Over the past decade-and-a-half, trumpeter Dan Rosenboom has established himself as a catalyst for creative music in Los Angeles, a stylistically diverse artist, and a top-call studio musician. He’s a composer, producer, and bandleader known for bringing marquee musicians from different scenes together. On his new album Polarity, he presents a highly dynamic program of original music featuring recent transplants from NYC, pianist/keyboardist John Escreet and drummer Damion Reid, alongside LA heavyweights saxophonist Gavin Templeton and bassist Billy Mohler. Produced by Justin Stanley (Prince, Beck, et al) Polarity is a testament to Rosenboom’s strength as a leader as much as it is about the trust he puts in his bandmates, a largely acoustic quintet with an innate sense of color and propulsion. Polarity emerges from a Los Angeles scene that has been trying to find its center-point in the last few years.
Highland Park’s ETA, an intimate bar and performance space, was quick to grab the torch and establish a reputable performance calendar that reflected pure artistic expression. In the fall of 2021, Rosenboom launched his “Boom Sessions” at ETA, an ongoing series that brings together many of LA’s most powerful improvisational voices. The day after a Boom Session show that featured Escreet, Mohler and Reid, producer Justin Stanley called Rosenboom with a proposal: bring the band into Stanley’s personal studio to experiment and produce a record together.
In their initial conversations, Stanley and Rosenboom leaned toward an open, improvisational approach, which Stanley would produce in post. They had worked together before on Rosenboom’s 2020 release Absurd in the Anthropocene, and had established a mutual trust and admiration. As the recording date approached, however, drummer Damion Reid encouraged Rosenboom to use the opportunity to document his compositions with the band.
“There’s a pretty deep vibe between the rhythm section and the horns,” says Rosenboom. “The way Justin produced everything was terrific. He got very detailed with the sounds on the way in. On ‘The Age of Snakes’ and ‘Tidal Mirror’ he did some amazing post-production work to make them sound larger than life.” That said, Polarity hinges on a live band performance from a single day’s session at Stanley’s Stella Sound Studios.
In the week leading up to the Polarity recording, Rosenboom was immersed in Wayne Shorter’s music, performing in the orchestra for the groundbreaking opera Iphigenia. The night before the Polarity session, Rosenboom got to meet his long time hero for the first time and in a brief conversation, Shorter encouraged him to bring a playful, imaginative, and child-like mindset to the session.
“Recording with Dan is a very fluid and open process. He writes for the group in a way that lets everyone’s voices be heard while tying it all together with his compositions,” says Mohler of his experience. “This same philosophy is shared when playing live with the group.”
Album opener “The Age of Snakes” is the centerpiece of Polarity. Eerie floating horns and an infectious beat provide a hypnotic overture before the band launches into a series of fiery improvisational surges and kaleidoscopic transitions before settling back into an ominous, grooving exit. Stanley teased magic from the sound to create an immersive, lucid-dream journey. Rosenboom elaborates, “This long, expansive improvisational journey embodies everything I love about spontaneous creation with like-minded artists: the surprise, the deep listening, the fearless exploration, and the collective sense of breath and space.”
Throughout the record the rhythm section ebb and flow with purpose. Mohler is one of the most adventurous upright bassists in Southern California. For Rosenboom, “he’s a natural fit for what I do.” Reid is seemingly everywhere at once on this album, building two stories at a time as he supports the ensemble’s construction. “I felt like we had such an instant fiery connection,” says Rosenboom.
Tracks such as “Walking Shadows” and “On Summoning the Will” carry a tender, tuneful strength. The latter is a tribute to the perseverance mustered by Rosenboom’s wife as she overcame Stage 2 Breast Cancer in 2021. The jagged “Ikigai” finds its origins in Rosenboom’s contemplation of purpose and the ways to leave this planet better off than when he got here. John Escreet swipes a solo that twists and turns over the rest of the pummeling rhythm section. He is pliable on the piano as well as electric keyboards. Penultimate track “Tidal Mirror” is an ethereal jaunt, hauntingly futuristic and distant, a feel that is largely created from Escreet’s floating pads. Says Rosenboom: “He intuitively understands where I’m coming from compositionally and aesthetically. He brings incredible pianistic ability and a creative mind to the music.”
On the churning “War Money” and “Minotaur,” Gavin Templeton is downright swinging on his baritone saxophone. Guttural bellows convulse over the striding rhythm section. Elsewhere his alto intertwines with Rosenboom’s stoic lines. “He’s my horn brother,” says Rosenboom. “He’s someone I intrinsically trust on a variety of levels.”
Throughout it is Rosenboom’s trumpet that leads the way. “A Paper Tiger” features a rapid-fire appearance that bends and weaves with Templeton on alto. Rosenboom’s lines seethe with energy. “For me,” says Rosenboom, “it was a nice opportunity to get into some angular writing, to provide a virtuosic showcase for the band to bare our teeth.”
Polarity is the 101st release on Rosenboom’s Orenda Records imprint, which boasts more than sixty artists from three continents and a wildly eclectic lineup. For Rosenboom, it’s all about bringing creative people together and trusting in their individual and collective powers of expression. All of that energy appears on Polarity making for an undeniably eclectic and captivating listen from some of Southern California’s greatest instrumental talents.