Description
This is the exquisite new solo work by virtuosic bassist/composer Brandon López. On moving to NYC, López immediately began making himself indispensable in many creative music scenes. From New York Philharmonic's David Geffen Hall to the DIY basements of Brooklyn, López has worked extensively beside many luminaries of jazz, classical, poetry, and experimental music.
As with all bass players of great skill & commitment, López has been prolifically active in collaborations and is an improvising composer of estimable gifts. One recent example is his expansive work in duo with equally astonishing drummer Gerald Cleaver; recently incorporated into a trio with Fred Moten, the inimitable poet, theorist, critic, and 2020 MacArthur Fellow. Among the attention paid to their 2022 debut was an "8.0" review in Pitchfork & a "Best Jazz Albums of 2022" notice by the New York Times.
The brawn which Brandon brings to his playing is abundantly clear on stage, and can be viscerally felt as a force coming out of his recordings. The strings & wood frame are wholly resonant when called forth, by muscles well-developed for the purpose by a longtime gravedigger. Yes, López dug many for a strong spell as a young man. It is also abundantly clear that "brains over brawn" are a key differential. A Puerto Rican kid growing up working class in North Jersey doesn't perform with the New York Philharmonic (as a soloist, no less) without the brains.
This new work is "less about -a thing- than it is about perceptions of things, questioning those perceptions, and possibly altering perceptions."
As he pithily states in the notes accompanying this release:I have very personal and obsessive thoughts on what actions are considered vile and evil and how arbitrary our decisions are to proclaim "anathema" while we get on our knees for the president or prime minister, king, queen, the banker, the pope, and praise war unquestionably.
