Solo acoustic bass albums are not a regular occurrence and so we don’t review a lot of them on this space. That said, it was just the prior year we probed Larry Grenadier’s The Gleaners and found that it made “a declaration that this long-time in-demand sideman is a seriously viable artist in his own right.” Another bassist, Jorge Roeder, is poised to take on such a challenge of unaccompanied bass for his very first album as a leader, inspired in part by The Gleaners, and it, too, reveals so much more about the bass player beyond his bass playing abilities.
El Suelo Mío is that big statement of who Roeder is as an artist, defined by where he’s from (Lima, Peru), where he is (Brooklyn) and who has impacted him greatly. He’s certainly hung around greatness; best known perhaps as the longtime sideman to Julian Lage, he also served in the bands of Shai Maestro, John Zorn’s New Masada Quartet and Ryan Keberle & Catharsis. But now is his time, and he reveals so much of what was only hinted at as a sideman.
When playing double bass unaccompanied and unaltered, tone and timbre becomes as important as dexterity and note selection. On “El Suelo Mío,” Roeder’s delivery isn’t just well-placed, it’s super clean; nothing sounds the least bit astray because if it was, you’d know it right away. Listen to how the notes flow without interruption in almost a liquid manner on “Chabuca Limeña” and it’s not just showing off; by doing so, Roeder fully captures this beautiful melody. His rhythmic intuition is off the charts: In “Bounce” (video above) he’s handling the bass line, the basic melody and even lead parts at once in constructing a snappy, compelling groove.
“Solo Juntos” is Roeder’s nod to the overlooked Huayno music of the Andes Mountains, going far away from the jazz tradition to showcase art originating from a more remote area of the world. In another tribute to music from his country of birth, Roeder also pays homage to one of Peru’s great composers with an enticing cover of Felipe Pinglo Alva’s “El Plebeyo.” “Silencio De Um Minuto” is another South American song, but over a hundred years old from Brazilian composer Noel Rosa. Though I never heard this song with lyrics sung, Roeder is still able to provide a real sense of the lyrical lines while holding down the harmony behind it.
Roeder’s interpretive skills show as much innovation on familiar songs, too. He has his own, captivating take on “I’ll Remember April,” which is actually kind of funky, including an improv passage that never loses its connection to the melody. “Thing-Thing” draws on the approaches of four very different pianists (Evans, Jarrett, Tristano and Rubalcaba) to “What is This Thing Called Love?” to come up with Roeder’s own interpretation of the standard, once removed.
Roeder goes arco for Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” but even here there’s a uniqueness in his approach. He manages to approximate Charlie Haden’s bass line by sawing it and virtually simultaneously state those haunting lead lines. Speaking of Haden, Roeder wrote a song for him: “Rambler” reveals the debt owed to Haden and his woody, humanistic sensibility that he brought to the instrument.
Jorge Roeder also brings a lot of virtuosity to the double bass, sure, but the most striking trait about El Suelo Mío is how he is able to get such lovely sounds and captivating rhythms out of it.
El Suelo Mío is set for release on July 3, 2020. Pre-order it from Bandcamp.
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