Josh Nelson

Let It Go

Josh is that rare young musician who has not only a wealth of study and experience under his belt but he also possesses those rarest of musical attributes: a touch, a tone, and a sound that are all identifiably his own. -- Peter Erskine

For his Native Language debut, Let It Go, Los Angeles-based pianist-composer-arranger-bandleader Josh Nelson assembled a stellar crew of respected New Yorkers (drummer Matt Wilson, tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake) and fellow L.A. jazz musicians (bassist Darek Oles, guitarist Anthony Wilson) to help him interpret several of his evocative originals. A wealth of influences can be heard on this ambitious outing, from classical to rock to jazz with subtle touches of Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, Michel Petrucciani, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Greg Osby and The Bad Plus creeping into Nelson’s playing and composing here. Conceptually, it’s an incremental leap from the 28-year-old’s self-produced first outing as a leader, 2004’s Anticipation. “On that recording, the tunes are all originals but they’re more in a Bill Evans-David Kikoski,-Kenny Kirkland kind of vibe,” says Nelson, a semi-finalist in the 2006 Thelonious Monk Piano Competition. “It was a bit more straight ahead with more time and effort spent on soloing. With this new project I was trying to paint a little bit more of a picture compositionally.”

From the cascading piano trio opener “Loose Ends” to the fragile quartet number “Introspection on 401,” from the bittersweet and nostalgic “Leaving Here” (with guest vocalist Sara Gazarek) to the suite-like “Colors,” the classically flavored “Deep Breaths” and the dynamic rock-tinged closer “Let It Go,” Nelson distinguishes himself as a first-rate player and composer with a fresh, wholly personal take on the music. Nelson and Blake turn in affecting piano-sax duet performance on Erik Kertes’ lyrical “Abandon Post” while Nelson, Wilson and Oles strike a magical accord on Ben Wendel’s hauntingly beautiful “Julia.” Elsewhere, Nelson and company deliver inventive takes on the jazz standard “Love Letters,” buoyed by Wilson’s brisk swing feel and anchored by bassist Oles’ deep, woody tones, and the Beach Boys’ song “Tears in the Morning,” which is underscored by the drummer’s sensitive brushwork and also features Blake singing the melody simply and sweetly upfront through his tenor horn. “I feel that a lot of the time things simply said have the greatest impact,” says Nelson of that heartfelt rendition.

“I have, obviously, checked out classic jazz and I do play standards all the time,” he continues. “But I grew up I grew up hearing the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Paul Simon around the house. I also grew up in musical theater and am a huge film score person. So I’m coming more from a storytelling kind of a vibe a lot of the time. That’s where the diversity comes in with a lot of my tracks -- I’m hearing something in a particular mode or I’m really inspired by hearing other people and their particular take on things.”

He mentions that the evocative track “Colors,” for instance, was inspired by hearing alto saxophonist Greg Osby’s strings recording, Symbols of Light. “I love messing around with instrument combinations and still keeping it within the jazz realm, as Osby did on that record. It’s instrumental music that relies on through-composed forms with obviously improvisational sections. And that’s what I tried to bring out with the strings on pieces like ‘Colors’ and also on “Leaving Here.”

While there are flashes of soloistic brilliance throughout Let It Go, particularly by Blake and Nelson, it’s the scope of Josh’s fully-realized pieces and his attention to dynamics within each tune that most impresses here. “This recording is a great opportunity to showcase my writing style and the different avenues that I like to explore and not just ‘play it safe’ by making a record of just standards,” says the accomplished composer-arranger who has also been the musical director for singer Sara Gazarek for the past three years.

Born in Long Beach, he grew up around Los Angeles and soon became immersed in the L.A. jazz scene. During his high school years, Nelson received the Louis Armstrong Award, the John Phillip Sousa Award, as well as numerous "Outstanding Soloist Awards" at music competitions around the country. He attended Long Beach State University, where he studied with Cecilia Coleman. “She’s probably my biggest influence as far as just getting going with my jazz playing,” says Josh. “I studied with her for about five years and she taught me a lot of stuff. I still consider her my main mentor.” While enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he studied with Neil Olmstead, Tiger Okoshi and Kim Steiner. Nelson’s other important mentors during his formative years in jazz were pianists Bill Cunliffe and Alan Pasqua. “Bill is coming from a place of compositional exploration, though he’s still a very traditional player. He’s also got quite a classical and film score appreciation and tries to bring that into his playing. And Alan was a huge influence as well. Some of his records like Milagro, where he used a larger ensemble on some stuff, made a big impression on me.”

Josh received the $10,000 Tom Talbert Scholarship from the Long Beach State Jazz Studies Department and has been a member of many honor groups, including the SCSBOA Honor Jazz Band, the SCSBOA All-Stars and the Grammy NARAS Band. He has toured Taiwan twice performing and arranging film scores with the Hollywood Pops Orchestra and the Ars Nova Chamber Ensemble. He has performed with film composer Michael Kamen, Monty Python co-founder Eric Idle and actors Jon Lovitz and Clint Eastwood. Compositions and performances of his have appeared on the television shows "The Division" (Lifetime), "Lucky”(FX), and “Jack and Bobby”(Warner Bros.), as well as the movie “First Daughter” (Paramount/Viacom). Josh has performed with some of the most respected names in jazz, including Ralph Moore, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Ernie Watts, Alex Acuna, Abe Laboriel, Jack Sheldon, Peter Erskine, Bob Hurst, Justo Almario, Karrim Riggins, and Gilbert Castellanos.

Josh keeps a busy performance and recording schedule in Southern California, playing regularly with his own group around Los Angeles while also working as a highly sought-after accompanist for a number of vocalists, including Sara Gazarek, Annie Sellick, Natasha Miller, Susan Sinner and Rhiannon. He is currently a guest clinician for the Thelonious Monk Institute After School Jazz Program and a guest instructor for the UCLA Music Program.

TRACK BY TRACK COMMENTARY

“Loose End” -- That’s a trio tune that I wrote, kind of coming out of the Brad Mehldau/Bad Plus infuence a little bit. There are odd phrase groupings in the tune of three and five measures, and so that phrase ‘loose end’ just came to mind. Unresolved ideas have a good feeling of resolution to me, for some reason. I’m also a big Samuel Barber, Debussy, Ravel person, and you can hear some of that stuff in there in terms of song form.

“Introspection on 401” -- I wrote that when I was riding down a stretch of highway in Canada that connects Toronto to Montreal. And during this long drive I got inspired thinking about life and just personal things...and this is what came out as a result. It was also inspired from a David Kikoski tune called “Puddles of Memory.”

“Love Letters” -- That’s a standard that doesn’t get played a lot. I’ve always loved the lyrics, although this is an instrumental version. There was a version by Blossom Dearie singing it that always really stuck with me. That was the one standard on the record. Everyone gets a chance to blow on it a little bit.

“Leaving Here”-- Sara’s singing on that one. It’s a song I wrote about something from my past. My grandma had this big old gorgeous family house in Long Beach for many years, and we had to sell it unfortunately when she died. So this was kind of a reflective piece, saying goodbye to something that you have known and have a lot of memories for and thoughts about. Sara sings it in her band, actually, and we decided to put it on this record. She’s only 25 and she has this amazing work ethic and dedication. I love writing stuff for her because I know that she will learn it through and through, phrasing-wise, breath control-wise. It’ll all get thoroughly processed by her. And she won’t decide to sing a song unless she commits to it completely by studying it and learning it, talking about the lyrics. She’s quite a song technician, which is something I like a lot about her. Anthony also plays a really nice guitar solo on that.

“Tears in the Morning” -- That’s a Beach Boys tune from their album Sunflower. It’s a gem of a tune. It’s got such a great lyric and some great string writing on there. I’ve always wanted to record it and finally got inspired to do after hearing a version of “God Only Knows” on one of Seamus Blake’s records. I found out that he really likes the Beach Boys too. They have some seriously lush, gorgeous harmony on some of their stuff, along with some interesting forms and chord progressions. Our interpretation ended up sounding more gospel influenced and soulful than the Beach Boys’ original. That’s Seamus, really. When he digs into a tune like that he’s just got such a soulful, thick sound. I really dig his solo on that one.

“Abandon Post” -- Erik Kertes, who is the bass player in Sara Gazarek’s group, wrote that tune. He’s a wonderful player and also helped me produce the record. This tune actually had lyrics but we decided to just do it as a duo between Seamus and myself. It has a nice lyrical quality about it. I just fell in love with the melody. It seemed to speak to me.

“Colors” -- That’s a kind of a through-composed thing, inspired by some Greg Osby stuff I’ve heard and also by some Kurt Rosenwinkel stuff I’ve heard. Form-wise it’s like telling a story and there are certain color combinations of instruments in there that I like. There’s a section in the middle that has a rocky kind of feel to it, then it comes back to the first section with the strings. So it’s about exploring feel changes. Also, I was trying to write something that was an odd meter to give it that unsettled kind of feeling. But it still grooves. Matt really lays it down on that one. He grounds it really nicely. He’s so creative and effective. I think he’s just the pinnacle of pure creativity on the drum set. He’s like a chameleon. I feel like he can do anything he wants with anyone. His ears and his personality are so open...whatever the situation requires, he goes for it. That’s why I wanted him out here for the recording.

“Julia” -- That’s by another friend of mine, Ben Wendel, who’s in the band Kneebody. They’re an L.A.-based, and have been a big influence on me. That quality is not necessarily coming out in my style right now but I really love what they’re doing. And Ben, aside from Kneebody, is also a wonderful composer in his own right. And his tune “Julia” is this totally beautifully, lyrical piece that I just love. We did a very simple treatment of it. It was just one of those magical first takes. We all just had that collective breath after it was over, like, “Ah, that felt good.” And Darek takes a really beautiful solo on it that I love.

“Deep Breaths” -- This was kind of a musical interlude between tracks on the record. It’s another one inspired by a David Kikoski tune, as far as form and harmony. I’m also a big fan of Larry Goldings and some of his newer stuff has this very classical, very programmatic, picturesque kind of writing that I love. I was trying to approach this tune in the same way. So I think of it as a tone poem, a deep breath. And I like the idea of not always having the focus be on solos in my compositions. Sometimes I like to have it be more on melody and interpretation of the melody by all the musicians. There are other tunes on the album that feature more soloistic type things but not everything cries out for a big solo section. I feel like there’s a lot of guys who get into a bad habit of doing that head-solo/head-out formula with their music. And that’s cool. But I feel like there’s gotta be more to it than just that.

“Let It Go” -- That’s a through-composed tune that has different sections...definitely a more rock kind of vibe. Originally my idea was to have him play in more of an ECM straight eighth vibe. But Matt heard the tune and said, “No, that’s not really gonna work.” So he decided to bash on that one, and I couldn’t argue with his instincts. We tried another version but it just didn’t have the same energy of this one. And I like how we put it as the last track because it leaves the record with this kind of positive, happy, uplifting vibe. The song was written on a bad day that I had and it served as a kind of a symbolic release of tension. It was like, “Hey, whatever...let it go.” I hadn’t written a tune like this before so it was more of a challenge for me to try and come up with something stylistically different. I like the way this piece builds and the way that Seamus just wails over the top with such intensity.

— Bill Milkowski