All One
Release date: April 14, 2023
Label: Edition Records
GRAMMY NOMINEE
All One is the latest masterwork from saxophonist Ben Wendel. The boundless Wendel airs his instrumental variety on All One, heard here on tenor and soprano saxophone, bassoon, EFX and hand percussion. He braves six imaginative, cultivated arrangements alongside the finest crew of collaborators, including vocalists Cécile McLorin Salvant and José James, trumpeter Terence Blanchard, guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Tigran Hamasyan and flutist Elena Pinderhughes.
The roots of All One can be traced to Wendel’s teenage years as a band geek. There were scores for orchestra around the house (at the time his mom, Dale Franzen, was a lyric soprano with the Los Angeles Opera); despite having no theory training, he attempted to write woodwind quintet arrangements of the pieces he loved, like Holst’s symphonic cycle “The Planets”. You know, for fun. “I’d gather up my friends and we’d try to play these great pieces,” Wendel recalls. “Why in God’s name I was interested in that, I don’t know. I was maybe 14 – I had zero harmonic knowledge. I’d look at the score and listen to the music and just guess. But I just loved the sounds you can get with a group of woodwinds or brass.”
GRAMMY® nominated Wendel is well versed in the collaborative dynamic as an artist, composer and producer. His acclaimed 2018 The Seasons began as a series of monthly duets with artists like Julian Lage and Joshua Redman, which were shared via YouTube before the album was made. He’s co-written songs with artists like Julia Holter, Becca Stevens, Gretchen Parlato and has been involved in sustained – and terrifically inventive – group exploration with Kneebody. The leaderless group, which first recorded in 2005, was at the leading edge of what came to be called post-jazz – its volatile, high-intensity approach connected the rhythmic languages of electronica and indie rock rhythms with wild, highly technical and frequently frenetic group interaction.
All One was a different beast. Wendel recognized that it couldn’t revolve entirely around improvisation. Working remotely, mid-pandemic, he’d need to establish some structural frameworks, the outline of the sculpture, before anything else could happen. Still in the thrall of large ensemble winds and still playing his first instrument, the bassoon, he began to hatch a recording project involving a woodwind choir backing singers or instrumentalists. It was still unrealistic to plan a conventional session with a large group of musicians in a studio. Next best option: A DIY orchestra, the Wendel ensemble. He began to sketch arrangement ideas for a multi tracked chorale of tenor saxophones and bassoons, with him playing all the parts. At the least, he reasoned, he’d have fun with it as an experiment.
Once the material was selected, Wendel began developing the arrangements. Though he used software programs, he avoided MIDI entirely; when his woodwinds suggest the sound of a low-brass choir, that’s not some fancy plug-in, that’s him. He thought about how each piece should unfold and sought unconventional ways to create dynamics and tension. He explored using close-knit chords by multitracking several bassoons; here, his exacting sense of intonation, honed at the Eastman School of Music, was crucial. “When you create dense harmony but are able to play with a hyper in-tune approach, it’s possible to make something that sounds really big,” Wendel says, adding that he rarely doubled the same notes twice. “I wanted this lush, big density while trying to hide the fact that it was all me.”
Some of the pieces, like Salvant’s mesmeric rendition of “I Loves You Porgy” feature 30 different woodwind parts. Sometimes the tenor sax goes through an octave pedal and is pitched lower, to create a bassline. Sometimes bass is handled by bassoon – or bassoons. Wendel and engineer Steve Wood got granular as parts were added, experimenting with reverbs of different lengths and depths, panning instruments to the extremes of the soundscape, using digital post-production tools to create a multidimensional space.
Wendel sent each artist a rough version of the completed arrangement but offered very little written (or verbal) instruction – believing that it was his responsibility to create an atmosphere in which his collaborators would feel comfortable. “These are just such strong musical identities – who am I to tell them anything? I wanted a situation where it was evident [from the arrangement] that I knew the artist well, and they could take it from there. I just wanted them to do what they do – to me I’m successful if I don’t have to say anything at all.”
In final form, these pieces reveal previously under-emphasized dimensions of Wendel’s musicianship – his deep understanding of classical harmony, his tactical deployments of dissonance, his knack for conjuring memorably lyrical counterpoint lines and swirling, impressionistic sonic arrays. Still, for all the forethought that went into these arrangements, the music feels alive. That’s directly attributable to Wendel’s improvisational dexterity on the tenor: In brief, dazzlingly expansive solo bursts, he stretches the melodic ideas beyond the confines of the score, refracting established themes into vibrant, unexpectedly shape-shifted variations.
MATT MICUCCI
JAZZIZ
Featured in Editors' Choice Playlist here.
MARTIN JOHNSON
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"The results are compelling and often remarkable." Read the review here.
JOHN CHACONA
LET'S CALL THIS
"Wendel is not the kind of artist who is content to sit back and relax." Read the full story here.
DAVE SUMNER
BANDCAMP
"..Wendel layers a rich, expansive sound as if backed by a legion of instrumentalists." Read The Best Jazz on Bandcamp for April 2023 here.
RUSSELL TRUNK
EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE
Read the album announcement here.
MATT MICUCCI
JAZZIZ
Listed as one of 10 albums you need to know this month here.
CRAIG BYRD
CULTURAL ATTACHÉ
"To call him just a saxophonist would be a misnomer.." Full article here.
RON SCHEPPER
TEXTURA
"Given that artists are no longer recording in isolation, there's no reason for Wendel to create a second volume of All One-styled collaborations. But the artistic result is so successful, he might just want to consider doing so anyway.." Review here.
CHLOE RABINOWITZ
BROADWAY WORLD
Read the release announcement here.
DEE DEE MCNEIL
MUSICAL MEMOIRS
"Here is a project where you should be prepared for the unexpected, shape-shifting variations that Ben Wendel’s imagination dictates.." Review here.
FILIPE FREITAS
JAZZ TRAIL
"All One provides a fulsome view of Wendel’s arranging and composing capabilities, offering music that is fruitful, explorative and thoroughly satisfying." Read the 4-star review here.
RICHARD KAMINS
STEP TEMPEST
“ At times playful, other times quite serious, there is tenderness, resolve, joy, love, and even ferocity that makes the listener dig in for repeated listenings." Review here.
JAMES VALENTINE
ABC JAZZ
“One of the modern-day sax stars is our topic of conversation this week on the show! Ben Wendel is best known as a tenor player, but on his latest record 'All One', he struts his stuff across the woodwind family, utilising the power of the overdub to create a dizzying array of textures with his various horns.” Listen to the radio segment here.
ROB SHEPHERD
POSTGENRE
"..a listen to the record dispels that misconception and reveals an incredibly ambitious work that straddles jazz and classical music." Read the review here.
JOHN CHACONA
ALL ABOUT JAZZ
"Like the music of Kneebody, the Los Angeles cooperative that Wendel and Wood helped to found at the turn of the century, the music heard at Bop Stop stood at the center of a Venn diagram that includes jazz, but also praise music, rock, post-rock, hip-hop and contemporary classical music." Read the concert review here.
WILL LAYMAN
POP MATTERS
“All One is one of the most delicious pandemic projects yet." Read more here.
JEROME WILSON
ALL ABOUT JAZZ
"Ben Wendel has shown his ability as a player before but the concept and arranging of this ambitious project is new territory for him. He creates a lot of stimulating settings for his collaborators to work with and emerges with lovely and distinctive music." Review here.
GEORGE W. HARRIS
JAZZ WEEKLY
"If this band comes to town, will someone please let me know?" Read the review here.
JOSEF WOODARD
DOWNBEAT
"One dramatic example of a pandemic-driven jazz project is the new album All One from Ben Wendel" Read the album review here.
EDITOR
TAKE EFFECT
"The renaissance man Ben Wendel brings his composing, arranging and multi-instrumentalist skills to these 6 in depth tracks that hosts several players to the timeless, atypical jazz formula." Read the album review here.