# Broken Shadows makes its debut at the Village Vanguard this week, could be fairly pegged as a tribute: Photos, Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2019/03/27/broken-shadows-makes-its-debut-at-the-village-vanguard-this-week-could-be-fairly-pegged-as-a-tribute-photos-video/
- Published: 2019-03-27T12:24:58+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Broken Shadows, which makes its debut at the Village Vanguard this week, could
be fairly pegged as a tribute. But that falls short of capturing what the band is
about. **

This collective quartet — with saxophonists Tim Berne and Chris Speed, bassist Reid
Anderson, and drummer David King — plays music of a specific tone and _terroir_.
Along with Ornette Coleman, whose album _Broken Shadows _serves as both namesake
and compass, the musical reference points include two of his constituents from Fort
Worth, TX: alto saxophonist Julius Hemphill and tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman.

That’s a formidable trilogy of sonic explorers, all of them drawn to a brand of 
freedom deeply rooted in the blues. Broken Shadows approaches their music with profound
conviction but also a perceptible spirit of play.

[[

Bassist Reid Anderson, recording ‘Broken Shadows’ at Eastside Sound in New York 
City.

On a self-titled album releasing next week, as part of the fourth season of subscription
vinyl from Newvelle Records, the band sounds downright frolicsome attacking a tune
like Coleman’s “Una Muy Bonita.” But there’s also a note of persuasive melancholy
on “Broken Shadows” and “Song For Ché” (the latter of which was composed by Charlie
Haden, though it appears on a Coleman album).

The closing track on the new release is “Dogon A.D.,” which Hemphill first recorded
for a compelling album by the same name in 1972. _Dogon A.D._made a small but substantial
impact in its time — especially on Berne, before he had ever considered a career
in improvised music. Back in 2002, I wrote liner notes for a Berne album called 
The Sevens_ _(New World), and interviewed him about the influence. He told me then:

I hadn’t listened to much jazz, but then I heard Julius Hemphill’s album _Dogon 
A.D._, and that completely turned me around. It captured everything I liked in music.
It had this Stax/R&B sensibility and it had this other wildness. It was incredible.
That’s when I started playing.

[[

Alto saxophonist Tim Berne recording ‘Broken Shadows’ at Eastside Sound in New York
City.

Berne later became a friend and protégé of Hemphill’s, even helping the older saxophonist
with his independent record label, Mbari. (Years later, Berne reissued one of Hemphill’s
Mbari releases on his own DIY indie, Screwgun Records.)

So there’s something personal at stake when Broken Shadows plays Hemphill’s music—
just as there is when the band plays early-‘70s Dewey and Ornette. The song “Broken
Shadows” was a longtime fixture in the book of The Bad Plus, the power piano trio
that Anderson and King formed with Ethan Iverson. Several years ago, an augmented
version of The Bad Plus paid homage to Coleman’s 1971 album Science Fiction; they
enlisted Berne on alto saxophone.

But back to _Dogon A.D. _For a long time after its release, the album fell out of
print, accumulating a sort of cult prestige. (It got a boost when the Vijay Iyer
Trio recorded a version of the title track in 2009.) When _Dogon A.D._ finally received
a proper reissue on the International Phonograph label in 2011, it was widely hailed;
_Fresh Air _critic Kevin Whitehead proclaimed that it was “still a revelation.”

Here is footage of Broken Shadows performing a full take of the tune at Eastside
Sound in New York City. It’s an outtake from the album, offered exclusively here.

Along with the earthy hookup between King and Anderson, there’s an excellent meld
in the front line — a vestige of Berne and Speed’s heavy cohesion in the (mostly)
1990s-vintage band Bloodcount. The music feels both grounded and volatile, which
of course is true to its inspiration.

![Broken Shadows at Eastside Sound in New York: Reid Anderson, David King, Chris
Speed, Tim Berne](https://i0.wp.com/www.wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/medium/
public/201903/2018.05.22_newvelle_records_season_4_session_3-37.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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