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REVIEWS
 Nat
Hentoff on David Glasser
The first time I heard Dave Glasser, he was working with a small combo
of other young musicians in a New York jazz club. His colleages were
already fluent in the jazz language, but Glasser immediately stood out.
He had presence. That is, it was clear that no matter who his influences
had been, Dave was now playing himself. His horn had become an extension
of his own being.
A couple of years later, I heard him at the Blue Note in New York
with the band of Illinois Jacquet. With Glasser on stand were seasoned
jazz players under the firm direction of one of the jazz masters not
only of his own instrument but of the living history of the Jazz ensemble.
Dave was the lead alto and a prominent soloist with the Jacquet band,
and he played with the authority of a musician steeped in the roots
of jazz while also at ease with its comtemporary directions.
Dave Glasser has a rarely diversified list of credits having worked
with the Count Basie Orchestra (under Frank Foster's direction), Barry
Harris, and of course, Clark Terry. Dave is a current member of Clark's
quintet and when he's not playing around the world, Glasser teaches
Bebop Harmony and Saxophone at New York's New School for Social Research,
which has become one of the most influential centers of jazz higher
learning anywhere.
In this recording, which establishes him as a world-class jazz improviser
and composer-arranger, Glasser reveals why he has such a strong, memorable
presence. He plays with remarkable clarity of sound, ideas, and swinging
jazz time. On ballads, he is, to my ear, unequalled on alto these nights
for natural warmth and singing lyricism. As critic Joe Seager wrote
in the Birmingham (England) Evening Mail:
"Glasser became a great hit at the Birmingham International Jazz
Festival with playing that echoes the complexities of Charlie Parker
and the soaring beauty of Johnny Hodges."
While there are many players versed in the rhythmic and harmonic complexities
of modern jazz, very few of them can be at all compared with the sensuous
romanticism of Johnny Hodges.
Also evident here is the deep blues colorations of Dave's playing.
The blues is the common language of jazz throughout all its eras, and
a musician who is not naturally at down home in the blues ought to think
of going into another line of work.
Having heard Glasser primarily in the context of other bands, I was
not prepared for the original quality of his composing and arranging.
His writing is, first of all, like his playing in that it is utterly
without pretentiousness and self-serving display of virtuosity for its
own sake. His work reminds me of something Dizzy Gillespie once told
me: "It's taken me years to know what not to play."
With his horn and as a composer-arranger, Dave doesn't waste notes
or time. Many of the songs here are originals, and all of them are arranged
by Glasser. As in his playing, there is a seamlessness to his writing.
There is a natural flow of ideas and textures - along with an unusual
sense of spontaneity in the interplay between soloists and ensemble
and in conversations among the soloists.
Indeed, listening to the music here underscores what Clark Terry said
of Dave in the Birmingham Post: "Glasser is marvelous to work with
because we have an opportunity to do the thing I've always wanted to
do and I always felt was the real essence of a good group. That is to
extemporaneously arrange things as we go along."
That sense of unusually informal collaborative conversational intimacy
pervades these recordings. I once asked Duke Ellington what he most
looked for in a musician he might want to add to his orchestra, "I
want someone," he said, "who knows how to listen." Dave
Glasser and the other musicians here exemplify what Duke Ellington meant.
Years ago, listening to jazz players talk to each other off the stand,
I'd hear a tribute the paid to musicians they admired. They'd say, "he
knows how to tell a story." And that's another characteristic of
Glasser's stature in jazz. In playing and writing, he tells a whole
story. There are no distracting virtuosic fragments or explosive sounds
meant to startle but conveying little else in the way of organic meaning.
As was clear to me the first time I heard Dave, he had, early on,
the most essential quality of a superior jazz musician - his own story
to tell, and as his life evolves, so does his music.
This is a recording that will last as long as there are listeners
for whom the life force of jazz is essential to their own lives.
- Nat Hentoff
Liner Notes from Dreams Askew
Teddy Wilson used to talk about certain musicians who had what he called
“a quality of personality.” On the stand, that kind of musician
could have his back turned but, said Teddy Wilson, “I felt him
immediately.”
David Murray put it another way. He said “that you used to be
able to tell immediately who was playing, but during this time a lot
of people have lost that idea of having a signature sound. They’ve
gone for excessive notes. If you’re not at the point of developing
your own sound, there’s something wrong.”
Dave Glasser’s signature sound began to manifest itself when
he was practically unknown, working with a small combo in a New York
club. His musical presence became stronger as he worked with among others,
Illinois Jacquet, the Count Basie Orchestra directed by Frank Foster,
and since 1995, with Clark Terry, whose force of personality –
his unmistakable identity – has made him a jazz legend.
But this Glasser recording, Dreams Askew, Dreams Anew, illuminates
a further development of his life and his music. (In jazz, the two are
synonymous). From the a capella opening of Thelonious Monk’s “Pannonica”,
the music here is timeless.
Six of the songs in this set are by Glasser, and the arrangements are
his. The solos, come seamlessly out of the compositions, and the other
way around. The “personality” that Teddy Wilson talked about
is a totality of expression. In Glasser’s music it’s marked
by a lyricism that cannot be taught or contrived but comes out of experiences
off as well as on the stand.
I am carrying on like this because I listen to many recordings, and
to come upon what first drew me into jazz – honest feeling that
is also supple and subtle – is very satisfying. There is also
a deftness of dynamics – letting the music breathe – that
is at the heart, the pulse, of all music that lasts.
There are blessedly no pyrotechnics anywhere in the set. And the intimacy
of the ballads – particularly Glasser’s “Deep Dark”
and “Dreams Askew, Dreams Anew” along with “Don’t
You Know I Care”, and “Love Letters” – is not
often come by in these nights of post-post-modern jazz.
Dave Glasser’s alto saxophone and compositions are as clear
and fresh as the beginning of a romance.
- Nat Hentoff
August, 2001
All About Jazz Review: Dreams Askew, Dreams Anew
This is Dave Glasser's first album for the Artemis label. Previously,
he was part of the Nagel Heyer stable having made one albums for them
as a leader and one as a sideman. Of the young alto sax players on the
scene today, few can match the purity of tone that Glasser gets out
of the horn. It combines the sultry sound of Johnny Hodges with Stan
Getz's out and out beautiful tone. Add to this a shred of the lightness
of Paul Desmond and you have alto playing at its best. Glasser clearly
has not been swayed by either Charlie Parker or John Coltrane. The Getz
influence is apparent on an A Capella opening to "Love Letters".
On the title tune, "Dreams Askew, Dreams Anew", the Hodges
influence rules. But on all tracks, the playing is tasteful, sometimes
bordering on elegant and stately, but always highly melodic... and he
can swing. The light touch comes in especially handy when the tempo
is upbeat, allowing the alto player to exercise his digital facility
with excellent results as on "Moose the Mooche". The drums
of Lewis Nash set the scene with an on the mark percussive opening.
Glasser is accompanied by an outstanding rhythm section of Barry Harris,
Peter Washington and Lewis Nash. Trumpet player Kurt Weiss shows on
"Funny Money". Harris makes important contributions to this
album with solos on "Focus", and an especially engaging one
on "Don't You Know I Care", with Washington's lightly plucked
bass providing the foundation. "Czakass" is a tongue in cheek,
blusey tribute to one of the better recording engineers in the business,
Jim Czak.
In a time when too many of the present generation of horn players seem
to feel that they have to be strident to be heard, Glasser is a welcome
oasis in a desert of dissonance. If you only buy one alto sax album
this year, get this one.
~ Dave Nathan
Dreams Askew, Dreams Anew - Dave Glasser/Artemis Records
***** Music of the highest order, April 17, 2002
It's amazing to me that an artist like Dave Glasser can emerge from
inside the jazz esthetic after nearly 100 years of essentially the same
ingredients going into the music. One would have thought that everything
fresh had already been expressed (at least in a quasi-traditional setting
like this). Yet, here we have this 30-something white altoist sounding
like just about nothing that's gone before.
It's not that he's staking out new territory; what we've got here is
pretty much your typical jazz program--blues, latin-tinged numbers,
a few ballads. Why, then, does it sound so different, so essential,
so mature? I don't know, but it does. My suspicion is that there's a
ton of woodshedding, thousands of hours on the bandstand, probably some
formal instruction from one or more of the masters behind this music.
And a true musical genius at work.
Two things that stand out: his tone, very rich and polished for an
alto player, yet still having lots of character and roundness; and his
timing. He seems to like to play a little behind the beat (not in itself
unusual), but he's so inside the rhythmic essentials of each piece,
all the while sounding completely effortless. Nor do I think I've ever
heard these world-class musicians sound better. It's as if they've picked
up on the fact that something special is going down here, and they're
tight as all get out. Check out especially their rendering of Moose
the Mooche, an early bebop number that is so over-recorded that one
would think nothing new could come out of it. But it veritably sings,
sounding as if it were written yesterday.
Or again, take Love Letters, a pop tune that one would think unredeemable.
Glasser, with a simply ravishing unaccompanied rendition, turns this
old warhorse into music that astounds.
The more I listen to this, the more befuddled I am. You just aren't
prepared to hear jazz this accomplished on a debut release. But believe
me, this is it. I doubt I'll hear a better jazz release this year, even
though it's only April. By all means, don't pass this one by.
Reviewer: Jan P. Dennis from Monument, CO USA
JazzTimes Review: Dreams Askew, Dreams Anew
Dave Glasser is a rarity among contemporary altoists in that his approach
harks back to the early days of modern jazz with a nod toward even earlier
styles. On Charlie Parker's blistering "Moose the Mooche,"
he shows that he can sail through the changes in Birdlike fashion, while
his own "Czakass" creates the soulful slow-blues ambiance
of "Parker's Mood." On Tadd Dameron's "Focus" and
in some other places, his light, lyrical manner suggests the kind of
alto coming out of the West Coast in the '50s. But on Duke Ellington's
"Don't You Know I Care" and the original title track, it's
pioneer altoist Johnny Hodges that comes to mind, with the lovely pure
tone and the gentle swoops into the pitch.
Glasser plays with confidence throughout, assisted by his longtime
teacher Barry Harris on piano, Peter Washington on bass and Lewis Nash
on drums, with trumpeter Kurt Weiss helping out on the Latin "Funny
Money." The rhythm section assumes an appropriately subdued-but
solid-stance in keeping with the leader's subtle and effective use of
dynamics.
- David Franklin
Review: “Dreams Askew, Dreams Anew”
Don Sikorski,
Sound Waves Magazine
10-22-02
Great instrumental jazz music is something that stands the test of
time. Music recorded in today’s day and age can send the listener
back to a time and memory some 60 years ago. Dave Glasser’s latest
effort, “Dreams Askew, Dreams Anew”, does just that. On
his most recent recording, Glasser’s smooth alto saxophone sounds
are accompanied by top notch musicians Barry Harris on piano, Peter
Washington on bass, and Lewis Nash on drums. Kurt Weiss also lends a
hand with his trumpet, performing a terrific horn duet with Glasser’s
on “Funny Money”.
All posses extensive jazz resumes and are afforded the opportunity
to show their talents, whether it be covering the material of legendary
jazz performers Duke Elligton and Charlie Parker, or stretching out
musically on any of the six Glasser’s original arrangements.
“Dreams” is a collection of true jazz numbers, with no
vocals, distorted guitars, drum machines, or musical sampling to be
found anywhere. Just pure jazz saxophone, played with purity and executed
to precision on every note, whether it be the 1940’s night club
sound of “Focus” or the lightning fast runs in “Revol-ver”.
Glasser and the band create music that tells a story, paints a picture,
or brings back a distant memory. Just what jazz music is supposed to
do.
The jazz feel, much like pure blues music, is something that cannot
easily be taught, but must be earned through years of living and breathing
the music. For those not claiming to be jazz aficionados, a good listen
to Dave Glasser’s alto saxophone playing will teach you what pure
jazz music is all about. For those who are, Glasser and his band will
offer a sound that will measure up to the greats.
JazzTimes Review:
DAVE GLASSER / CLARK TERRY / BARRY HARRIS: Uh! Oh!
-Doug Ramsey, Jazz Times December 2000
Alto saxophonist Dave Glasser brings in his former teacher,
Barry Harris, and frequent employer, Clark Terry, as sidemen on Uh!
Oh!-though his own playing is the focus of this engaging CD. Glasser
leans toward Johnny Hodges, particularly in the blues and ballads, but
he knows the bop canon too. He gives evidence of that in five tracks
with Terry and, even more dramatically, in a joust with guest trumpeter
Roy Hargrove on Glasser's "Bye-Yard." Glasser and Hargrove,
on flugelhorn, improvise so movingly together there and in their solos
on the ballad "Charise," that further collaboration seems
in order.Trombonist Benny Powell and tenor saxophonist Frank Wess, full
of wisdom and uncliched ideas, come aboard for several pieces, including
septet versions of Billy Strayhorn's "The Intimacy of the Blues"
and Ellington's "Blue Rose." Glasser arranged both pieces
with intriguing voicings and, in "Blue Rose," countermelodies.
Bassist Peter Washington and the eternally youthful drummer Curtis Boyd
join pianist Harris to form a solid rhythm section. Harris' solo and
his interaction with Glasser's alto on "52nd Street Theme"
remind us that one of the most incisive bop pianists is still in top
form. Glasser employs a sunny, slightly dry tone perfectly suited to
his bossa nova, "A Touch of Kin." As for Terry, he may fall
back on proven routines like his trumpet-chases with himself and variations
on his beloved "Pony Boy" quote, but he finds the harmonic
heart of everything he plays and in this recording, he puts together
melody lines whose beauty and invention can astound the listener.
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