Criss Cross Jazz 1427 CD

Noah Preminger

Dark Days



Although winter solstice was imminent when Noah Preminger was preparing to record his fourth Criss Cross session last December, diminishing daylight was not the reason for the album’s title. Rather, “Dark Days” reflects the eminent tenor saxophonist’s overall state of mind in 2024. “I was deep in hell,” he says, reflecting on a year when he experienced chronic health issues (since resolved) and a divorce. “It was a dark time.”

Throughout the year, Preminger could count on an opportunity “to wash away the dust of everyday life,” as Art Blakey once put it, at his weekly Friday-Saturday engagement at Wally’s Jazz Café in Boston, where he performed and developed the tunes that appear on this kinetic, conversational, virtuosically executed quartet recital. “I’ve led a group at Wally’s since 2021, when they reopened after the pandemic,” Preminger says. “It’s important because so many people go to school in Boston, and it’s a place where everybody can come and hang out and play and develop their thing. It’s been a great outlet for me to play and workshop new material as I write it. And getting to play twice a week is unheard-of.”

By dint of necessity, Preminger has deployed different personnels at Wally’s over the years, reflecting the “move-in, move- out” nature of Boston’s talented pool of student musicians who leave for greener pastures. “A beautiful thing about Wally’s is that you can play what you want,” Preminger reiterates. “It’s an opportunity to work on your own craft, your own compositions, your own bandleading, and develop a group sound – also to coach younger musicians.” During the period in question, he’s “coached” 24-year-old bassist Nick Isherwood and 21-year-old drummer Ben Fig (‘two unknowns”); completing the rhythm section is gifted Uruguayan pianist-composer Nando Michelin, 59 last December, whose 15+ leader albums include several bracing cusp-of-the-2000s dates with tenor hero Jerry Bergonzi and one of Esperanza Spalding’s earliest sessions.

This being said, Preminger assessed that his band “didn’t feel settled enough” to record. He reached out to his three partners on Dark Days, all upper-echelon, pan-stylistic practitioners of their respective instruments, who interpret the nine songs with in-the- moment imagination, impeccable chops, and a team-first attitude.

The youngster is guitarist Ely Perlman, Preminger’s occasional bandmate at Wally’s when he was enrolled at Berklee a few years ago. Now based in New York, Perlman, 26, is a member of Christian McBride’s rock-fusion group Ursa Major, and sidemans with the individualistic pianist Shai Maestro. “I love Ely’s playing,” Preminger says. “He has amazing foundational roots in jazz and swing, but also a rock-out vibe that fits some of the music I was writing for Wally’s.”

The elder statesman is pan-stylistic drum master Terreon Gully, then 51, whose c.v. includes long tours of duty with the Christian McBride Band, Geoffrey Keezer, Dianne Reeves, Lauryn Hill, and Stefon Harris. Preminger recalls bonding with him while both were sidemen on a European tour several years ago. “I thought Terreon’s approach to improvising and to being a supportive drummer fit my music well, and I like him personally,” Preminger says. “So I thought he’d be a nice call for this date.”

While Dark Days marks Preminger’s maiden voyage with Gully and Perlman, it’s his fourteenth recorded encounter with bassist Kim Cass, a close friend and musical soulmate since both were NEC undergraduates during the aughts. Cass performs on all of Preminger’s Criss Cross albums, including the dynamic 2022 trio recital, Sky Continuous (Criss1411), with Bill Stewart on drums. In my booklet notes, Preminger noted: “I write specifically for Kim. He’s one of a kind. There’s a feeling one gets when they hear something so ridiculously insane technique-wise or so profound in some way that they start laughing. That’s the feeling I get every single time I hear Kim. I get the sense from other bassists I’m friends with that Kim does stuff others can’t. The cliche would be he’s like Jaco Pastorius on upright.”