Matt Ulery: Mannerist
Woolgathering Records

Of all the ensembles Matt Ulery's fronted, the eleven-member outfit featured on Mannerist might be the one most perfectly suited to his music. It's easy to explain why: in augmenting the Chicago bassist's core trio—himself, pianist Paul Bedal, and drummer Jon Deitemyer—with horns—tenor saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi, trumpeter James Davis, trombonist Chris Shuttleworth, and French hornist Matthew Oliphant—and woodwinds—clarinetist Zachary Good, oboist Andrew Nogal, bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward, and flutist Constance Volk—the project offers Ulery the fullest palette of timbres and colours with which to work. Add to that six terrific compositions by the bassist and Mannerist, his fourteenth album as a leader, can't help but position itself high in the Ulery canon.

If Mannerist sounds like a particularly deft fusion of jazz and chamber classical, it's attributable to a number of things. First, the woodwind players and Oliphant play together in the new-music outfit Ensemble Dal Niente and are thus already thoroughly familiar with one another; second, the others similarly share extensive performance histories, with many regularly recruited by Ulery for his different groups. Third, the bassist is comfortable operating in both idioms, be it art song with his Sifting Stars Orchestra or jazz writing for Loom and Delicate Charms. In featuring through-composed pieces with space for improvisation judiciously incorporated into their frameworks, Mannerist is where all such interests converge.

Each of the six compositions bears Ulery's instantly recognizable signature; it takes but a moment for their melodic progressions and chord sequences to identify themselves as his. Like those by Ellington and Mingus, Ulery's compositions for a large ensemble show both elegance in their design and a thoughtfully considered distribution of solo spots. Recorded on a single September day in 2021, the performances are tight but not so slick they feel constricted and, well, mannered. As usual, he's gathered players who're comfortable inhabiting his world and capable of executing complex material with authority. Those accompanying him no doubt derive equal satisfaction from executing his sophisticated charts as imposing their individual stamps on the music.

“Bridges” eases the album in on a sultry tip, the woodwinds, piano, and double bass imbuing the music with enticing warmth and the muted horns adding expansively to the ensemble sound. Following that intro, a piano trio episode reminds us of Bedal's artistry before the other instruments return. Here and elsewhere, Ulery and Deitemyer fluidly animate the performance and lay an unerring foundation without overpowering the others. The longest piece at ten-and-a-half minutes, “The Brink of What” opens pensively in ballad mode before advancing through a series of movements, the performance distinguished by rich harmonic textures and patience in the musicians' administering of the material. After Laurenzi delivers a solo that initially teases and then gains in momentum and strength, the music takes on a rather Mingus-like character as tempos shift from slow to medium.

June 2023