Albums

Album Notes...

Hello and thanks for making time in your life for some contemporary Jazz music from Denver! This is the artist’s first album as a bandleader/composer, so the fact that Dave asked me to make some introduction is a joyous honor, if one requiring dexterity. A music writer praising his friend’s work will always rightfully arouse in the reader suspicion that the author is sheltering their pal’s fragile ego, or just plain acting the hometeam booster. In your place I probably wouldn’t trust me to tell it to you unfiltered, either. However, there’s so much to genuinely like about the feel and build-quality of Yesterdays Tomorrows, and so much to appreciate in the actual delivery of the music that just honestly slays me. If it seems I can’t help but express myself in language mostly comprising paeans, you’ll understand soon enough. It isn’t too often in a little-big city like ours that an introductory recording on this level gets released, and I believe what you’re about to hear, or are listening to already, will prove more than worthy of your attention! I believe that afterwards you’ll agree with me, too.

Beginning with the subject of our principal attraction of this program, that being the trumpeter Dr. David Rajewski: I’ll first try to answer any anticipated questions as to how to address the cat. At the time of this writing, Dave only recently took his DMA (Doctorate of Musical Arts) from the University of Colorado. (Congratulations, by the way!) Whilst I’d be more than happy to be called ‘Doctor,’ that doesn’t strike me as being his style. I trust that plain old ‘Dave’ will do just fine. Then, as to his Polish surname: while he and I both think it would be more correctly pronounced “RAY-yev-ski,” everyone universally says “rah-JOO-ski.” It’s oftentimes shortened to “Juice,” which is a pretty cool nickname. Next, I’ll make mention that Dave isn’t native to our parts. He’s originally from Detroit - a city I’ve not yet visited, but which has been home to a very disproportionately high percentage of my favorite Jazz musicians. That’s actually no coincidence: I just so happen to take my Bop hard, and the Motor City’s greatest generation of improvising musicians happened to come of age in the mid ‘fifties, when modern Jazz styles were beginning to get kinda funky. Before coming to Colorado in 2004 for post-graduate work, Dave studied with legendary trumpeter/educator Marcus Belgrave, and received his Bachelor’s of Music at Wayne State University. This is worth knowing if you weren’t already aware: Detroit’s Wayne State is a massive controlled explosion of Jazz brilliance that has produced an orchestra’s worth of artists I unabashedly adore, from Pepper Adams to Kiane Zawadi! So many great legacies... It must be a mighty heavy tradition to uphold!

Truth be told, aside from Dave and a couple friends and radio colleagues I haven’t personally met too many Detroiters - but perhaps you can tell me whether the few transplants from there I do know are representative of their city... I can quickly sketch a few character traits they’ve all got in common with each other and with with Dave: Namely, they’re a direct people who haven’t use for pretense or affectation. They’ve also got a bit of a chip on their collective shoulder; something to prove to themselves and others. This must be due at least in part to the plain fact that our national media have been referring to their hometown in the past tense for decades now... Finally, Detroiters have an enduring respect for tradition and in the 313, the brass-playing tradition involves first and foremost a clear, wide open horn tone. Dave’s worked and played hard in order to fit nicely into that long lineage of Michigander composer/performers noted for their clarion trumpet voices, from bravura bopster Howard McGhee, soaring and songful Dr. Donald Byrd, the witty, talkative Thad Jones, and onto the aforementioned little man with the big brassy sound, Professor Marcus Belgrave. Another way in which Dave has been representing for his old hometown since 2007 is his Legacy Jazz Orchestra, a repertory big band he created in order to perform charts and tunes from the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis playbook. In it Dave serves as lead trumpeter, a role which - once again - requires a bright, clear brass voice. So that’s how Dave sounds; how he plays and writes is just as representative of the culture from which he sprang: unfussy, straightforward, and always deep-rooted in the blues-feel. That Our Man Rajewski has drunk deeply of the mid ‘sixties Blue Note catalogue is immediately apparent from the first note to the final out chorus. Before moving onto to the other bandmates, allow me to save you a fruitless rummaging of your mental song bank, because while certainly a number of these tracks feel something like a Freddie Hubbard tune you can’t quite place, the only borrowed composition here is “Edda”, a Wayne Shorter piece from Lee Morgan’s 1966 quintet date The Rumproller. Everything else is a Dave Rajewski original.

Saxophonist and flutist Eric Ehrhardt grew up outside Philadelphia - Detroit’s Hard Bop Sister City - and attended the prestigious New England Conservatory before spending a couple decades touring internationally with big bands, Jazz ensembles and stage musicals. Eric’s decision to settle here in 2007 was a big pickup for the Metro-Denver community, as his stylistic versatility on a number of wind instruments has been the perfect ingredient for a number of other people’s projects. His first album as leader, A Better Fate, was released by Capri/Tapestry in 2011.

Native Denverite Daryl Gott returned to his musical family after four years at New York’s City College and has remained a regular presence on our scene since. Just shy of his thirtieth birthday at the time of this record, it may still be a while before we see an album under his name - although the wait should prove rewarding. An altoist in the mold of the sharper-toned mainstream post-boppers, his favorites include Phil Woods, Jackie McLean, Frank Strozier and Gene Quill.

Like many excellent bassists, John Grigsby anchors more rhythm sections and collaborates on more projects than honestly seems possible. “First call” doesn’t quite cover it. He’s strong and tasteful, supportive and dextrous - easily among the very top Jazz double bass players in Denver. Yet another player with a wide stylistic purview, John plays bass guitar with a number of electro-funky groups and tours the world backing contemporary folkie Gregory Alan Isakov.

Pianist Eric Gunnison is far and away the most experienced player in this group, having a professional resumé that stretches back to the ‘eighties and includes five years with Carmen McRae. An upstate New Yorker who has made his home in Denver since 1980, he is also a faculty member of the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver, where he has taught since the mid ‘nineties. Eric’s presence on this recording is about as sure a “seal of quality” as we here in Denver can bestow a younger artist.

Daniel Hogans, the drummer on this date, is another Colorado native. A few months after making this recording session he packed up his kit and took it to Kansas City, whose musician community is very fortunate to receive his talents. He can swing Jazz like mad or drop a hip and heavy beat for the club scene. Perhaps illustrative of Hogans’ low-key personality, the percussive foundation he provides this recording is always palpably present and stimulating - even though he doesn’t once take a solo.

So now that you better know the musicians, I hope you can better enjoy their art. They’re all a great group of guys and fantastic performers. As for the person at the top of the bill: You could tell that YEARS of serious planning went into this album, right? The compositions, the sequencing, the selection of ideal bandmates, the rehearsals, the room-feel of the recording studio... Multiple, multiple drafts must have been drawn up and discarded in the process of creating this collection, and yet every wrong note and misstep was a necessary one. By doing the hard work of preparation until he was nearly forty before finally releasing this first album, Dave’s managed to avoid a too-common pitfall in this day of personal digital recording devices and home studio productions: The Embarrassing Musical Baby Picture. Many friends of mine in this field have early recordings out there they’ll no longer acknowledge: either they hadn’t yet found their natural voice, or mastered their instrument to their current standards, or the fashions had changed and left the music behind, or it just wasn’t recorded very well. There are all sorts of reasons artists cite for why they dislike their works when I ask them about early efforts - even when I genuinely enjoy the piece in question! WithYesterdays Tomorrows, I think Dave’s got record he can take pride of ownership in every time it comes up, for the rest of his career. Great job Juice, great job. I’d tell him to get started working on the next one but knowing Dave, he’s already begun.

Erik Troe, host of Jazz Caravan on KUVO-FM

March, 2017