January 14, 2022
Pianist and composer Ethan Iverson has released “For Ellen Raskin,” a shimmering new single from his forthcoming Blue Note debut Every Note Is True , which comes out February 11. The album is an engaging and evocative date featuring a masterful new trio with bassist Larry Grenadier and legendary drummer Jack DeJohnette. Every Note Is True finds Iverson looking back at, and expanding upon, his own musical history as he revisits the pop/rock influenced jazz style of The Bad Plus, the influential trio that Iverson co-founded in 2000.
“For Ellen Raskin” is dedicated to the Newbery Medal-winning author of The Westing Game, a 1978 mystery novel for children that was formative in Iverson’s literary life. As anyone that follows his prolific Twitter feed will know, crime and mystery literature is a passion second only to music for Iverson, and Raskin’s writing was one of his first introductions to the genre.
Since leaving The Bad Plus in late 2017, Iverson has undertaken a diverse range of projects including collaborations with iconic drummers Billy Hart and Albert “Tootie” Heath; recordings with trumpeter Tom Harrell and saxophonist Mark Turner; and compositions for orchestra, big band, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. Each of these, alongside his acclaimed, long-running blog Do the Math and his writings in publications including The New Yorker and The Nation, have allowed Iverson to explore his inspirations from a variety of perspectives.
While Every Note Is True features stylistic elements in common with the sound that Iverson had helped to forge over the 17 years that the original Bad Plus worked together, there is also no doubt that the album showcases a very different trio helmed by a more mature composer. Taking advantage of DeJohnette and Grenadier’s unusually open schedules due to the pandemic’s interruption of live music and touring, Iverson seized the opportunity to arrange a studio date with the two highly in-demand musicians. But it was the leader’s insightful understanding of each player’s voice and talents that made it such an inspired teaming.
