New Album: Ben Wolfe, Any Time After Now

Any Time After Now is the new recording by bassist, composer, and bandleader Ben Wolfe, featuring vibraphonist Joel Ross, pianist Sullivan Fortner, tenor saxophonist Chris Lewis, and drummer Aaron Kimmel — a program of all-original compositions by Wolfe. The ensemble developed the music across a three-night engagement at Dizzy’s Club in New York City before entering the studio to record the album together in a single day. The album will be released May 15 on Wolfe’s label, Resident Arts Records.

“Everything flowed great in the studio. Everything was very organic. It was about the ensemble sound,” Wolfe says. “In some ways, this is my favorite one, from top to bottom.”

Wolfe’s recent recordings have drawn recognition across jazz and mainstream press. In The New York Times, critic Ben Ratliff described his music as “Mingus and Miles Davis meet Bartók and Bernard Herrmann.” DownBeat praised the “melodic ensemble writing and superb playing by a stellar intergenerational crew,” and The Wall Street Journal called his sound “jazz, swinging and sophisticated.” Wynton Marsalis adds simply, “Ben Wolfe swings with authority.”

A synaesthete, Wolfe describes his compositional process in visual terms: “I see sound in colors, shapes, and textures.” Pianist Sullivan Fortner shares this perceptual connection, shaping the ensemble’s sense of tonal color and interaction throughout the recording.

Writing in the album’s liner notes, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts anticipates the music to be “engaging, yet full of subtext,” as Wolfe “has shown himself to be a proponent of influences both intellectual and visceral.”

Of the title track, Watts writes: “It’s a cool swinger based on a familiar form. It’s comfortable and relaxed from melody to solos; informed by bebop but not beholden to it. Great drum solo from Aaron Kimmel, full of Pennsylvania wit and soul.” He describes “Waltz II” as “very pretty with lots of air, framed by the leader’s always rich tone and beat,” while “If Only” is “short, sweet and thoughtful… blurring the line between the written and spontaneous composition. Very musical.”

Elsewhere, “Blues” unfolds as “a smart, yet nicely hazy blues,” “5/4 Groove” “reads almost cinematically, beginning with an abstract kind of gangster tumbao. The harmonic colors and instrumentation to the ensuing composition remind me of the great Andrew Hill,” and “Do You Love?” enters “with a mature tempo, and a gorgeous, longing melody. Although one of the longer tracks, it is a mood piece to be simply experienced.”

“These great artists have come together and made a beautiful thing,” Watts concludes. “It feels like one of those days where everything works. The older I get, I try to allow and enable music to happen, and this is a great example of selfless, almost baroque musicianship. Many things are called ‘jazz’ these days, but this is what it smells like for sure. Congratulations Ben Wolfe and co. for music that is instantly enjoyable but will assuredly be rewarding upon further listening.”