(Truth Revolution Recording Collective, CD, digital)
Some 1.3 billion years ago, give or take, a pair of black holes became interlocked in a spiral, and their collision created one massive singularity that sent gravitational shock waves across the universe. Taking their sweet-ass time, those waves weren’t detected on Earth until September 2015, when the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in Louisiana recorded the phenomenon — allowing scientists, for lack of a better term, to hear the sounds of interstellar space.
Fortunately for Brian McCarthy, he doesn’t need millions of dollars in technology to channel the sounds of the cosmos, just his sprawling imagination as a composer and his trusty nonet.
The University of Vermont instructor has been one of the leading lights of the local jazz scene for a while now, especially after the release of his 2017 album, The Better Angels of Our Nature. That was a high-concept piece that followed McCarthy’s research into Civil War-era folk music and garnered high praise from critics, including at the Huffington Post.
For his latest record, After|Life, McCarthy focuses on both the birth of our universe and its eventual death.
“The life that we’re living is basically a form of whatever came before us,” the composer wrote in the press release for the album. “In that sense, we exist in the after life.”
That cyclical nature of universal heat death and rebirth fascinates McCarthy and inspires the tracks on After|Life.
“Nebula” is both the beginning of the record and a celestial cradle. To represent the beginning of creation, McCarthy’s nonet shimmers into existence, letting a heavy drone introduce the band. The different instruments materialize into being and reach a climax with the first drum hit of the album, leading into the mazelike “The Beginning.”
Once the universe gets to forming, McCarthy’s nonet leans into the sprawling compositions. His band — trumpeter Bill Mobley; saxophonists Daniel Ian Smith, Andrew Gutauskas and Stantawn Kendrick; trombonist Cameron MacManus; bassist Matt Aronoff; pianist Justin Kauflin; and drummer Jared Schonig — bobs and weaves through his erudite compositions. They show the listener what the big bang would have sounded like if it had happened at Lincoln Center.
Even those less versed in jazz will find it easy to hear the sense of curiosity and discovery in tunes such as “Flux.” Whether it’s the questioning tones of the horns as they hold a call-and-response or piano notes trilling out into a vast universe, After|Life sounds cosmic.
Most of the record is dominated by the three-song title track suite. A pretty straightforward swing with a simple horn melody grows increasingly complex and progressive as the 28-minute suite continues, mimicking the frenetic nature of modern life.
The record ends with “Lucy,” a song title taken from the name of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s mission to study the formation of the solar system, which in turn comes from the fossils of an early human ancestor known as Lucy.
After|Life is an intriguing and highly listenable record that doubles as a science lesson and a philosophical tome. The album is available on all major streaming platforms.
This article appears in Aug 23-29, 2023.
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