In Common 2
Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens
This is a slightly tougher, more riff-centred more riff-centred album than its album than its predecessor. Smith engages the song-like context with concise hook-y motifs and weaves his sax around...
In Common 2
Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens
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This is a slightly tougher, more riff-centred more riff-centred album than its album than its predecessor. Smith engages the song-like context with concise hook-y motifs and weaves his sax around...
About
Long time musical associates Walter Smith III and Matthew Stevens perform in a multiplicity of projects at the vanguard of the international jazz & improvised music scene, touring and recording with Esperanza Spalding, Ambrose Akinmusire, Christian Scott, Terence Blanchard, Dave Douglas, Terri Lyne Carrington, Bill Stewart and Roy Haynes as well as their own respective groups.
They first collaborated in 2017, gathering a wish-list band of musical peers, booking a studio, and presenting them with compositions written for the occasion. The resulting album was widely praised for its freshness and spontaneity and they've returned with 'In Common 2' to explore the same parameters, adjusting the personnel to produce an intriguingly different but equally dynamic album.
"We loved the way it turned out" says Smith "We had the opportunity to do something different together: what I like to call 'One Page Songs' - simple forms, so that we can just show up and get to the music quicker" As in the first project, Smith and Stevens picked a selection of their favourite rhythm section players of mutual acquaintance - Linda Oh on bass and Nate Smith on drums - plus a player from a different generation, so that rising piano star Micah Thomas takes the place of Joel Ross' vibes. The material was specially written to suit the character of the resulting band, favouring short, concise statements of melody - 'We're trying to do something different from what we'd do on our own. We're going off what we imagine the band will sound like, and continuing to focus on being direct, melodic and interactive."
In Common 2 manages to be at once free and highly structured, melodically accessible yet thoroughly contemporary. With many of the songs recorded in a single take, the album highlights the inventiveness and immediacy of a shared vernacular spoken in a vital corner of New York's music community. license
Contents and tracklist
Roy Allan 1.06
Lotto 4.27
Cowboy 5.38
Clem 5.19
Van Der Linde 3.35
Provinces 5.52
General George Washington 4.04
Little Lamplight 2.05
Opera 3.42
Type Rider 3.21
Awards and reviews
July 2020
This is a slightly tougher, more riff-centred more riff-centred album than its album than its predecessor. Smith engages the song-like context with concise hook-y motifs and weaves his sax around them, while guitarist Stevens takes charge with his assertive, grungy less-ismore brand of contemporary jazz-rock… This is New York contemporary jazz at its best.
July 2020
The cover for In Common 2 is identical to its predecessor, except the outsized heads of pianist Micah Thomas, bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Nate Smith are photoshopped onto the bodies of the first album’s rhythm section. In other words: same concept, slightly different players.
