Kevin Sun: Quartets
Endectomorph Music
Issued on his own Endectomorph Music label, Quartets is more than a mere title for NYC-based tenor saxophonist Kevin Sun. As this double-disc set reveals, the group format is particularly well-suited to him; further to that, two separate quartets are featured, his original with pianist Dana Saul, bassist Walter Stinson, and drummer Matt Honor on disc one and his latest with Christian Li and Kayvon Gordon replacing Saul and Honor, respectively, on the second. While differences are evident between the units, both exemplify the principles of mobility and malleability that are central to Sun's approach. However much the style changes from one tune to the next, the four players are equally integral to the music's shape, even if Sun's is the lead voice. The impression is strengthened when many a piece is intricately mapped out as a composition and not just used as a springboard for soloing.
Sun's a resourceful and prolific player who's issued six albums since his 2018 debut, Trio, with Quartets the follow-up to 2023's The Depths of Memory. Perhaps some of that productivity is attributable to the weekly residency he's enjoyed at Brooklyn's Lowlands Bar since September 2021; the security of an ongoing base helps stoke creativity when the opportunity's constantly available for new material to be tested out. Why two quartets? Having played with the original for many years, Sun felt it was time to change things up and so last year brought the new players aboard.
The quartet format might be the same all the way through the ninety-minute release, but the material presented ranges widely, from straight-ahead jazz, rubato meditations, and blues runs to inspired treatments of Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo),” Lerner and Loewe's "On the Street Where You Live" (from My Fair Lady), and Koji Kondo's title theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Inspirations come from far afield, with a pair of tunes name-checking Existentialists Heidegger and Kierkegaard and another, “Far East Western,” composed with Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Seven Samurai in mind. Continuity between the discs is ensured by the presence of Sun and Stinson, who establish a through-line despite the personnel switch-ups otherwise.
Sun's writing is in places unusual, the arresting off-kilter “Dance Notation” and “Melpomene” cases in point. The wonky grooves are more rock and funk than jazz, but with the unpredictable moves by the leader and Saul factored in, the performances align themselves to jazz, if jazz of a distinctly idiosyncratic kind. In such cases, Honor's inventiveness definitely elevates the music. Bolstering the music's accessibility is Sun's tone, which generally eschews abrasiveness for a smooth, even sometimes feathery delivery. Occasions do arise, however, when a more aggressive attack is called for, and he's more than happy to oblige when it does. He isn't averse to playing ballads either, as shown by the evocative “Shadows Over the Sea” and a dreamy treatment of Kondo's “Title Theme” on the opening disc and, in a duet arrangement for tenor and piano, Bruno Martino's “Estate” on the second.
Elasticity characterizes the original unit's attack as exemplified by its slippery, tempo-shifting handling of the adventurous “Far East Western.” Riffing off Jerome Kern's “All the Things You Are,” the furious “Storied History” provides a deeply satisfying account of the quartet operating in hard bop mode (watch for the wild episode spotlighting Sun and Honor). The quartet on the second disc shows itself to be as elastic as responsive, with “Homage Kondo” distinguished by Li's elegant voicings and Sun's romantic expression and “On the Street Where You Live” and “Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)” enhanced by the group's breezy, Latin-tinged swing. Gordon shows he's a more than adequate substitute for Honor on the mercurial Sun originals “Outlawry” and “tbh,” and “That Lights a Star” shows there's bebop on disc two also. With respect to design, some degree of imbalance is present in the first one being thirty-nine minutes and the other fifty-one. There's no filler on the longer disc, however, and the two together offer a compelling and encompassing account of Sun and his music.October 2024