On ‘Waking Dreams’, Dingman is Joined by Several of New York’s Finest Players:
Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet), Loren Stillman (saxophone),
Fabian Almazan (piano), Joe Sanders (bass) & Justin Brown (drums)

Dreams have a mysterious way of revealing us to ourselves; their unique leaps of space, time and logic are unlike the stories we invent in our waking states, but can provide a similar sense of emotional unfolding and self-realization.

Vibraphonist/composer Chris Dingman’s Waking Dreams recreates that experience in the form of a suite of new music that travels over its 14 tracks from darkness to light, from hazy melancholy to serene peace, while moving, often obliquely, through moments and memories from the composer’s life.

“It doesn’t follow a chronological storyline as much as one of mood,” Dingman explains. “I had the idea of an album that transforms over the course of the entire thing, ending with a big catharsis.”

As the album’s title implies, the effort of writing music from these experiences and capturing their elusive connections was a fully conscious one, expressed via hours spent toiling over sheet music rather than under a deep sleep. But actual late-night visions did intrude onto the process, Dingman reveals.

“The name Waking Dreams, came about partially because I was having dreams about the music,” he says. “Especially dreams where I was in and out of sleep, having semi-realistic experiences pertaining to playing music.”

Doubtless the stellar group of musicians who appear alongside Dingman on the CD played their own part in those dreams. Many of them have been a part of his musical life for so long that their approach has become synonymous with the sound of their chosen instruments in Dingman’s mind (conscious and otherwise).

Photo by: Tracey Kroll

Such is the case with Ambrose Akinmusire, the rising star trumpeter who Dingman first met while both studied with the likes of Terence Blanchard, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at the University of Southern California in the mid-2000s. “His voice became what I was hearing when I would hear trumpet,” Dingman says. “I became familiar with his personality and how he approached music, so there are specific points on the album where I wanted his kind of unpredictability.”

Bassist Joe Sanders was also at the Monk Institute at the same time, but his relationship with the rest of the rhythm section runs even deeper. He, drummer Justin Brown, and pianist Fabian Almazan (whose wistful, weightless solo “Prelude” opens the album and establishes the dream-like atmosphere) all studied together at the Brubeck Institute while teenagers. Together, they bring that long-running interplay to their subtle interactions on Dingman’s material.

On saxophone, Loren Stillman’s warm, pliant sound provides a perfect complement to Akinmusire’s keening horn. “Loren has the most beautiful sound,” Dingman says. “He has this way of stating the melodies so purely and clearly.”

Like a dream, the specific details are less relevant than the accumulation of atmosphere and impression. For the dreamer – in this case, the composer – the moments and images that arise hold very special meaning; for the listener, all that needs to be communicated is the journey. The awe and reflection inspired by walking through the ruins of a formerly great metropolis in India may suddenly cede to the harried agitation of flying across time zones; the overwhelming bustle and din of New York City calms to time alone, listening to Wayne Shorter in a cemetery on a hill.

Following the “Interlude”, the emotional tenor begins its upward trajectory, traveling through moments of meditation and transformation to a point where, Dingman says, “it symbolizes a transition of self, the way the world changes when you realize something deeply important about yourself.”

For all the talk of dreams and meditation, the music on Waking Dreams, while maintaining its richly layered atmosphere, is far from new age airiness. Just witness the urgent angularity of “Jet Lag”, the wondrous tenderness of “Manhattan Bridge”, or the vivid colors of “Indian Hill.” Even the transcendent pieces in the disc’s latter half share a remarkable focus: the aptly-named “Clear the Rain” is as bold and piercing as a sunbreak through clouds; “Nocturnal” features Erica Von Kleist’s flute to conjure the darkness of night with the embrace of a lullaby; and “Zaneta” expresses optimism and joy without a saccharine aftertaste.

Since his 2007 arrival in New York, Dingman has performed with leaders as diverse as Steve Lehman, Adam Rudolph, Gerald Clayton, and Harris Eisenstadt, netting him a place in the 2009 and 2010 Downbeat Critics Poll as a Rising Star on vibes. His work as a leader finds a way to navigate that entire spectrum of influences and collaborations, fusing the cerebral and the emotional in highly personal fashion.

Release date: June 21, 2011

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