Plume

Présentation

Plume vu par Walter Smith III :

In 1998, at age 17, as an incoming student arriving at Berklee College of Music, I had been practicing and learning music with so much attention to detail and desire that I couldn’t wait to get to the most famous music school in the world and play with other young musicians that had spent their young lives doing the same. One of the first people that I met in the dorm was Plume – carrying a guitar and an alto. I was intrigued to say the least. He was at Berklee as a guitarist, but wanted to switch to saxophone. I couldn’t imagine starting a new instrument once you were already at this age and already in an expensive music college on another instrument. Over the next 4 years in Boston, I saw Plume in the practice rooms at all hours of the night when other people were out hanging out. Always working. Every time I’d see him, he was asking people questions, going to listen to people play and practicing. Every time I’d get the chance to hear him, it was clear that he wasvery serious about what he wanted to do with the saxophone. Always improving. Taking people’s advice and remaining humble while on a path that had to be very frustrating. Now, some 20 years later, it has all come together in this very album that you are listening to. From the opening moments of the album, I can hear how his sound has become refined, his improvisation a combination of his influences, and his writing a window into a creative artist that has been working tirelessly to get to this very moment. On “Escaping the Dark Side” Plume’s ability to carry a solo in a way that feels like a live concert is something that most people are rarely able to achieve in a studio recording. The maturity and experience on display is incredible. Plume’s ability to re-imagine a song like “Nature Boy” shows his creativity from another angle as it pays tribute to the original melody without doing one thing that I’ve ever heard done with this song. Brilliant. Plume also demonstrates that he is able to play with some of the best musicians on the world stage today by enlisting trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire to join on a couple of songs. Ambrose is one of the most creative musicians to ever pick up a trumpet, and his willingness to be a part of this project speaks very clearly as to what he thinks of Plume. The final track, “Perseverance”, features Ambrose again and everybody is playing with so much energy that again, it feels like I’m watching a live performance. There is a lot on display here and I can’t help but smile as I look over at the track length coming in at 6 minutes and 17 seconds. 6:17 is the are a code for Boston, MA where I first met Plume.

(Walter Smith III est saxophoniste ténor. Il a joué avec Terence Blanchard, Ambrose Akinmusire, le groupe Voyager d’Eric Harland, Jason Moran, Laurent Coq, etc. En 2018, il a publié le disque «Twio» enregistré en trio avec Eric Harland et Harish Raghavan et, en invités, Christian McBride et Joshua Redman.