Randal Despommier

Building on the success of his 2021 solo debut Dio C’è (“wildly ambitious” — AllMusic) and his co-led 2018 effort with pianist Jason Yeager All at Onceness, alto saxophonist Randal Despommier returns with A Midsummer Odyssey, a captivating duo session with guitarist extraordinaire Ben Monder. The central focus is the highly accessible yet always enigmatic music of Swedish baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin (1928-1976). Alternately boppish, cool, bluesy, folkish and chamber-like, Gullin’s pieces afford the Despommier/Monder duo endless opportunities for fresh reinvention. “The goal of this project,” writes Despommier in the liner notes, “was to tap into the spirit of Gullin’s music and present it in a new way. I’m grateful to Ben Monder for joining me on this journey. He helped me hear Gullin’s music differently and added a richness and depth I did not think possible.”

Electric bass master Jimmy Haslip, who played on Dio C’è, returns on A Midsummer Odyssey in the role of co-producer, which explains the album’s sparkling, three-dimensional sound and overall narrative coherence. Monder appeared on Dio C’è as well, specifically on Despommier’s unique treatment of Stone Temple Pilots’ “Big Empty.” Known for his ethereal yet hard-edged solo-guitar recitals and inimitable work with Dan Weiss’ Starebaby, Guillermo Klein’s Los Guachos, Donny McCaslin and so many others, Monder swings hard on A Midsummer Odyssey — something that Gullin’s compositions readily invite. Walking bass lines, tight chord-melody solos and in-the-pocket choruses of blues and rhythm changes are solidly in Monder’s wheelhouse, even as he brings to the idiom his own inimitable sound and approach. And yet Monder can elevate Gullin’s harmony to another plane at the drop of a hat, for instance on Gullin’s lilting waltz “Dyningar.”

It was a chance encounter with “Danny’s Dream,” a lithe and melodic piece played for Despommier by his friend Olof Lövmo in Italy in 2005, that sparked the altoist’s deep and longstanding interest in Gullin. Despommier describes the tune as “a mix between a Norse folk-song arrangement by Edvard Grieg and a Billy Strayhorn ballad.” Having triggered the process that would ultimately lead to A Midsummer Odyssey, Lövmo fittingly took on the role of assistant producer.

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All Music Guide
Offbeat Magazine
Textura Best of 2021