It was just last summer when Tony Malaby decided to beat the coronavirus blues by playing sessions with a few of his favorite fellow jazz improvisors beneath a turnpike bridge and before long, the tenor saxophone champ saw fit to have some of these get-togethers taped. There’s one such conference from October, 2020 that he held with Tim Berne (alto sax), Michael Formanek (bass), Mark Helias (another bass) and Ches Smith on drums. Turnpike Diaries Volume 1 is that keepsake, Malaby’s first product from under the expressway.
This first episode features these seasoned masters stretching out over two long jams as few can do in such a coordinated way, each able to sense where the song is headed and react with infallible instincts.
Near the outset of “Los Jefes,” Malaby and Berne are playing different but parallel lines. Inevitably, though, they converge to form an early peak of this forty-minute performance, and they will engage in invigorating exchanges several more times before it’s done. There’s also a very rare simultaneous dual bass solo by Formanek and Helias. But there are plenty of other interesting, ever-evolving two- or three-part interactions throughout, like alto sax with bowed bass that soon afterwards involves the tenor sax, as that bowed bass drops out and plucked bass comes in. Even with all this democracy, it’s Tony Malaby’s throaty, bold tenor that often leaves the biggest mark.
“Slap Happy” runs the gamut of jazz, from modern to avant-garde to good ol’ traditional blues walking, where Malaby puts on his best gutbucket. There’s another part I like where he and Berne cut loose together in a tenor/alto frenzy that manages to maintain purpose. The overall flow of this musical odyssey doesn’t always involve the full force of the quintet, there are times and places for calm and other times call for calamity, and sometimes the small group can even sound semi-orchestral. It’s a testament of the collective musical intelligence assembled here.
Everyone’s putting in heroic effort but perhaps none more so than the engineer Randy Thaler and a third noted bassist, Eivind Opsvik, who did the remastering. You would think making a record underneath cars whizzing by at interstate speeds would be a disaster, but the sound quality is so good, it’s makes one wonder about the need for studios to make records. Leastwise, it’s hard to argue with these results.
Turnpike Diaries Volume 1 is now on sale over on Bandcamp.
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