Playfair Sonatas

Ethan Iverson is most well known as a jazz pianist, with best-selling releases on Blue Note and Fresh Sound, and was a founding member of The Bad Plus. Iverson has long been interested in the intersection of jazz and classical music, and his professional life has led him to excel in both disciplines.In 2020, artists everywhere hunkered down to do pandemic projects. Of course, freelancers of all types were often also worried about sustaining a basic economic baseline. Iverson and his wife did a major downsize, moving to a smaller apartment in Brooklyn and loading his grand piano into a cheap studio space. Piers Playfair, who has had a long history of curating, producing, and commissioning new work, especially - again - at the intersection of jazz and classical music, asked Iverson if he needed help, and Iverson said, "Yeah, I'd love to cover the studio rent for a few months. Why don't you commission me to write some sonatas for musicians of your choice?"For six months Iverson wrote a sonata a month in his new studio, consulting with Playfair on instrumentation and potential players. Iverson relished the opportunity to create on deadline, and the work went quickly and smoothly. When it came time to record Playfair Sonatas as a set, the chosen collaborators were assembled from the cream of the crop of current classical instrumentalists: violinist Miranda Cuckson, trumpeter Tim Leopold, trombonist Mike Lormand, clarinetist Carol McGonnell, marimbist Makoto Nakura, and saxophonist Taimur Sullivan. Iverson is playing piano, but everything is written out and is intended for straight performance by practitioners accustomed to reading from a detailed score.The music itself is tuneful, fusing the traditional classical sonata form with the sound of jazz, blues and popular music - six listener-friendly works bookended in this release by an ensemble prelude and recessional. Recorded at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, New York, December 2023Engineered and edited by Ryan StreberProduced by Gene Gaudette