The Peru Gazette

May 19 at the Strand

The Coastal Suite stands as a significant achievement in the notable career of composer-pianist Alan Blackman. A New Jazz Works commission by Chamber Music America with funding awarded by the Doris Duke Foundation, the full-length, multi-media work was premiered live in Baltimore and New York in 2014 and featured on NPR’s JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. Performances of The Coastal Suite have met with widespread acclaim by audiences and jazz pundits alike. “There is something here, a beauty, that is captivating,” said renowned jazz artist Joe Locke. “An absolutely gorgeous album, which communicates its waterside vision with stunning resonance,” said Dave Sumner from Bird is the Worm.com.

Alan Blackman has created an evocative concept piece that explores a 24-hour tidal cycle from pre-dawn through the night at a remote ocean beach. Highly programmatic, The Coastal Suite conjures the sound universe of the seashore as the musicians create nautical sounds through extended techniques, expanding the vocabulary of their instruments’ sonic capabilities. Augmenting Blackman’s regular Baltimore-based trio of bassist Max Murray and drummer Frank Russo are Canadian saxophonist Jeff Antoniuk and Brazilian percussionist Rogerio Boccato.  

Alan Blackman Jazz performs The Coastal Suite on Sunday, May 19 at 3:00 pm at the historic Strand Theater in Plattsburgh, New York.  Tickets are available online at strandcenter.org/theatre-events  and also at the Strand Arts Center during their regular business hours. For further information, telephone 518-293-7613, e-mail ambrown.hillholl@gmail.com or visit hillandhollowmusic.org

The Coastal Suite is performed with projected images of gorgeous abstract seascape paintings by the renowned Shetland Islands artist Ruth Brownlee. With equal parts written and improvised, Blackman’s long-form suite features 17 continuous numbers, with titles such as “Before Dawn,” “Eddies and Pools,” “Driftwood,” “Steps in the Sand,” and “Fractured Moonlight.” In their improvisations, the musicians constantly react and respond to the changing images, as the paintings encourage and inspire them to sonically reproduce the environment that the projected images evoke. 

Blackman stated: “As a composer, I loved the idea that I could write out traditionally composed pieces but also leave space for the musicians to explore, invent, and create with the utmost freedom. In this way, every performance is different in a much deeper way than just the typical improvised solos of traditional jazz.”Page 2 –

In addition to their performance at the Strand Theater, Alan Blackman Jazz Group will offer some community outreach:  they will perform a concert of jazz standards at Lake Forest Senior Living and will spend a day at Saranac Central School to perform a concert for students, coach the SCS Jazz Band rehearsals, and lead workshops in improvisation and extended instrumental techniques.

More Reviews About The Coastal Suite

“With the theme of a one-day cycle on the water’s edge, pianist Alan Blackman‘s The Coastal Suite reflects both the sublime nature of time spent on the shore as well as its temperamental unpredictability.  It is an album of unique rhythmic dissonance interspersed by the loveliest melodic expressions.”

 -Bird is the Worm.com, Dave Sumner

“And throughout the suite, Blackman makes like Duke Ellington at the piano, conveying a sense of place in the score and highlighting each musician’s unique contribution.” 

-Becca Pulliam, WBGO

“…It’s poetry in slow motion, words translated into sound…” 

-All About Jazz.com

“This group seems to be carried away by the music itself, taking our daydreams along for the ride.”   

-Robert Sutton, freelance internet reviewer