AMANDA GARDIER
Following up her 2018 debut Empathy [“lustrous tones and elegant structures” – Suzanne Lorge] and her 2020 sequel Flyover Country [“complex harmonies, tantalizing melodies and smooth ballads” – DownBeat], alto saxophonist and composer Amanda Gardier proudly presents her third album as a leader, Auteur: Music Inspired by the Films of Wes Anderson. The Baltimore–based Gardier approached the project from a place of deep love and respect: “Wes Anderson has a distinctive, immediately recognizable style. I love the whimsy, dry sense of humor, unique characters, beautiful color palettes and attention to detail in his films. I also really enjoy his light and humorous approach to occasionally dark subject matter. Most simply, I also just like the way his movies make me feel.”
Finding musical inspiration in movies and TV is not unprecedented for Gardier: the tunes from Flyover Country were in fact loosely based on characters from Ozark. On Auteur, she made the programmatic choice to focus on a single director, one of the most beloved of the last 30 years, zeroing in on characters, visual tableaux and emotional states that struck her in such Anderson films as Moonrise Kingdom, The French Dispatch, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited.
Rather than piano as the chordal instrument, as on Flyover Country, Gardier chose guitar for Auteur, prominently featuring a mainstay of her work to date, her husband Charlie Ballantine—a unique and eclectic stylist who has featured Gardier on four of his own albums as well. On bass is the agile and alert Jesse Wittman, a close old friend who was present and accounted for on Empathy, Gardier’s debut. And on drums is a very special guest: Dave Kingof The Bad Plus, Julian Lage Trio, Craig Taborn’s Junk Magic, Dave King Trucking Company and more, a major figure in jazz and creative music of the young 21stcentury.
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