Sliphorn slalom: Matt McDonald's new CD roams around post-pandemic NYC

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Matt McDonald: Harboring heady visions

What do you get when you move the jazz trombone from its historically embedded supporting role to starring in several contexts? Maybe something like Matthew McDonald's "The Long Wait" (BJURecords).

Long waits seem to have been characteristic for many creative musicians after the COVID interruption of 2020-21. This New York trombonist's response is this CD. Its original material varies from bandleader plus rhythm section to the addition of other sidemen, who include an adaptable trumpeter, four woodwind players, and a string quartet.

The patience required to adjust to canceled live appearances and retreat to the studio and the workshop, then invite the muse and solicit her indulgence, is channeled in the title track. It's an easy, medium-tempo swinger. Welcome to "The Long Wait."

 The trombone is an instrument suited to the expression of patience, after all. Articulation is compromised by the need to make rapid, precise movements with the slide. Adjustment of the embouchure in each of seven slide positions codifies interval leaps. The trombone's nimbleness is in some sense an illusion nailed into reality by the player's practice and skill. 

McDonald's principal sideman is Manuel Valera, an adept pianist, who on two numbers turns to Rhodes electric keyboard. Their partnership flashes forward immediately in "Liebish" as piano and trombone are linked in a fast unison theme. The piece honors the influential saxophonist Dave Liebman. Trumpeter Alex Norris guest-stars fruitfully in "Dealin'," with Valera getting his initial outing on Rhodes. Mark Whitfield Jr.'s drum patterns are intricate, swiftly laid out and energizing.

The set has a couple of brief pieces titled "Interlude," the first of which is an unaccompanied trombone cadenza. This track alone proclaims McDonald's sterling tone and the topnotch recording quality out of the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in Astoria, N.Y.  Flute, clarinet, English horn, and bass clarinet join the leader in the second interlude. The two short tracks reinforce McDonald's wish to give milestone status to changes in ensemble as the program progresses. 

"In the Heights," the leader's tribute to daily life in Washington Heights, a neighborhood on Manhattan's Upper West Side with a large Dominican population, features a virtuoso solo by Valera. His fleet right hand sets the stage for a fine trombone solo. But there's rather too much "flow" in Valera's playing on the next cut, "Feng," which brings in the string quartet to sweeten McDonald's loving salute to his wife. At least there is use of the string players that extends the jazzman-with-strings convention by giving them  some interesting things to do.

Valera is back to Rhodes on "A Wee Bit of Fun," its synthesized, neo-bop theme perkily coordinated with McDonald. For an authentic sense of well-roundedness, there's a return to the straight-ahead idiom to end the disc with "Going Back, Moving Forward." What a good situation to be in!




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