Consider The Stars Beneath Us

Chronique

A Berkeley, California native, bassist Noah Garabedian has quietly established himself as a leading player and educator since emerging in the 2010s. His debut, 2014's Big Butter and the Eggmen, showcased his playful brass-centric ensemble with trumpeter Kenny Warren, while 2019's New Year featured his collaborative acoustic trio with saxophonist Caleb Wheeler Curtis and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza. He has also worked alongside players like Ravi Coltrane, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and Ralph Alessi. Garabedian brings all of this experience to bear on his warmly attenuated quartet album, 2022's Consider the Stars Beneath Us. Produced by fellow Bay Area instrumentalist Samuel Adams (who is also credited with programming, editing, and some "additional recording"), the album finds the bassist leading a striking ensemble featuring saxophonist Dayna Stephens, pianist Carmen Staaf, and drummer Jimmy Macbride. There's a crispness and fidelity to Garabedian's music, marked by an almost empathic group interplay. It's an evocative sound that, as on the opening "RR," evokes the transcendent work of John Coltrane's classic '60s quartet. Here, Garabedian strums his bass with thick, Middle Eastern-inspired lines over which Stephens lays down a lilting vocal-like melody against Staaf's and Macbride's spectral, chime-like piano and percussion. The rest of the album follows suit, moving from the dancerly kineticism of "Salt Point" to the Eastern European folk harmonies of "Petrichor" to the shimmering, off-kilter balladry of "Shackleton's Cocoa." No less enrapturing, "Pendulum for NG" (an Adams composition), features a spiraling, multi-note piano riff from Staaf that sounds like a Philip Glass piece played in double time. The rest of the band quickly join in, their rich polyphony augmented by subtle synth and electronic accents from Adams. With Consider the Stars Beneath Us, Garabedian conjures a sound that's airy, textural, and entices you to close your eyes and breathe the music in.
© Matt Collar /TiVo