Jody Redhage Ferber – Alan Ferber – Mark Ferber – Confluence – available on Scarlet Tree Records on July 18, is a truly unique project. It is nothing less than the sounds of a lifetime of making music together, and the sounds of experiencing millions of moments of life, while seeing a face that encompasses your whole world. Confluence brings to the listener notes and phrases of love, of united souls, expressions of fearless creativity, laughter, tears, lamentation, and ultimately, unbridled joy in each other’s company, in life and in music.
A trio consisting of cello, trombone, and drums isn’t exactly considered standard instrumentation, but this royal family of music creates the musical equivalent of peanut butter + chocolate. The results are refreshing and sonically fulfilling. After a lifetime of brotherhood, marriage, raising kids and collaboration of every kind, the Ferber family now presents Confluence, the result of musical and personal relationships, and of three spiritually and creatively adventurous musicians masterfully turning preconceived musical notions on their head with rearranged and reimagined pieces by Bach, Kenny Wheeler, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, Todd Sickafoose and Alan Ferber. The Ferbers are joined on Confluence by special guests, saxophonist Chris Cheek (tracks 4 & 7), pianist Adam Maness (tracks 2 & 9), and guitarist Matt Sewell (tracks 2 & 10).
Twin brothers, multiple Grammy Award nominated/winning trombonist Alan Ferber and drummer Mark Ferber, have been making music together for as long as they can remember, and they have never stopped collaborating on various albums and tours throughout the decades. They shine brightly in a vast array of stars, and for all of their accomplishments, it still seems as if they are just picking up steam. Alan and cellist Jody Redhage Ferber’s early duets in Brooklyn evolved into more serious collaborations, recordings (Alan’s 2010 Chamber Songs and Jody’s 2013 Rose & the Nightingale), and performances (The Salzburg Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall’s Weil Recital Hall). Those early sessions also resulted in a marriage. Alan elaborated that, “as these sessions evolved into a regular occurrence, we were simultaneously becoming independently involved in NYC’s cutting edge creative music scene. Over the ensuing years, our lives would merge and among other things, we now have a marriage, two children, countless experiences, and now an album to show for it! In some ways, this project is just a snapshot of Ferber family home life. Taking existing material and turning it on its head is something my twin brother Mark and I have done together for as long as I can remember. When Jody entered my life, her similarly adventurous spirit and thirst for new ideas spurred this even further. This project is a by-product of using melodic material that lends itself to reinterpretation and has proven to be a true confluence of our collective experiences as musicians. I hope this music finds its way to your ears and can provide inspiration to creatively collaborate, both in and outside of music.”
One of the centerpieces of Confluence is the Trio’s take on the Bach Cello Suite in C Major. The album opens with “Prelude and Allemande” (from Suite No. 3), and then continues with “Sarabande,” “Courante” and “Bourrée I & II.” Jody explains the couple’s long relationship with the Bach Cello Suites, “Alan and I were first asked to play as a duo in February 2017, and shortly thereafter asked to develop a program of two full sets as a duo to perform at the Salzburg Jazz Festival (Austria). We worked together through stacks of different repertoire options, working to discover and craft selections that we felt really worked for this oddball instrumentation of one string and one brass, both “bass cleffers.” Shortly after Salzburg, we were tasked with crafting our own creative reimagining of the famous Suite No. 3 in C Major for Unaccompanied Cello, but for the two of us, and to include improvisatory elements. We premiered our teased-apart, rhythmically playful version at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. After our Carnegie premiere, we thought it would be enhanced by adding drummer extraordinaire Mark Ferber into the mix. Mark is the perfect collaborator for a chamber jazz endeavor as he is incredibly sensitive, a lithe and subtle listener – making him an ideal chamber collaborator with a volume and intensity perfectly suited to playing with a cellist. We loved the Bach as a trio and thus decided to document our reimagined version in the recording studio, as well as some of our other repertoire we felt worked the best, all of which became Confluence.”
The Ferbers hope that one of the outcomes of this project may be that fellow “bass cleffers” will want to pursue performance of this arrangement of the Bach C Major Cello Suite. The scores and parts are formatted to be flexible, suitable for any combination of two bass clef instruments, and will be available on Alan’s website (including a version with chord changes for those who want to take on the improvisatory aspects, and a version with all of the improvised solos transcribed). “I can promise that the Bach Allemande in a time signature of 7/16 is a super fun challenge!,” said Jody.