From More Touch to more of everything. That’s the strong impression left from taking in Patricia Brennan’s follow-up to that trailblazing album, an album she calls Breaking Stretch.
A composer, vibraphonist and marimba player of unlimited scope and equally boundless ambition, Brennan’s third release continues the trend of adding to existing instrumentation of the prior release. That means the More Touch quartet of Kim Cass (bass), Mauricio Herrera (percussion), and Marcus Gilmore (drums) return, ensuring continuity from that 2022 offering that was one of the very best jazz records from that year. But now this quartet expands to a septet with the introduction of a killer three-horn section comprised of Jon Irabagon (alto/sopranino saxes), Mark Shim(tenor sax) and Adam O’Farrill (trumpet).
The inspiration for adding the horns came not from the jazz arena, but from the realm of rock: Brennan points to Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Earth, Wind & Fire, bands that successfully integrated these instruments into settings not previously accustomed to accommodating co-lead roles to them.
Moreover, rhythms play a huge part of Brennan’s musical makeup, and she artfully uses it in novel approaches. “Los Otros Yo (The Other Selves)” can be roughly described as a salsa sway from Brennan’s native Mexico married to a chord pattern not too unlike the one from Thelonious Monk’s “Evidence.”
“Palo de Oros (Suit of Coins)” kicks off with a lovely bass figure from Cass, but the central feature of this tune is its intricate grouping of beats, most divisions in five beats while only section in four. The horn trio busily hustles around these irregularly arrayed pulses, with urgent and short solos from everybody and Herrera’s feature being the peak moment.
“555” and the title song also makes deft use of rhythmic divisions that actually shape the harmonics of these songs; “Breaking Stretch” has a simpler, circular melody but presented in many, distinct permutations that the horns allow Brennan to devise.
If “Earendel” sounds like a probe into the furthest point of space, that’s because amateur astronomer Brennan intended that. Imbued with ethereal electronic brushstrokes courtesy of O’Farrill, the Irabagon/Shim/O’Farrill unit puts complementing harmonics to the base melody that only bolsters the mystic strain while tapping into the odd signature carried out by Gilmore and Cass.
Sometimes rhythms don’t figure into the plan at all, as with the dark but majestic contemporary classical piece “Mudanza (States of Change).” “Sueños de Coral Azul (Blue Coral Dreams)” portrays a yearning for Brennan’s coastal hometown of Veracruz, Mexico, enlivened by a strain that evokes the rich music of her birth country and made esoteric by her electronically-altered vibes. “Five Suns,” by contrast, portrays upheaval channeled superbly via fierce solos from each of the horn players, Cass and Herrera.
Patricia Brennan continues to build upon her uniquely inventive style of jazz simply by building up her ensemble. Though from Mexico and now living in New York, Brennan is truly a world music musician with world-class musicianship.
Breaking Stretch, from Pyroclastic Records, will be available September 6, 2024. Get it from Bandcamp.
*** Patricia Brennan vinyl and CD’s on Amazon ***
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