feature photo: Pete Argaan
A lot of very talented, highly trained jazz musicians spend their first few albums making very competent, straightforward jazz before perhaps stretching out with some of the more adventuresome stuff and establishing their identity. Alden Hellmuth is bringing that kind of moxie from the start.
Good Intentions (Fresh Sound New Talent Records) is the debut album from young alto saxophonist, composer and bandleader, an album that is taking chances in differing ways, landing on its feet every time because of carefully creative composing, imaginative arranging and democratic group dynamics.
Stimulated by the music from fearless greats such as Ornette Coleman and Paul Motian, Hellmuth incorporates their concepts but adds her own. She calls Good Intentions “an exploration of sonic intention, dissonance in the absence of resolution, and the tenderness of expression.” It’s not just a declaration of a personal statement, it has the makeup of a curious artist discovering exciting, edgy concepts as the basis for her own ideas.
Helping her putting her best foot forward is a base quintet comprised of guitarist Lucas Kadish, pianist Yvonne Rogers, with the rhythm section of Kanoa Mendenhall (bass) and Timothy Angulo (drums). Notable trumpet ace Josh Evans pitches in on three of the eight tracks, all Hellmuth originals.
These originals each represent different approach Hellmuth takes in trying out new things inspired by historically great things. “Biting the hand that feeds you” draws from the best of both Coleman and Albert Ayler, both of who devised almost child-like sing-song melodies and fashioned them into something cutting edge by contorting the tempo and harmony.
“The Gavel” opens with an interesting repeating figure firmly in the modern jazz school and Hellmuth’s alto sax here bears some resemblance to Kenny Garrett. But during her solo, she keeps nudging against the boundaries of conventional jazz and Evans pushes some more, spurring a hastened run-through of the figure.
“Good Intentions” best exemplifies what Hellmuth describes as the conflicts faced in everyday life, both internal and external, a song that moves through phases and obliterates the distinction between composed and chaos. Ultimately, the give-and-take ends without resolution, but that’s the point.
The sax/piano-only ballad “Change, Like Water” becomes a showcase for Rogers’ lissome piano, in the service of an alluring strain wrought by Hellmuth. The etude-like lead line of “Stream of” is undertaken by Hellmuth and Kadish together but Hellmuth builds broadly on that idea, even sliding a groove underneath it and modernizing it Chris McCarthy’s Fender Rhodes.
Hellmuth gets everyone involved in carrying out her blueprint. “Personal Saints” leans on Mendenhall to divulge the melody, while the leader plays poetically on her alto sax solo. “Ambrosia & Vetiver” is a personal spiritual, and Kadish and Evans’ asides are standouts.
The compositional tricks extend to rhythm as well. The cadence of “Whirl” is slyly disguised to flow like a rubato when it’s actually a sequence of changing time signatures, creating that “whirl.”
Good Intentions is an astonishing start from a saxophonist and composer still absorbing the more daring sides of jazz, because Alden Hellmuth is not interested in biding her time before putting her own imprint on the music form. Get Good Intentions over at Bandcamp.
*** Alden Hellmuth music on Amazon ***
- Alden Hellmuth – ‘Good Intentions’ (2024) - October 29, 2024
- Bill Frisell, Andrew Cyrille + Kit Downes – ‘Breaking the Shell’ (2024) - October 25, 2024
- Brandon Seabrook – ‘Object of Unknown Function’ (2024) - October 23, 2024
