November 30, 2010 (NYC) – There are many who embrace tradition, and jazz’s recent history is replete with acolytes of a certain era or style. Bass clarinetist Jason Stein is cut from a very different cloth however, and Three Kinds of Happiness, the new album by his trio, Locksmith Isidore, demonstrates just how deeply and completely he has assimilated the past—his own and that of the music–while maintaining his own voice, as a composer and as a performer.

The album’s title hails from Stein’s studies in philosophy at the University of Michigan, before he moved to Chicago in 2005, and even before he became a music major. “Simply put,” he explains, “It’s a Platonic concept concerning long-term relationships between happiness and sadness; for me, it’s about practicing, and specifically the idea that if I work through a problem thoroughly now, my future will be positively impacted in the process.”

Stein practices voraciously, and his dedication to his instrument is manifest in every note he plays on this, Locksmith Isidore’s third album and second with the current lineup of Stein, Jason Roebke on bass and Mike Pride on drums. Stein’s instrumental approach encompasses many shades of jazz via such influences as Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane and Archie Shepp. As with those masters, his playing can veer in a split second from consummate lyricism toward fire music with astonishing subtlety. “Coltrane’s later music was a formative influence on me, as he employed many of the great New Thing players,” muses Stein. “Compositionally though, Steve Lacy has been a model for me above most others.” Certainly his teachers have been formative influences, including David Murray, Charles Gayle and Donald Walden, but Lacy’s versatility is special to Stein. “I’ve tried to bring his diversity to Three Kinds of Happiness; I have a lot of respect for his ability to achieve such a broad stylistic scope while staying true to his own musical vision.”

The trio’s current emphasis on composition over improvisation constitutes a very conscious change in group aesthetics; it results from the release of Stein’s solo album on Leo Records and from the supporting tour, where improvisation guided much of the music. “I wanted to provide some more substance for us to explore,” Stein elucidates. Indeed, Stein’s ability to compose in both traditional forms and in freer structures is uncanny. From the sultry and wistful “Little Bird,” to the wicked whimsicality of “More Gone Door Gone,” he offers new wine in old bottles, expanding tradition while never leaving it. Even the intricate abstractions of compositions like “Arch and Shipp” embrace the middle ground between metered swing and the lack thereof in unpredictable ways. The trio sound is an integral component. “Michael, Jason and I have developed a real rapport,” states Stein, “and all nine of these compositions were written with their playing styles in mind.” The ensemble is Lacyesque in range, from sparseness to controlled vigor, and the track titles reflect Lacy’s love of words and humor.

For Stein, many of the titles also refer back to another tradition, one just as personal and just as deeply rooted as the music. They evoke his family history. The group’s name, which combines Stein’s paternal grandfather’s first name and occupation, is only one aspect of his family’s contribution to his musical development. “It was my father, who died when I was ten, that instilled in me my enthusiasm for music—not for any one type or style, but for music in general,” reminisces Stein. “I remember driving with him when I was five or six, and he was drumming on the steering wheel while listening to 1980s popular music. That made as much of an impression on me as did the music. I was overwhelmed by his love and enjoyment of music, and I wanted to understand and experience that.” Stein’s titles evoke that time and the shades of those now grown and gone. “Little Bird,” is for his little sister, and “Sammy’s Crayons,” is an homage to his half-brother’s childhood love of drawing.

In a fundamental way, these family circumstances and events have proven to be the catalyst for Stein’s current music. His move to Chicago precipitated many of the diverse working relationships he enjoys now, from his time in Ken Vandermark’s incendiary Bridge 61 to his minimal rock excursions with guitarist David Daniels. Three Kinds of Happiness is one important confluence of these seemingly disparate influences, and it places him and Locksmith Isidore in the pantheon of those who have the courage to go beyond mere mimicry and reach for the fluidity and flexibility of innovation.

RELEASE DATE: November 30, 2010

Press Quotes:

“[On Three Less Than Between] Stein’s strong tunes, which routinely dissolve the boundary between composition and improvisation, they do an excellent job switching from bristling swing to tangled outbursts of unmetered free jazz. It’s especially rewarding to listen to…”
- Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

“As Stein subdivides and recombines his phrases, giving gleaming kisses to the reed, fluttering and finely twining closely-valued hues, it isn’t so much about putting an instrument through its paces as it is one artist’s affirmation of his relationship to the brush.”
- Clifford Allen, Signal Noise

“[Stein] plays pretty and raucous, taciturn and ebullient, bouncing confidently between a spectrum of emotions and dialects.”
- Derek Taylor, Master of a Small House

“..it is clear that Jason Stein has burst upon the scene as a player to be heard.”
- Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Music Review

Links:
Jason Stein Official Website
Jason Stein on Twitter

For more information, please contact
Matt Merewitz at Fully Altered Media
matt@fullyaltered.com
(215) 629-6155

visionary crossover pianist Jason Lindner’s Now Vs. Now, featuring a cast of jazz heavyweights who have performed at Rose in years past.

Every Tuesday through March, the Williamsburg jazz haunt will turn the spotlight on varied masters of the backbeat — running the gamut from John Scofield Band timekeeper and vaunted hip-hop impresario Adam Deitch to the combustible Latin rhythms of Dafnis Prieto to eponymous Medeski, Martin & Wood stalwart Billy Martin. The series will also feature such kings of the kit as relative newcomer Mark Guiliana, a frequent collaborator of bassist Avishai Cohen, Ryan Sawyer, who has performed with such groups as Stars Like Fleas, Lone Wolf, and TV on the Radio, and high-octane drum maven Jim Black. Guest presenters will include an evening of female drummers curated by Tom Tom Magazine, an international publication devoted to female percussionists, as well as separate events presented by Aaron Ali Shaikh’s New Languages Festival and Search & Restore.

Despite its youth, Rose has already cultivated a storied history of reaching across genre to bring the freshest sounds of the Zeitgeist in jazz, soul, Afrobeat, house, and everything in between to an intimate forum where music lovers and musicians alike find common ground. The club was founded by Carlo Vutera, a classically-trained opera singer of Sicilian descent, and his sister Gina, a

foreign language professor, who shared a vision of creating a welcoming environment geared towards musicians and true lovers of groundbreaking music in all its hybrid forms.

Having consistently played host to mainstays of the contemporary jazz and avant-garde scenes since the club’s inception, among them guitar guru Charlie Hunter, genre-bending sonic wizard and trombonist Josh Roseman, and ambient Afrobeat-dub spinsters Mobius Collective, Rose’s walls spin a rich tapestry of heavy grooves, trance-inducing funksmanship, and mind-blowing improvisation.

In fact, the club’s walls tell a story quite literally — in order to create the European cafe aesthetic of their youth, the owners imported vintage wallpaper from Belgium, a country known for its artistry in, among other things, its wallpaper. Perhaps chiefly, though, Belgium is also known for its beer, and indeed, the libations at Rose flow freely, ranging from a wide array of Belgian cask ales drawn from an imported tap to an extensive variety of organic wines curated by the in-house sommelier. Downstairs from the performance space, Rose also houses Vutera, a gourmet restaurant that serves up home-style new Mediterranean cuisine.

A chicly decorated grotto bathed in iridescent red light and illuminated by well-placed candles, the European-style speakeasy is a cozy space so intimate that listeners can hear musicians on stage catch their breath in between notes. The tight quarters make for a vertiginous call-and-response synergy between performer and audience, creating a musical conversation that drives the delicate fuse that enlivens each performance’s explosive spontaneity, the touchstone of jazz.

“One of the greatest assets of Rose is that musicians really feel comfortable there, that they can do things that they can’t usually focus on,” says Mary Ho, who is in charge of booking for the club.

Though the eclectic musical offerings are prodigious, Rose tends to fly under the radar, a diamond in the rough amid a slew of other live music venues in Williamsburg. Located slightly off the beaten path on Grand Street, Rose has largely established itself as a haven for Brooklyn artists, a local watering hole and musicians’ hang where members of renowned jam band Soulive, Lost Tribe co-founder and in-demand sideman drummer Ben Perowsky, effervescent post-bop trumpeter Avishai Cohen, and numerous other luminaries of the scene regularly gather to commune over good food and good tunes unfettered and unfiltered by the vicissitudes of the broader music industry. These are the musicians’ musicians, convening to lay back and indulge in the music they want to play and the music they want to hear.

“The thing about Rose is that it provides a platform for musicians

who just want to try something new,” says Ho. “It gives them the rare opportunity when they’re not touring or not on the road to work on their own stuff, or just to play with their friends. There’s not the pressure of putting on that performance that other people expect and it gives the audience a chance to see them in an intimate setting.”

For more information, please contact Matt Merewitz at Fully Altered Media matt@fullyaltered.com / 347-527-2527