Alex LoRe & Weirdear: Evening Will Find Itself
Whirlwind Recordings

As evidenced by her 2022 SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum) album, pianist Marta Sanchez made a canny choice in recruiting alto saxophonist Alex LoRe for her quintet. Listeners hungry for his own music could do worse than turn to Evening Will Find Itself, though others are available in his discography too. This new one with Weirdear—pianist Glenn Zaleski, bassist Desmond White, and drummer Allan Mednard—provides an especially satisfying account of LoRe's talents as a player, writer, and bandleader, however. He's someone who's clearly absorbed the tradition in forging his own identity and pushing into uncharted territory (the rambunctious “Green,” it's worth noting, is titled after saxophonist Bunky Green, LoRe's undergraduate teacher at University of North Florida and an acknowledged mentor). Featuring ten LoRe originals recorded in late 2021 at Brooklyn's Bunker Studios, Evening Will Find Itself presents the quartet blending composition and improvisation deftly, so much so it's sometimes difficult to hear where one begins and the other ends. It's one of those albums that brings greater rewards with repeated visits.

Each piece reflects thoughtful origins by its author. “Fauxlosophy,” for example, is the term LoRe and pianist Matt Mitchell coined to describe people who, often prodded by the influence of stronger personalities, gravitate to viewpoints contrary to their true beliefs; as timely are the notions behind “Stripes,” which has to do with the modern-day tendency for opinions to morph into absolutes with all the lack of empathy that move entails, and “Face Unseen,” whose title alludes to the feelings of isolation that inform contemporary lives despite the connectivity technology brings. For these and other cases, LoRe devised instrumental structures that would capture the compositional concepts but also function as creative springboards for personal expression and group interplay.

Characteristic of the album in writing style and tone, “Stripes” initiates the set with a sax-and-piano ostinato before lunging into a pulsation of entwining melodies and enticing solo statements. White and Mednard elevate the performance with incessant invention and energy, their dazzle a powerful prod for LoRe and Zaleski to build upon. “Face Unseen” advances from a ponderous intro marked by the leader's probing rumination, his tone in this quieter setting light as a feather. Given the meaning behind its title, it's hard not to hear the piece as an elegiac longing for the way life as it used to be. Animated by Mednard's crisp groove and as intricate as a Rubik's Cube, “Fauxlosophy” sees LoRe spreading angular melodies and fluttering sax phrases across a mutating rhythmic frame. Starting out as a loose-flowing, rubato-styled exploration, “Silent Ship” grows wilder when the quartet members follow LoRe's boisterous lead and then decompress for Zaleski's reflective turn.

There's a strong cerebral bent to the leader's music, but there's feeling too. The melancholy emanating from the almost chamber-styled “Underground and Back” can be traced back to what inspired it, LoRe's father's life-threatening health struggles involving COVID-19, pneumonia, and heart failure. Interspersed throughout are three “Radiance” tracks, the first showcasing inspired to-and-fro between the saxophonist and pianist, the second bringing Mednard into the spotlight, and the third capping the series with a maze-styled treatment that, similar to “Stripes,” encapsulates the album in a single gesture. It's tempting to single out Mednard for the well-spring of imagination he brings to the recording, even if doing so risks misleadingly implying the others aren't doing the same on their own instruments.

June 2023