Evergreen

GleAM Records is proud to announce the release of Evergreen, the debut album of American pianist & composer Justin Salisbury and his Trio, available on CD and digital download / streaming from 25 March 2022.

With the ten tracks on Evergreen, Justin’s debut album demonstrates his wonderful mastery of the piano, his generous imagination and his serious ensemble skills.  Together with Max Ridley on bass and Dan Nadeau on drums, he has crafted and performs ten beautifully woven tracks, carrying the listener beyond the difficult present moment.

The first track “Go” starts with bright peppy drumming, and soon the syncopated piano enters, reminding me of Brubeck, and they’re off.  It’s so light, so inviting, and propulsive without being pushy.  The track “let life = true” is propelled from the start: heading straight into this tightly packed, fast-paced race to the finish between piano and drum, until it just runs out of gas in the best possible way.

“Ciro” – named after a character in an Italian TV show called “Gomorrah” – begins with a gorgeous melody that stays in the mind.  This song is truly a song, a ballad even. There is a singer in here, singing in a series of ripples and cascades, and then centered on the drums, for a bit, and then back to a tinkling flight of notes off into the sky somewhere.  It might be my favorite track.

Like so many of Justin’s songs, “Aurelius”, dedicated to the Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, begins beautifully with an intriguing turn of melody.  It turns and twists, with this ruminative sense that reminds the listener of Bill Evans, even maybe with a little quotation here or there.

Lovely, processional “Sangha” invokes steady walking, deep feeling, growing and repeating. It climbs higher, faster, and describes what seems like an arc, an arc of happiness and settling back into a place of deep hope.

“Interlude” makes me laugh – the bass slides around, the piano plods along, sneaks around behind it, and then the drummer hits the cymbal.  The whole thing is maybe a question, maybe a joke, maybe that time you got lost and wondered how you would ever get back home.  But it dissolves in the end, and then this little interlude floats off somewhere else.

The COVID-19 pandemic dropped everyone into a sea of masked faces, and the struggle to deal with confusion, fear and mystery every day.  “No Face” turns this way, then that way, and then, it seems to say, here I am, all alone and all is quiet.  The tune has a sense of meandering in one direction and then another, alarms here and there.  But there is an underlying sense of play and wonder, even in daunting times.

And that sense of play carried over into “Barang Barang”, a tune that Justin wrote during a residency in Cambodia. “Barang” is a casual term for a foreigner, which can be either friendly or insulting.  The bass takes off singing a few minutes into this track, delighting this listener.  It begins sounding almost like an old-fashioned train – gathering speed, churning along, and then this wild bowing begins on the bass and carries it to the finish.

The pandemic years have not been kind to musicians, but this has not discouraged Justin and his community. They persevere and play for the love of music. Many of them live in Brooklyn, near the intersection of Cornelia and Evergreen in Bushwick.  The two tunes “Cornelia” and “Evergreen” round out this album.  “Evergreen” begins with a thoughtful bass open, and then moves into a contemplative piano exploration mingled with the melancholy bass.  It moves into a place of evening, calm, stars coming out, resolve.  I love this piece.

Evergreen is an apt name for Justin’s album: it speaks of Oregon, of youth, of hardy persistence, of freshness, of wildness, of the mountainside on the cover of the album, where his father walks in the mist.  Together with Ridley’s innovative bass playing and Nadeau’s cool drumming, Justin has brought us a new sound, full of energy and beauty and hope.

Personnel

Justin Salisbury – piano
Max Ridley –  doublebass
Dan Nadeau –  drums

Recording Data & Credits

Engineered, mixed & mastered by Jeremy Loucas
Recorded July 18th, 2020 at Big Orange Sheep in Brooklyn NY
Mixed & mastered December 21th, 2020 at Sear Sound in Manhattan NY
Artwork: Ed Zighelboim
Graphics: Studio Clessidra
Produced by GleAM Records
Printed  in Italy  2022
EAN 8059018220094
Catalogue Number AM7011

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