New CD of Ethan Iverson will be out on February 11, 2022

 

Every Note is True comes out on February 11.

Two record release concerts

February 7 at Jordan Hall, Boston. Tix are free but must be ordered in advance. Link.

February 11 at Roulette in Brooklyn. Tix are $20 in advance, $25 at door. Link.

First set:

Ritornello, Sinfonias, and Cadenzas

“Ritornello” means “return,” a recurring fanfare in the baroque style. “Sinfonia” is a diminutive symphony, in this case three diverse sonata forms. For “Cadenzas,” soloists will rhapsodize against the ensemble. 

1. Ritornello I

2. Sinfonia I, “Police Woman”

3. Ritornello II

4. Sinfonia II, “Trumpet Canon”

5. Ritornello III

6. Sinfonia III, “Forgive Me”

7. Cadenzas

8. Ritornello and Coda

The instrumentation is modeled on Stravinsky’s Octet (with saxophones in for the bassoons) plus jazz rhythm section. The work was commissioned by the Umbria Jazz Festival and premiered in Perugia in July 2021.

Members of the NEC Jazz Orchestra conducted by Ken Schaphorst

WIll Fredendall, flute
Chris Ferrari, clarinet
Mike Cameron, alto saxophone
Shota Renwick, tenor saxophone
Mike Brem and Zoe Murphy, trumpets
Joey Dies, trombone
Weza Jamison-Neto, bass trombone
Ben Freidland, bass
Nadav Friedman, drums

Ethan Iverson, piano

Second Set:

Trio with Larry Grenadier and Nasheet Waits

Selections to be announced from the stage, celebrating the release of Every Note is True on Blue Note records. The drummer on Every Note is True, Jack DeJohnette. gracefully declined to tour…but DeJohnette suggested Nasheet Waits in his place, which was perfect as Iverson and Waits have a long history together.

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Pianist, composer, and writer Ethan Iverson was a founding member of The Bad Plus, a game-changing collective with Reid Anderson and David King. The New York Times called TBP “Better than anyone at melding the sensibilities of post-60’s jazz and indie rock.” During his 17-year tenure, TBP performed in venues as diverse as the Village Vanguard, Carnegie Hall, and Bonnaroo; collaborated with Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, and the Mark Morris Dance Group; and created a faithful arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and a radical reinvention of Ornette Coleman’s Science Fiction.

Since leaving TBP, Iverson has kept busy. 2017: Co-curated a major centennial celebration of Thelonious Monk at Duke University and premiered the evening-length Pepperland with the Mark Morris Dance Group. 2018: premiered an original piano concerto with the American Composers Orchestra and released a duo album of new compositions with Mark Turner on ECM. 2019: Common Practice with Tom Harrell (ECM), standards tracked live at the Village Vanguard. 2021: Big band work Bud Powell in the 21st Century featured on the March cover of DownBeat. 2022: The current release is Every Note is True on Blue Note records, an album of original music with Larry Grenadier and Jack DeJohnette.

Iverson also has been in the critically-acclaimed Billy Hart quartet alongside Ben Street and Mark Turner for well over a decade and occasionally performs with elder statesmen like Albert “Tootie” Heath or Ron Carter or collaborates with noted classical musicians like Miranda Cuckson and Mark Padmore. For almost 20 years, Iverson’s website Do the Math has been a repository of musician-to-musician interviews and analysis. Time Out New York selected Iverson as one of 25 essential New York jazz icons: “Perhaps NYC’s most thoughtful and passionate student of jazz tradition—the most admirable sort of artist-scholar.” Iverson has also published articles about music in the New Yorker, NPR, The Nation, and JazzTimes.