Open spaces inspire Denver native
In spite of everything, there are musicians getting new work out to the world. Take Max Bessesen, a young alto saxophonist and composer who grew up in Denver. He’s just released a stirring first effort as a leader, “Trouble,” on the independent Ropeadope label.
Packed with accomplished solo declarations and notable melodic passages, “Trouble” announces a promising young voice in jazz. Although Bessesen has settled in Chicago to pursue a career in music, he traveled back to Colorado to record the album.
“I wanted to say on my debut album that this is me, this is where I come from,” Bessesen told me from Illinois. “That’s why I decided to record it in Denver. This is what I’m about, coming from this wide open space.”
Much of the music on “Trouble” does evoke the hard-to-define Colorado aesthetic that one hears in the musings of guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Art Lande and trumpeter Ron Miles. (Miles joins Bessesen on the new album and he’s an ideal frontline partner. More on him and his Blue Note debut next month.) “Trouble” features sounds that evoke blue skies and mountainous landscapes. There’s a touch of open prairie loneliness on the album, too.
Though Bessesen was raised in Denver, he’s traveled much of the world. After graduating from Ohio’s Oberlin College, absorbing knowledge from masters like drummer
Billy Hart, saxophonist Gary Bartz and trumpeter Eddie Henderson. He also was awarded a fellowship that allowed him to spend extended periods of time in India, Ghana and Cuba. The music of these cultures has found its way into smart pieces like “Mayhem” and “Bakkam.”
“India really had me contemplate my place on this planet as an artist,” Bessesen said. It shows this is a thoughtful, reflective collection that may well end up on some endof-the-year “best of” and “best debut” lists.
As for life in Chicago as opposed to the Mile High
City, Bessesen is doing what he can to get by in the difficult scenario the pandemic has posed for most musicians. He’s giving private lessons online as well as teaching high school classes via Zoom.
“I came here because I wanted to live with the deep musical history, and the rent’s cheaper than New York. There’s time to practice and create a unique voice. You don’t have to rush to find your brand.”
Denver mainstay Purnell Steen plays Dazzle on
Sept. 9...the internationally-flavored group Laughing Hands streams online from Dazzle Sept. 17...the Dawn Clement Trio plays Monk at Nocturne on Oct. 1...new music that has come my way in recent weeks that I recommend: Thumbscrew’s “The Anthony Braxton Project” with the inimitable guitar of Mary Halvorson gracing Braxton’s previously unrecorded compositions; “Natural Selection” from drummer Dan Weiss’ Starebaby, which is the true 21st-century jazz-rock fusion; “The Complete Yale Concert, 1966” from drummer Milford Graves and Don Pullen serves as a crucial document in the development of incendiary free jazz; and, if you can find a copy, “Egypt 1971” from Sun Ra, a Record Store Day release that lovingly documents the keyboardist-bandleader in all of his otherworldly glory.