∙ Wednesday through Saturday, April 24-27 at The Black Cat, 400 Eddy St., San Francisco. Concerts 9:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, 10 p.m.-1:15 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Tickets $10-$20 weeknights, $20-$30 weekend nights. For information call 415-358-1999 or visit https://blackcatsf.com.
∙ Sunday, April 28 at Chez Hanny, 1300 Silver Ave., San Francisco. Concert 4-7 p.m. $20 suggested donation. For information call 415-552-2729 or visit https://chezhanny.com/.
∙ Monday, April 29 at Blue Whale, 123 Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka St. #301, Los Angeles. Concert 9-11:45 p.m. Tickets $15, $10 students. For information call 213-620-0908 or visit http://www.bluewhalemusic.com/.
“’Tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.” The words of Sir John Falstaff, Shakespeare’s great tragicomic rogue, grace the inside cover of Persistent Fancy. Granted, Nasser’s passionate pursuit of jazz is more easily defensible than Falstaff’s chosen profession of purse-snatching, but The Bard’s use of eloquent language in the mouth of such an incorrigible, gluttonous rascal has a strong appeal for the saxophonist, who strikes his own musical balance between the cerebral and the sensual.
Released October 5, 2018 via Ropeadope, the record is highlighted by a pair of three-part suites that straddle that boundary: the “Baroque Suite,” inspired in particular by Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues, foregrounds the elegance of classical composition, while the “Eros Suite” dwells on the carnal, tracing the stages of desire from initial attraction through consummation to reflection. As with all of Nasser’s music, however, the intellectual and the emotional coexist vividly in both, epitomizing the same mix of impulses that makes Shakespearean characters like Prince Hal so compellingly complex.
“Prince Hal had a very dissolute upbringing, palling around with Falstaff, this fat, comic philosopher, then has to leave that behind to become King Henry V,” explains Nasser, who explores the prince’s maturation in his piece “The Ascent of Henry Monmouth.” The wry wisdom of Falstaff echoes that of Svidrigailov in Crime and Punishment, whose words provided the epigraph for Nasser’s previous release, Restive Soul. “I always find that the best insight in literature comes from the most evil characters, or at least the characters that live outside the mainstream.”
In assembling the ensemble to breathe life into the music of Persistent Fancy, Nasser surrounded himself with stellar musicians who can deftly navigate the blend of intricacy and fire that these compositions require. Guitarist Jeff Miles and keyboardist Dov Manski return from Restive Soul; drummer Allan Mednard has worked with the likes of Kurt Rosenwinkel and Melissa Aldana, bassist Nick Jost swerves between acoustic jazz virtuosity and powerhouse electric playing with heavy metal band Baroness, and Cuban-born alto saxophonist Roman Filiú is an innovative voice who has performed with Henry Threadgill, David Murray, and Chucho Valdés.
Much as Shakespeare’s young prince changed paths to follow his life’s true calling, Nasser switched gears at a key moment in his own life – albeit somewhat less dramatically. Where Hal left behind a misspent youth to rule a kingdom, Nasser changed his focus from Economics and Political Philosophy, which he studied at Harvard, to pursue his love of jazz after crossing paths with iconic pianist Hank Jones. He went on to Berklee College of Music and hasn’t looked back since, though he’s never wholly turned his back on his intellectual and literary interests.
Persistent Fancy, in fact, takes its title from an idea posited by the poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge (best known for “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”), who contrasted the invention of new concepts (imagination) versus the assembling of pre-existing thoughts or notions (fancy). Nasser comes down on the side of 20th-century critic T.E. Hulme, who countered that modern art should thrive on fancy as it relates to familiar experience rather than high-flown fantasies.
“I was thinking about the way that thoughts tend to recur over and over again,” Nasser says. “Even if they’re not the deepest thoughts in the world, they can be insistent and keep coming back so that you can’t shake them. That’s not imagination, it’s not earth-shattering, it’s fancy – persistent fancy.” The title track is built on that sort of insistent recurrence, with recurring melodic lines over a cyclical ostinato.
Playing from the gut is one way of praising impassioned musicality, but it became a very literal struggle for Nasser during the writing of this album. Persistent pain prevented him from playing for a time, until a physical therapist finally discovered that scar tissue in his abdomen was the cause; it was during Nasser’s recovery that several of the pieces on Persistent Fancy were composed, including the opening piece, “Split Gut,” which celebrates the recovery of his voice in dialogue with Roman Filiú’s alto.
The surging “Arrival” was initially written for a trio gig in Chile, where Nasser was collaborating with his bandmate in the collective quartet Beekman, Chilean drummer Rodrigo Recabarren. Miles is given free rein to shred over the bombastic grooves of Jost and Mednard on “Sticky Hipster,” named in homage to the rock-inclined denizens of Nasser’s Brooklyn neighborhood.
Despite following the “Eros Suite,” Nasser’s “3-Way” takes its title from a radio term, not a sexual innuendo. On the air it refers to a conversation between three people, reflecting the tripartite melodic voices of the composition. The album’s sole non-original tune is “Arioso,” an excerpt from German composer Paul Hindemith’s “Ludus Tonalis.” Finally, the ebullient “Coffee and Cannabis” ends the album on a joyful note, finally giving in to those minor vices that may not provide a vocation but can make life that much more enjoyable.
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