Rudy Royston -drums
Gary Versace -accordion
John Ellis -bass clarinet
Hank Roberts -cello
Joe Martin -bass
This performance will be a CD Release for my new recording, "DAY"
DAY is a collection of compositions inspired by what became for me a daily pattern of emotions during the quarantine of 2020. The recording is an illustration of the typical ups and downs, joys and sadness, gratitude and dreads a typical day would bring, ultimately culminating in a celebration of life and healing.
Morning (around 7am) is about the feeling of waking up, getting a shower, eating a little and getting the day going. Though there was no place to go, it still felt great to be alive another day.
Thank You For This Day (around 9am) gives tribute to that gratitude of seeing another day, grateful for health and strength and life.
Limeni Village (around 10am) This song was written by Joe Martin, and when I heard it I felt it fit the narrative of the day for me because as the morning was settled there was always a time to just listen to some great music and take in what was (for me) the slower pace that was now a part of the pandemic days.
Look To The Hills came about around noon, when I would have undoubtedly watched some news coverage and heard some updates on what was going on in the world. This usually led to a bit of a slump for me to hear of all the pain and suffering and fear and uncertainties we were all experiencing. But there is a scripture of hope in the Bible that admonishes to look to the hills from which comes our help and strength.
The Mokes is a song taken from the name of a girlfriend at the time. This was a time of the day (around 2pm) where all the stabilizing and grounding things in my life would dominate my feelings: my kids visiting, my family, girlfriend, God. I would spend time online learning more about photography, a newly formed hobby, and then I’d set out on landscape and cityscape photo journeys on empty roads, arriving home a few hours later feeling encouraged and strengthened from so many beautiful scenes and visions.
5:30 Strut…around 5:30pm was a time of cooking, working out in the basement, talking on the phone with family, time with my visiting kids…the bubbling energy of more gratitude and verve and joy.
In the evening, after again catching up on what was going on in the world and conversations with family and friends, a sense of loss tended to come with the set sun. I would be most susceptible to a sense of loss at this time. Missing you illustrates that (7pm) sentiment.
Around 8pm was a time I thought to encourage myself again, though. Grateful and hopeful, I would shake myself, get to my “feet” and push on in optimism. I would go for a walk, get to the drums and practice, deep clean house, etc…all things that reminded me life is still good and worth going forward. Keep It Moving illustrates that time.
Around 11pm it was pretty much coming up on Time To Sleep. The day would be well into settling into the night.
A.M. Hours, written by Hank Roberts, for me really captures the recovery and regathering that would come through the A.M, hours. I would get to bed around 1am (probably later), reeling a bit from the day’s scattered emotions, the lingering numbness and disorientation, but after some prayer and meditation, the A.M. Hours were a time of healing.
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“[U]northodox and novel ideas … unparalleled level of musicianship.” — Sébastien Hélary, Nextbop
“The band’s cozy approach to interplay is spot-on, harking to pastoral beauty … utterly refreshing.” – Jim Macnie, DownBeat
“Wonderful chamber jazz writing, with moods ranging from bebop to Americana.” – Paul de Barros, Downbeat Hot Box
“The leader wields as much power from his dynamic and often delicate drumming as he does from his enticing compositions, which elicit a sepia-toned, cinematic allure.” – John Murph, Downbeat Hot Box
Rudy Royston, first-call drummer with Bill Frisell, Dave Douglas, JD Allen, Rudresh Mahanthappa and a host of others, is proud to present DAY, his fifth release for Greenleaf Music. DAY is the second outing from Flatbed Buggy, the adventurous, sonically varied small group that Royston premiered on the acclaimed 2018 album of that name. Marked by the low-register richness of John Ellis on bass clarinet and Hank Roberts on cello, the tonal subtlety and harmonic depth of Gary Versace on accordion and the virtuosic authority of Joe Martin on bass, the band debuted with a musical evocation of Royston’s youth spent in rural Texas. On DAY, with the same lineup intact, Royston captures the turbulent emotional landscape of a day under quarantine.
“This record is a little more aggressive than the first,” Royston says, remarking on what he calls the “dusty” sound of Flatbed Buggy and the comparatively swinging DAY. “I’m playing a little more aggressively because the scenes I’m portraying lend themselves to that. The scenes on the first record are all outdoors so you want to feel that space and air and dust. The scenes on this one, I was inside the whole time.”
Widely praised for its unusual textures and tone colors (“it’s never really a ‘drummer’s record’,” Royston comments), Flatbed Buggy has grown even more cohesive as a unit, and Royston was keen to exploit its resources in full. “They’re all such great composers in this band — I’d be an idiot not to have them write for this!” To that end, Martin’s “Limeni Village” (named for a seaside villa in southern Greece) and Roberts’ enigmatic vamp-based closing track “A.M. Hours” broaden the Flatbed Buggy sound and concept. “I can’t wait to see what John and Gary write for future projects,” Royston enthuses.
Royston’s pieces are alive with melody, rhythmic and polyphonic motion, and improvisational energy. Each carries a specific association to a time of day, from “Morning” at 7am to “Look to the Hills” at noon, from “The Mokes” at 2pm to the straightforwardly named “5:30 Strut” and “Time to Sleep.”
“There is a scripture of hope in the Bible that admonishes us to look to the hills from which comes our help and strength,” Royston writes in his album notes, and this, along with “Keep It Moving,” might be the core lasting message of DAY. Royston heeds that counsel in many ways, through music but also his new and avid pursuit of photography, as he shares in his notes: “I’d set out on landscape and cityscape photo journeys on empty roads, arriving home a few hours later feeling encouraged and strengthened from so many beautiful scenes and visions.” Photography as a means of staying engaged with the world: this was musically motivating as well, helping Royston pull together all that would in the end become DAY.
Royston is grateful for the unwavering support of Dave Douglas and Greenleaf Music, which has released Royston’s debut 303 (2014), the raw and bracing trio follow-up Rise of Orion (2016), the celebrated Flatbed Buggy (2018), the 2020 solo drum outing PaNOptic (benefiting the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund) and now DAY. “Greenleaf is more than a label for me,” says Royston, “it’s an artist development family, really supporting the whole musician.”