"Hackensack West"'s First Published Recording Fulfills Kevin Gray's Sonic Quest
25 Prospect Avenue re-imagined for the 21st century
Cohearent Recording, Kevin Gray's new living room studio, which he jokingly calls "Hackensack West" was the venue for this, the first record released on Cohearent Records. The all-analog all-vacuum tube recording chain used to produce sound every RVG fan will swoon from was outlined in a video Gray recently posted on YouTube we've embedded here.
So-Cal based jazz saxophonist/educator Kirsten Edkins, who's played in Bill Holman's Big Band, the Claire Fischer Band among others leads a small ensemble featuring pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Ahmet Turkmenoglu, drummer Chris Wabich and trombonist Lamar Guillary through a set of eight songs, six of which are her originals, plus one from drummer Wabich and a take of the familiar, often covered "Dedicated to You" (you probably know it from Coltrane and Johnny Hartman).
Edkins' compositions, like the recording technology and techniques used to grab the sound, mostly have toe-tapping Hard Bop Blue Note-like grooves and strong Afro-Cuban accents you'll hear on album opener "Party Slug". No mystery about from where came the inspiration for "Bird Shapes", the second tune, and from there it will also be clear (if it wasn't from the opener) from where comes Gray's recording inspiration. Edkins' strong, muscular tone immediately brought to mind Joe Henderson and if in a very few tight musical spots she sounds on less firm footing, consider both that the album was recorded during the height of the Covid epidemic and more to the point, in the "old school" no headphones, no punch-ins, no isolation booth style Rudy Van Gelder used in his Hackensack, N.J. living room recording studio, which was about the same size as Gray's living room.
The side closer, "The Goose" will surely remind you musically and sonically of the Van Gelder/Blue Note vibe except that Gray gets better recorded piano sound. The mixes put Clayton's piano center stage, with Edkins stage right (left channel), Wabich stage left (right channel) and bassist Turkmenoglu in the same central plane as Clayton. It's a classic recording with all of the glorious microphone leakage there, giving you the room sound you both crave and deserve.
If you start with the final track, Wabich's "Hula Hoop" (Do younger readers even know what that 50's era "starter hump toy" is?) when you hear Turkmenoglu's stand-up bass actually sounding like a stand-up bass playing in a room, with its attack and timbral character so naturally presented, you'll realize how rarely contemporary recordings manage what Gray gets on tape here. And a shout out also to all of the musicians for their willingness to record this way!
The packaging is not "old school Blue Note", rather it's "new school Music Matters/Tone Poet", with laminated gatefold "tip on" jacket and black and white session photos. All that's missing are Rudy's venetian blinds—which is not meant to suggest Kevin Gray has copied Van Gelder's recording technique or sound. He's for sure been inspired by them.
The first RTI pressing of the record is either sold-out or soon will be. Gray wasn't sure how this would be received. Now he knows so he's having more pressed.
There's no irony or hypocrisy in having just given an "11" to a digital recording (Patricia Barber's Clique!) and an "11" to a pure, tube driven "old school" analog one. These two epitomize "state of the art" in both domains.
With kind permission from newly minted "record biz mogul" Kevin Gray here's an excerpt from "Dedicated to You" (you'll also get to hear Esoteric's Grandioso T1 turntable [review in The Absolute Sound to be published late Spring/early Summer], Kuzma's Safir arm [TAS review coming sooner] and Audio-Technica's AT-MC2022 cartridge [review shortly posting here]):
