular swing of “Zokomotion,” one of two tracks written by Seidman.
Like Kenny Clarke, Arenius can keep a foot on either side of the cavernous divide between tuneful swing and the cymbal-riding avant-garde. That’s reflected in a resume that includes appearances with Slide Hampton, Melba Liston, Barney Kessell and Archie Shepp, among others.
The trio also selected two broadly familiar jazz standards, “All the Things You Are” and “Bag’s Groove,” but takes intriguing liberties with both.
Seidman begins “Bag’s Groove,” the Milt Jackson composition, by running through a series of familiar riffs, before surrendering the floor to MacDonald and Arenius. After they engage in a snappy, almost athletic sequence, Seidman reenters with a solo of considerable finesse. His finely spun lines give way to a marching, propulsive solo by Arenius, before the song’s main theme returns.
Seidman sounds intrigued and thoughtful on Hammerstein’s age-old “All the Things You Are,” while Arenius adds interesting, softly placed accents throughout.
Triangulation closes with “Seascape,” the third song written by the late Zoller, a band friend and founding president of the Vermont Jazz Center. The selection represents another interesting choice, since the tune’s construction defies the convention implied by its own title. Rather than bucolic balladry, “Seascape” features wave after wave of dazzling high-speed runs as Seidman plays with the speed and cunning of Tal Farlow.
The result is another inviting update of the tried-and-true – and another example of this trio’s delightful refusal to stand pat.
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