Artist: Jeremy Pelt
Album: Woven
Genre: Post-Bop, Straight-Ahead Jazz
Label: HighNote Records
Released: 2025
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- Prologue: Invention #1 (Pelt-Baker) - 2:13
- Rhapsody (Pelt) - 6:54
- Afrofuturism (Pelt) - 5:17
- 13/14 (Pelt) - 4:53
- Dreamcatcher (Pelt) - 6:52
- Michelle (Pelt) - 5:17
- Fair Weather (Dorham) - 4:44
- Invention #2/Black Conscience (Pelt-Baker) - 9:29
- Labyrinth (Pelt) - 4:35
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- Personnel:
- Jeremy Pelt - trumpet
- Jalen Baker - vibraphone
- Misha Mendelenko - guitar
- Leighton Hurrell - acoustic bass, electric bass (#1)
- Jared Spears - drums
with special guests: - Marie-Ann Hedonia - synthesiser (#1,2,5,8)
- Mar Vilaseca - vocals (#2)
Jeremy Pelt is two years away from his 50th birthday, and released his first album as leader (Profile) in 2002. In that time, he has created a prodigious body of work. This album marks his 25th album as leader, and he has been sideman to many artists including, Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton, Al Foster and Mingus Big Band. Stylistically, his playing is a mix of Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard and electric-era Miles Davis.
And like Miles, Pelt does not believe in simply going over the same old musical ground. ‘To me, my music is a living, breathing organism that is meant to grow,’ he states boldly in the album’s short liner note, ‘I’m not interested in “new” for the sake of “newness.” Rather, I’m infatuated with disparate perspectives which continue the story.’ Having said that, Pelt is not averse to reworking old tunes, and on this album there are four of them.
The core band on this album is his current touring band, which includes Ukrainian guitarist Misha Mendelenko and American vibraphonist Jalen Baker. There are two guest musicians: Marie-Ann Hedonia – an artist Pelt stumbled across while browsing Instagram – plays on four of the album’s nine tunes, and Spanish vocalist/pianist/composer Mar Vilaseca sings on one song.
The fusion between acoustic and electronic, post-bop and electronica is evident from the opening number, ‘Prologue: Invention #1.’ The sound of roaring wind mingles with the soft tinkling sound of a vibraphone. It’s the only track on which bassist Leighton Hurrell plays electric bass. Pelt plays powerfully on open horn, and electronic processing adds a rawness and edge to the sound, which is also laced with echo and reverb. There’s an other-worldly feel to the sound that is both interesting and unsettling, but never unpleasant.
‘Rhapsody’ was originally on Pelt’s 2016 album, Jive Culture, and was played as a straight-ahead piece by a quartet that included piano, drums, trumpet and bass (the bassist was Ron Carter). This version is a radical reworking. Mar Vilaseca’s voice is electronically processed (she sounds like a female Jacob Collier) and looped – she sings ‘Doo-doo–bap—doo-doo-bop’ and then double-tracks ghostly, wordless vocals. The band starts up with a stirring midtempo groove and Pelt plays soaring lines on open trumpet. Guitar and bass set-up a vamp as Spears delivers an avalanche of drum fills. The tune ends with a bubbling cauldron of synthesised sounds.
‘Afrofuturism’ is a quintet performance with Mendelenko’s guitar to the fore and the guitarist’s sound is also evident on the swinging ‘13/14,’ were he alternates between subtle comping and inspired soloing. Pelt plays with a mute on this number. ‘Dreamcatcher’ is from Pelt’s 2008 album November and the band was a quintet that included piano and tenor sax. The latest version is another thorough reworking, featuring a circular riff played on vibraphone and a Latin feel. The tune is infused with electronic sounds and the piece reminds me of Miles Davis’s electric explorations from around 1967/8, when he introduced guitarists like Joe Beck and George Benson into the sound of his second great quintet.
Another piece with a definite electric Miles influence is the excellent, near-10-minute ‘Invention #2/Black Conscience.’ It features a similar wind noise/ringing vibraphone opening to the Prologue, and Pelt’s trumpet is also electronically treated, creating a slightly coarse tone. A slow bass riff kicks in, followed by a heavy rock vamp played by guitar and drums (with touches of vibraphone). Pelt’s trumpet sound rides over a torrent of sound.
Sprinkled into it all is an assortment of abstract electronic sounds, and an angular guitar solo from Mendelenko. If Miles’s Bitches Brew album was being recorded today, it might sound something like this. I’d love to see Pelt record a whole album of this type of music, and I hope he works with Hedonia again; she is a very impressive synth player.
The ballad ‘Fair Weather,’ showcases Pelt’s gift for melody and the sensitivity of his playing, while the energetic post-bop closer ‘Labyrinth’ (another reworking) ends this fine album on a high. This recording shows that past sounds and musical styles can be fused creatively with those from the present. It all points to a promising future for the world of jazz.
Review by George Cole