Strange Liberation
Encyclopedia
Strange Liberation is the twenty-first album by jazz
trumpet
er Dave Douglas
. It was released on the Bluebird
imprint of RCA Records
in 2004. The album features the Dave Douglas Quintet plus guest guitarist Bill Frisell
. The album received widespread critical acclaim and did well on the jazz album charts, reaching number three on Billboard
's and number one on CMJ
's.
Dave Douglas returns with his quintet
that premiered on his 2002 album The Infinite
. His band is composed of Chris Potter
on tenor saxophone
and bass clarinet
, Uri Caine
on Fender Rhodes
, James Genus
on bass
, and Clarence Penn on drums
, plus guest guitarist
Bill Frisell. This is Douglas's first collaboration with Frisell, someone he wanted to work with since 1987. This is Douglas's sixth release on Bluebird Records and was recorded by engineer Joe Ferla in DSD
Prior to the album's release Douglas premiered the track "The Frisell Dream" at the 2003 Monterey Jazz Festival
. The track "Just Say This" refers to the September 11 attacks and their aftermath. Douglas attempts to respond to an eight-year-old's attempt to play Thelonious Monk
's "Blue Monk
" with the tune "Skeeter-ism". The album's title is derived from a phrase used by Martin Luther King, Jr.
in reference to America's involvement in the Vietnam War
.
's electric music of the late 1960s". John Kelman from All About Jazz
counters that opinion by recounting that while Douglas's earlier release The Infinite did hearken back to late 1960's Davis, this release moves "completely into Dave Douglas territory". He concludes his review saying that the album is "another fine entry in a body of work that strives to break down barriers by eliminating preconceptions as to what music should or shouldn't be".
Dylan Hicks of City Pages
call the album Douglas's "strongest effort" since signing with Bluebird, similarly Chris Dahlen of Pitchfork
calls the album "a set of music that's simply one of the best written, paced and performed works in his catalog", in The New York Times
Ben Ratliff calls it "the best album in several years by Dave Douglas", and Thom Jurek from Allmusic writes "in its imagination and depth it is one of the high marks of Douglas' thus far prolific career".
In All About Jazz, Marc Meyers says the album "explod[es] in a veritable riot of colors, moods, idioms, and rhythms". Billboard
named the album a 'Critics' Choice' with Dan Ouellette calling it "a reflective, whimsical and driving quintet date". He goes on to refer to the Douglas/Frisell pairing as a "perfect tonal match". Thomas Conrad writes in JazzTimes
that the album "possesses, in spades, that quality of immediacy essential to jazz".
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
er Dave Douglas
Dave Douglas (trumpeter)
Dave Douglas is an American jazz trumpeter and composer whose music derives from many non-jazz musical styles, including classical music, folk music from European countries and Klezmer. He has been a member of the experimental big band Orange Then Blue...
. It was released on the Bluebird
Bluebird Records
Bluebird Records is a sub-label of RCA Victor Records originally created in 1932 to counter the American Record Company in the "3 records for a dollar" market. Along with ARC's Perfect Records, Melotone Records and Romeo Records, and the independent US Decca label, Bluebird became one of the best...
imprint of RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
in 2004. The album features the Dave Douglas Quintet plus guest guitarist Bill Frisell
Bill Frisell
William Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...
. The album received widespread critical acclaim and did well on the jazz album charts, reaching number three on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
's and number one on CMJ
CMJ New Music Monthly
CMJ New Music Monthly was a monthly music magazine with interviews, reviews, and special features. Each issue included a compact disc with 15 to 24 songs by well established bands, unsigned bands, and everything in between...
's.
Overview
Trumpeter and bandleaderBandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
Dave Douglas returns with his quintet
Quintet
A quintet is a group containing five members.It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single unit....
that premiered on his 2002 album The Infinite
The Infinite (album)
The Infinite is the nineteenth album by trumpeter Dave Douglas. It was released on the RCA label in 2002 and features performances by Douglas, Chris Potter, Uri Caine, James Genus, and Clarence Penn.-Reception:...
. His band is composed of Chris Potter
Chris Potter (jazz saxophonist)
Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina...
on tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
and bass clarinet
Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
, Uri Caine
Uri Caine
Uri Caine is an American classical and jazz pianist and composer.-Early years:The son of Burton Caine, a professor at Temple Law School, Caine began playing piano at seven and studied with French jazz pianist Bernard Peiffer at 12. He later studied at the University of Pennsylvania where he came...
on Fender Rhodes
Rhodes piano
The Rhodes piano is an electro-mechanical piano, invented by Harold Rhodes during the fifties and later manufactured in a number of models, first in collaboration with Fender and after 1965 by CBS....
, James Genus
James Genus
James Genus is an American jazz bassist. He plays both electric bass guitar and upright bass and currently plays in the Saturday Night Live Band. Genus has performed as a session musician and sideman throughout his career, with an impressive list of artists with whom he has worked.Genus was born...
on bass
Bass (instrument)
Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles...
, and Clarence Penn on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, plus guest guitarist
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
Bill Frisell. This is Douglas's first collaboration with Frisell, someone he wanted to work with since 1987. This is Douglas's sixth release on Bluebird Records and was recorded by engineer Joe Ferla in DSD
Direct Stream Digital
Direct-Stream Digital is the trademark name used by Sony and Philips for their system of recreating audible signals which uses pulse-density modulation encoding, a technology to store audio signals on digital storage media which is used for the Super Audio CD .The signal is stored as delta-sigma...
Prior to the album's release Douglas premiered the track "The Frisell Dream" at the 2003 Monterey Jazz Festival
Monterey Jazz Festival
The Monterey Jazz Festival is one of the longest consecutively running jazz festivals. It debuted on October 3, 1958 and was founded by San Francisco jazz radio broadcaster Jimmy Lyons.-History:...
. The track "Just Say This" refers to the September 11 attacks and their aftermath. Douglas attempts to respond to an eight-year-old's attempt to play Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
's "Blue Monk
Blue Monk
"Blue Monk" is a jazz standard written by Thelonious Monk that has become one of his most enduring tunes. It is a B flat blues, based on the jazz tune "Pastel Blue".-Performances:*1960: The Great Kai & J.J. by J. J...
" with the tune "Skeeter-ism". The album's title is derived from a phrase used by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
in reference to America's involvement in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
Reception
In the book Essential Jazz: the First 100 Years, the album is called "a fascinating amalgam of 4/4 swing grooves and rock-based electric textures reminiscent of Miles DavisMiles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
's electric music of the late 1960s". John Kelman from All About Jazz
All About Jazz
All About Jazz is a leading jazz music website for enthusiasts and industry professionals based in Philadelphia in the United States.Founded by Michael Ricci in 1995, the Web-Site is maintained by a volunteer staff of writers, editors, and musicians, and provides coverage of all genres of jazz from...
counters that opinion by recounting that while Douglas's earlier release The Infinite did hearken back to late 1960's Davis, this release moves "completely into Dave Douglas territory". He concludes his review saying that the album is "another fine entry in a body of work that strives to break down barriers by eliminating preconceptions as to what music should or shouldn't be".
Dylan Hicks of City Pages
City Pages
City Pages is an alternative weekly newspaper serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. It features news, film, theatre and restaurant reviews, and music criticism. It is printed in a tabloid format, and is available free every Wednesday...
call the album Douglas's "strongest effort" since signing with Bluebird, similarly Chris Dahlen of Pitchfork
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
calls the album "a set of music that's simply one of the best written, paced and performed works in his catalog", in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Ben Ratliff calls it "the best album in several years by Dave Douglas", and Thom Jurek from Allmusic writes "in its imagination and depth it is one of the high marks of Douglas' thus far prolific career".
In All About Jazz, Marc Meyers says the album "explod[es] in a veritable riot of colors, moods, idioms, and rhythms". Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
named the album a 'Critics' Choice' with Dan Ouellette calling it "a reflective, whimsical and driving quintet date". He goes on to refer to the Douglas/Frisell pairing as a "perfect tonal match". Thomas Conrad writes in JazzTimes
JazzTimes
JazzTimes is a magazine that dates back to Radio Free Jazz, a publication founded in 1970 by Ira Sabin when he was operating a record store in Washington, DC. It was originally a newsletter designed to update shoppers on the latest jazz releases and provide jazz radio programmers with a means of...
that the album "possesses, in spades, that quality of immediacy essential to jazz".
Track listing
All compositions by Dave Douglas- "A Single Sky" – 2:05
- "The Jones" – 4:24
- "Catalyst" – 5:08
- "Strange Liberation" – 8:04
- "Skeeter-ism" – 5:58
- "Just Say This" – 6:29
- "Seventeen" - 8:39
- "Mountains From the Train" – 5:15
- "Rock of Billy" – 5:55
- "The Frisell Dream" – 3:54
- "Passing Through" – 1:36
- Recorded in New York City in January 2003
Personnel
- Dave DouglasDave Douglas (trumpeter)Dave Douglas is an American jazz trumpeter and composer whose music derives from many non-jazz musical styles, including classical music, folk music from European countries and Klezmer. He has been a member of the experimental big band Orange Then Blue...
– trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air... - Bill FrisellBill FrisellWilliam Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - Chris PotterChris Potter (jazz saxophonist)Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina...
– tenor saxophoneTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
, bass clarinetBass clarinetThe bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet... - Uri CaineUri CaineUri Caine is an American classical and jazz pianist and composer.-Early years:The son of Burton Caine, a professor at Temple Law School, Caine began playing piano at seven and studied with French jazz pianist Bernard Peiffer at 12. He later studied at the University of Pennsylvania where he came...
– Fender RhodesRhodes pianoThe Rhodes piano is an electro-mechanical piano, invented by Harold Rhodes during the fifties and later manufactured in a number of models, first in collaboration with Fender and after 1965 by CBS.... - James GenusJames GenusJames Genus is an American jazz bassist. He plays both electric bass guitar and upright bass and currently plays in the Saturday Night Live Band. Genus has performed as a session musician and sideman throughout his career, with an impressive list of artists with whom he has worked.Genus was born...
– bassBass (instrument)Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles... - Clarence Penn – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
Production
- Ann Cutting – cover photoAlbum coverAn album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
- Joe Ferla – associate producer, engineerAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may... - Suzannah Kincannon – photography
- Hiroyuki Komuro – engineer
- Sheryl Lutz-Brown – design
- Jason Stasium – assistant
- David Weyner – executive producerExecutive producerAn executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
- Mark Wilder – masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
- Kevin Wilson – assistant
Charts
| Jazz Album Charts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Source | Peak |
| February 2004 | Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... |
3 |
| CMJ CMJ New Music Monthly CMJ New Music Monthly was a monthly music magazine with interviews, reviews, and special features. Each issue included a compact disc with 15 to 24 songs by well established bands, unsigned bands, and everything in between... |
1 |