Wing Walker Orchestra: Hazel
ears&eyes Records
It's hard to believe Hazel is Wing Walker Orchestra's debut album when the playing's so tight and the band's so cohesive. Certainly one explanation for it is that the outfit's formation didn't immediately precede the studio session, with the group apparently having performed in New York City for the last six years and also touring elsewhere in smaller incarnations. Another reason has to be the splendid compositions and charts provided the group by leader Drew Williams, a Kansas City native, current New Jersey resident, and NYU graduate, that provide a thoroughly satisfying and well-balanced presentation of the eleven players.
The Brooklyn-recorded set provides an excellent introduction to this East Coast ensemble, which comprises three woodwinds (Williams on bass clarinet plus alto saxist and clarinetist Brad Mulholland and tenor saxist Eric Trudel), four horns (trumpeters John Blevins and Danny Gouker, trombonists Karl Lyden and Nick Grinder), guitar (Jeff McLaughlin), piano (Marta Sánchez), acoustic bass (Adam Hopkins), and drums (Nathan Ellman-Bell). All involved generate a rich, dynamic sound that makes good on the orchestra billing.
The release presents four compositions (five including the bonus track, a cover of saxophonist Michaël Attias's “Marina”), the opener clearly the go-to piece. For the seven-part, twenty-two-minute Hazel Suite, Williams drew for inspiration from the first half-dozen issues of Saga, a popular graphic novel series by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples in which two lovers from opposite sides of a galactic war struggle to care for their daughter, Hazel. Though most of the movements are said to represent specific characters in the series, no familiarity with it is needed for the music, much of it through-composed, to be enjoyed. Though Wing Walker Orchestra's an acoustic outfit, Hazel Suite at certain moments exudes a futuristic vibe in keeping with its source material, with a few electronic touches added here and there and subtle nods to Radiohead and Jóhann Jóhannsson woven into its framework.
“An Idea (or the Horns)” begins the suite fabulously with an inspired attack and individual phrases alternating rapidly with unison expressions. With the music punctuated by handclaps and powered by high-energy drumming, the material soars for three arresting minutes before moving on to “Backbone (or the Wings),” memorable for the way the melody's passed from one instrument to another. As much as the suite affords the horns and woodwinds ample opportunities to impress, it also allows the others to distinguish themselves, too. Hopkins and Ellman-Bell provide an always powerful bottom-end, and the contributions of McLaughlin and Sánchez make for a pleasing counterpoint to the front-liners (I do wish, however, the latter two had been presented more audibly in the album mix).
Though Williams wrote the bulk of the material, Hazel includes a treatment of tUnE-yArDs' “Look Around”; following as it does after the generally intense suite, the loose, bluesy feel of the cover isn't unwelcome, especially when the band's blustery take and improvising brings a different spin to Merrill Garbus's melodies. Ultimately, the rendition is so completely a Wing Walker Orchestra creation, you'd likely mistake it for a Williams tune if you didn't know better. “We've Seen These Walls Crumble…” is interesting, too, for the way it sneaks a classic freeform improv into what's otherwise a blues-ballad treatment whose luscious textures recall Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra. At album's end, McLaughlin's scene-setting riff gives “High” a rather African highlife-like vibe (and, with his later blistering solo turn, a harder rock feel) that paves the way for a buoyant, uplifting exit. These closing three might be overshadowed slightly by the epic title suite, but they're hardly slouches. All four cast Wing Walker Orchestra in a strong light, Hazel commendable above all else for the high calibre of the performances delivered by the eleven members.March 2019