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8-panel Digipak Album
‘Never having played together as a unit, it’s remarkable how locked in these four superior musicians are. This is “in the moment” jazz at its best, as the title indicates.”
— Jim Hynes, Glide Magazine
“You’ve got some real all star vets here, and it shows with the ease that these guys can swing and bear down… Timeless treasures, and anything with Stewart as the anchor is worth keeping in your catalogue.”
— George W. Harrin, Jazz Weekly
“Archer and Stewart are crucial to the ensemble identity of this fine collective achievement, but Orrin Evans’ long-honed mastery and Immanuel Wilkins’ new-minted one are its most awesome virtues.”
— John Fordham, Jazzwise
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THE MAGIC OF NOW finds pianist and bandleader Orrin Evans leading a multi-generational cohort of A-list partners – first-call New York bassist Vicente Archer; iconic drummer Bill Stewart; and the dynamic 23-year-old alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins. From the first note to the last, the quartet, convening as a unit for the first time, displays the cohesion and creative confidence of old friends. Together, they apply their collective mojo to three Evans originals, three heretofore unrecorded songs by Wilkins, and a two-song opening medley featuring music by Stewart and the late great pianist Mulgrew Miller generating an eight-piece program that exemplifies state-of-the-art modern jazz.
THE MAGIC OF NOW is Evans’ sixth album for Smoke Sessions, and the 20th of the 46-year-old pianist-composer’s luminous career. Recorded in the midst of the upheavals set in motion by the COVID-19 pandemic, this latest document of Evans’ kaleidoscopic artistic journey coincides with several self-generated sea changes in his life. Perhaps the most significant change being his decision to leave the popular trio The Bad Plus after three rewarding years to refocus his time and energy on his own multiple musical projects.
“People have had to make adjustments and be reborn to a certain extent,” Evans says by way of explaining the title. “We’re past the point where we didn’t know what was going on or what the future would look like. Now we’re settling into what our ‘new normal’ will be, embracing the magic of now and the shape of what will happen next.”
released July 23, 2021
Immanuel Wilkins – alto saxophone
Orrin Evans – piano
Vicente Archer – bass
Bill Stewart – drums
Recorded December 11 & 12, 2020
at SMOKE, New York City
Produced by Paul Stache
Associate Producer: Damon Smith
Recorded & Mixed by Edwin Huet,
Tyler McDiarmid & Paul Stache,
Mastered by Christopher Allen
Production Support by Jason Fifield
Photography by John Rogers
Design by Damon Smith
Orrin Evan is a Yamaha artist and a Big Fish Booking artist
Immanuel Wilkins appears courtesy of Blue Note Records
Executive Producers: Paul Stache & Molly Johnson
