# CD review: Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens – In Common 2 – 2020: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/05/18/cd-review-walter-smith-iii-matthew-stevens-in-common-2-2020-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2020-05-18T02:59:56+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Long time musical associates Walter Smith III and Matthew Stevens perform in a
multiplicity of projects at the vanguard of the international jazz & improvised 
music scene, touring and recording with Esperanza Spalding, Ambrose Akinmusire, 
Christian Scott, Terence Blanchard, Dave Douglas, Terri Lyne Carrington, Bill Stewart
and Roy Haynes as well as their own respective groups.**

They first collaborated in 2017, gathering a wish-list band of musical peers, booking
a studio, and presenting them with compositions written for the occasion. The resulting
album was widely praised for its freshness and spontaneity and they’ve returned 
with ‘In Common 2’ to explore the same parameters, adjusting the personnel to produce
an intriguingly different but equally dynamic album. “We loved the way it turned
out” says Smith “We had the opportunity to do something different together: what
I like to call ‘One Page Songs’ – simple forms, so that we can just show up and 
get to the music quicker” As in the first project, Smith and Stevens picked a selection
of their favourite rhythm section players of mutual acquaintance – Linda Oh on bass
and Nate Smith on drums – plus a player from a different generation, so that rising
piano star Micah Thomas takes the place of Joel Ross’ vibes. The material was specially
written to suit the character of the resulting band, favouring short, concise statements
of melody – ‘We’re trying to do something different from what we’d do on our own.
We’re going off what we imagine the band will sound like, and continuing to focus
on being direct, melodic and interactive.”

‘Roy Allan’, the only non-original was included as a homage to its composer, the
late lamented Roy Hargrove, performed as a brief heartfelt duet. ‘Lotto’ is a collective
improvisation from a theme by Stevens with a thrilling dialogue between him and 
Smith that ends in a fortuitous perfect unison. ‘Cowboy’ was humorously explained
by Stevens to Nate Smith as an ‘open, cowboy feel’ and the name stuck. A loping 
bass groove provides a trance-like backing for textured and expressive playing by
all. Smith’s composition ‘Clem’ derives its central imagery from his love of super-
immersive, character driven video games: Clem herself is an orphan child who grows
up into a fearless zombie-killing adult over the course of the game Walking Dead,
and the song maps the arc of her journey from innocence to kick-ass. Video games
also provided the inspiration for ‘Van De Linde’, written by Smith for a character
from Red Dead Redemption – ‘a nefarious guy who works on many levels. It’s written
in 5/4 with 5/8 cycles hidden within it – kinda like the character’s secret agenda!’–
while ‘Little Lamplight’ is inspired by the post-apocalyptic game scenario of Fallout
3 – starting with a simple, muted statement and building into a towering climax.

‘General George Washington’ was constructed by Smith around a nagging two-note riff
that suggests a playground taunt, reflecting his ambivalence towards the slave- 
owning Father Of The Nation. Stevens wrote ‘Provinces’ to evoke his childhood in
Canada through its carefully paced melody, exploring both remembered and imagined
landscapes from his past. By contrast, he wrote ‘Opera’ while on a recent tour with
Esperanza Spaulding: “I wanted to write something piano-driven and dramatic, and
what’s more dramatic than opera?” Smith drew his inspiration for ‘Type Rider’ from
Brad Meldhau’s video for ‘Highway Rider’ – a vision of driving down a California
highway into a limitless freedom.

In Common 2 manages to be at once free and highly structured, melodically accessible
yet thoroughly contemporary. With many of the songs recorded in a single take, the
album highlights the inventiveness and immediacy of a shared vernacular spoken in
a vital corner of New York’s music community.

1. Roy Allan (1:07)
 2. Lotto (4:27) 3. Cowboy (5:38) 4. Clem (5:16) 5. Van der 
Linde (3:35) 6. Provinces (5:52) 7. General George Washington (4:04) 8. Little Lamplight(
2:06) 9. Opera (3:42) 10. Type Rider (3:21)

**Walter Smith III – tenor saxophone**
 **Matthew Stevens – guitar** **Linda May
Han Oh – double bass** **Micah Thomas – piano** **Nate Smith – drums**

![In Common 2 | In Common: Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens](https://i0.wp.com/
f4.bcbits.com/img/a3719369166_10.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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