The Role of the Rhythm Section, Volume II
GRAMMY® Award Winning Artist asks just one, simple question on his brand new trio album release:
“What if you were to create a big band – the same richness of orchestration, bravado, and emotion – but with only three players?”
New York, NY; November 15, 2024 — Steven Feifke will release Role of The Rhythm Section, Volume II, continuing a prolific stretch for the GRAMMY award-winning pianist, composer, bandleader and arranger, marking his seventh album in the past three and a half years.
In January 2023, pianist Steven Feifke, drummer Bryan Carter, and bassist Dan Chmielinski wrapped up a sold-out residency at Birdland in New York City and headed straight into the recording studio to track their second album as a unit. On November 15th, 2024, the music they captured that day will finally be released into the world, begging the question — why did they wait so long?
The Role of the Rhythm Section Volume II continues a prolific stretch for GRAMMY® award-winner Steven Feifke, marking his seventh album in the past three and a half years, and his eighth album as a leader overall. Feifke, who is best known for his big band and orchestral writing, shows off the more intimate side of his artistry here, and definitely doesn’t take “the easy way out” with this smaller instrumentation.
“It can be easy to overlook the orchestration of the trio in favor of a ‘blowing session,’ so to speak,” Feifke notes. “When you think of the great titans of the piano trio – Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans — they weren’t just playing the piano with extreme virtuosity, their trios –– their arrangements –– had a real vibe! So I bring the same sorts of musical ideas I might bring to the Big Band aesthetic to the trio aesthetic and mix it in with the amazing intimacy of the piano trio.” The resulting soundscape? More exciting, more powerful, and –– with only three players –– incredibly spontaneous.
To answer the question of “why did the trio wait so long to release this album,” one should acknowledge that merely one month after the recording of Role of the Rhythm Section, Volume II, Feifke won the GRAMMY® Award for “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album of the Year,” becoming the youngest bandleader in GRAMMY® history ever to win in the storied category.
“I’ve been in a wildly awesome ‘Big Band Season’ these last few years,” says Feifke over the phone from San Antonio, Texas, where he is the featured guest artist with the US Air Force Band of the West alongside Jeff Hamilton. “I’m definitely planning to continue my Big Band and large ensemble work, but I’ve recently felt myself being quite attracted to the sound of the piano trio — so I’m going with my heart on this album.”
The pianist-composer reunites with his longtime trio — fellow GRAMMY® award-winner, Tony award-winner, drummer Bryan Carter, and bassist Dan Chmielinski — last featured as a unit on 2022’s The Role of the Rhythm Section, Volume 1 (RotRS Vol. 1). Right away, it’s clear their bond on the bandstand is as strong as ever.
Their fellowship started at the Blue Note in 2016 under Feifke’s name on the marquee, and rapidly expanded outwards from there. “I knew right away, from the first note that day, that we had musical chemistry,” Feifke says. “Dan and Bryan are incredible artists. They bring something very special to the music that you cannot write.”
The music on The Role of the Rhythm Section, Volume II features a few choice Feifke original compositions interwoven with fresh takes on familiar standards from the American Songbook tradition. Gershwin’s pen is front and center on “I’ve Got Rhythm,” the trio showcase that opens the album. The up-tempo nature of the arrangement affords Feifke the opportunity to showcase his own virtuosity at the piano, as well as his acknowledgement of — and respect for — the great piano trios that came before him.
“Invitation,” composed by Bronislaw Kaper and made famous by Bill Evans and Freddie Hubbard amongst others, receives a fresh coat of musical paint. We open with what can only be described as “underwater thunder” from the low register of the piano, followed by an exciting joint entrance from Chmielinski and Carter on the bass and drums. With some unexpected twists and turns, the first two tracks set the tone for this record as a whole, declaring Feifke’s own path forward with the trio format.
The two Feifke originals that follow, “And Then There Was Nothing Left,” and “Ebb and Flow,” work together in tandem and show Feifke’s ability as a composer to capture the intangibility and depth of our shared human emotional experience. “I wrote these songs almost ten years ago about the emotional process of ‘moving on.’ And when I say ‘moving on,’ I mean moving on from anything that is deeply meaningful [to oneself].”
“The truth about ‘moving on’ — and actually, I think about it as ‘moving with’ — is that you carry ‘it’ with you, whatever ‘it’ is, until one day you realize, almost by accident, that ‘it’ is not there anymore. And the absence of that ‘it’ can cause relief, reflection and sadness all at the same time. I wrote this song about that moment, and that complex mix of feelings.”
Next up on the album is a George Gershwin love-song medley. Feifke kicks it off with a bright and sunny arrangement of “Our Love Is Here To Stay,” –– inspired by Jeff Hamilton’s famous composition, “Max,” –– which swings as though Feifke’s full big band itself were in the studio. “Someone To Watch Over Me” is much more tender, – lonely, even –– and offers a beautiful bass solo melody presentation from Dan Chmielinski with orchestral percussion styled accompaniment from Bryan Carter, followed by an extended, centerpiece solo performance from Feifke himself.
Feifke wraps up the set with two high octane performances. The first, Morey & Churchill’s “Someday My Prince Will Come,” plays a cheeky game with the time feel as the trio shows their “one-mind” approach to playing, effortlessly moving between 3/4 waltz time and 4/4 driving swing. In a full circle moment, Feifke concludes the album with “Duma,” the first composition he wrote upon moving to New York City in 2009.
It’s been 15 years since Feifke first moved to New York City, and this release — The Role of the Rhythm Section, Volume II — burnishes Feifke’s resume as one of the most dedicated, accomplished artists of his generation. If this album says just one thing about his artistry and career overall, it is that Steven Feifke has a singular and unique voice — and he plans to keep on using it.