Sara Caswell: The Way To You
Anzic Records

An eighteen-year gap separates Sara Caswell's previous album as a leader, But Beautiful, and her just-released The Way To You, but it's not as if the NYC-based violinist has been idle. As in-demand a musician as they come, she's appeared on albums by Henry Threadgill, Regina Carter, Fred Hersch, Linda May Han Oh, Donny McCaslin, the WDR Big Band, and others, in every case elevating the sets with her virtuosic brilliance (she's also a member of Joseph Brent's 9 Horses trio and Chuck Owen's The Jazz Surge). In those cases, however, she's a guest and but one player of many; on The Way To You, she naturally dominates, even if her long-standing musical partners share the spotlight too.

Recorded across two days in April 2019, the album showcases the stellar quartet she's fronted for a decade—Caswell with guitarist Jesse Lewis, bassist Ike Sturm, and drummer Jared Schonig—and augments it with vibraphonist Chris Dingman on four of the nine tracks. The chemistry the quartet has nurtured is audible in the sensitivity of the members' interaction and their support of one another. Compositions by Nadje Noordhuis, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Egberto Gismonti, Michel Legrand, Kenny Barron, and Sturm are performed, as well as three by Caswell herself, one of them, “Last Call,” co-written by her, guitarist Dave Stryker, and her partner, drummer Michael W. Davis.

In truth, those Caswell-written pieces, as fine as they are, are less memorable as compositions than the others. Still, like them, the tracks—the yearning folk waltz “Warren's Way,” breezy jazz workout “Spinning,” and swampy, Bill Frisell-inspired “Last Call”—impress for the calibre of the performances and especially Caswell's playing, which is never less than spectacular. Her command of intonation, vibrato, articulation, and dynamics is unerring, but it's something else that makes her playing even more special, namely the arc of her solos. Deft blends of heart and mind, these towering statements are master classes in tension-and-release and capture her intuitive gift for craftily shaping expression to intensify emotional impact.

The album's never better than in its first four pieces, beginning with “South Shore,” an ideal set-opener written for the group by Australian trumpeter Noordhuis and inspired by times Caswell biked with her father in southern Indiana. Spearheaded by a strikingly lyrical theme, the performance finds the quintet in magnificent form, Caswell leading the anthemic charge and the others with her every step of the way. Following that breathless statement, the album turns introspective for the delicate nuance of Sturm's “Stillness,” the setting perfectly tailored to Caswell's vocal-like delivery and mesmerizing for the ache of her solo. Gears shift dramatically with the advent of Gismonti's “7 Anéis,” a celebratory romp that plays like some enthralling fusion of country, folk, jazz swing, and African highlife. With Lewis contributing runs that recall Django Reinhardt and Caswell voicing singing melodies at light-speed, the track endears and dazzles in equal measure. Returning to the fragile tone of “7 Anéis” is a poignant treatment of Legrand's “On My Way To You,” performed by the quartet as a stately ballad overflowing with tenderness and dignity. Speaking of Frisell, Lewis would seem to be channeling his influential counterpart in his solo before handing off to Caswell, who grandly illuminates the performance with what's perhaps the album's most soul-stirring statement.

March 2023