Lori Bell Quartet

★★★★

"Bell flaunts prodigious chops on both C flute and alto flute
though her pen might be mightier than her sword. Her originals all reveal a wide harmonic palette, a sophisticated rhythmic sensibility and a refined sense of dynamics, along with an urge to swing". Bill Milkowski - DownBeat Magazine (March 2016)

"Bell glides, glows, and runs up and down her flute in seemingly effortless fashion throughout. Her rhythm mates, in turn, keep the grooves swinging and flowing while adding their two cents in all the right places. Brooklyn Dreaming is a tight and classy affair that furthers Bell's fine reputation, shines a spotlight on her talented compatriots, and reminds us all that east and west aren't so far apart after all." Dan Bilawsky - All About Jazz

"This is a fascinating jazz recital – once again – from Lori Bell, including Tamir Hendelman again, as well as the supremely talented bassist Katie Thiroux and drummer Matt Witek. It is cunningly programmed, with Charles Mingus’ Nostalgia in Times Square and Thelonious Monk’s 52nd Street Theme placed up front so as to give maximum impact to its quiet tremolo-infused lead character at the opening: Lori Bell’s flute, that pulls you into a distinctly unnerving world, one which the entry of that flute, with its vague, long-limbed lines, does nothing to ameliorate. It’s all the more mind-blowing when you realise that the Mingus and Monk pieces, these visionary, transcendent pieces are particularly well suited to Ms Bell’s tensile, wiry sound, which leads her lends her lines an immediacy and intensity that you also find her extrapolations of the themes engendered in those pieces as well as in the profoundly beautiful Harlem Nocturne that closed the album.

It is inevitable in the more intense passages of those, as well as Lori Bells’ own compositions, that these players are most compelling, though there is no shortage of virtuosity either, particularly in the finale of Harlem Nocturne. As a quartet there is much to impress too not the least in their sensitive approach to rubato in Ms. Bell’s Brooklyn Dreaming, one player unerringly mirroring the other. That goes for each and every player who, in his or her own way, becomes the bedrock of this tight ensemble – introverted in the more thoughtful pieces and justifiably extroverted in the ones that have a different air about them – like 3 Deuces Blues, for instance. I could not have imagined a warmer, richer flute sound – Lori Bell refulgent alongside Katie Thiroux – in that piece as well as in pieces where a lightening of mood and wit also prevail. However, I submit that it’s still reactive, involving interpretation and a reminder of riches that Ms Bell always bequeaths to the flute.

Lori Bell stands out even in the crowded market of younger flute players. She impressed enormously with her last outing The Music of Djavan (Resonance, 2008). Her tone is remarkably pure, with an inner steel audible in her control of intonation over larger spans. Her playing reminds me of Yusef Lateef sometimes and it would be interesting to hear how she would tackle the more adventurous repertoire that the late genius was known for. Ms. Bell has a position among virtuosos of her generation and always leaves mementos of her artistry whenever she puts the flute to her lips, a very physical and sensuous act as the music that comes out of it will testify. She has been aided by the crisp playing of her pianist Tamir Hendelman – on the last two discs and the pianist too never fails to give winningly fresh accounts of the music before him. On this new disc, the two are joined by two more supremely talented and sensitive artists – the ever wonderful bassist, Katie Thiroux and the sensitive drummer Matt Witek.

This is an album that pays tribute to ‘the scene’ as a Bebop player might call Brooklyn, the heartbeat of the jazz world of New York. Repertoire has either been specially chosen for the occasion or specially composed to go along with the classic markers opening with Mingus’ Nostalgia in Times Square and closing with another classic Harlem Nocturne. The disc is going to be recognised as the standard for a flute-led album sooner or later. Repertoire will be one of the reasons why. The other reason will be the outstandingly memorable contributions from each of the players from the first not to the last." Raul da Gama - Jazz da Gama

"Lori Bell is a San Diego flute virtuoso whose roots actually lie in New York City, and her latest recording, "Brooklyn Dreaming," featuring the top-shelf Los Angeles rhythm section of pianist Tamir Hendelman, bassist Katie Thiroux and drummer Matt Witek, reveals a master of the mainstream at the absolute top of her game.

"Brooklyn Dreaming" celebrates the blues in all shades -- from the lithe musicality of Mingus’ “Nostalgia in Times Square,” to her own, similarly titled, “Times Squared.” Bell deftly exploits blues ideology with a warm, liquid sound and modern intervallic improvisation (including a quote from Dolphy’s “Gazzelloni”) for startling effect.
Burning tempos proliferate, and Hendelman’s baroque input on “52nd Street Theme” leads to an explosive exchange of fours with Witek, whose muscularity bristles all over this disc.

Bell’s luxuriant alto flute is also consistently gorgeous, with furiously swinging improvisation on “Streets of New York,” which also leans heavily on Hendelman’s articulate virtuosity.

Thiroux’s bass follows in the oak-solid tradition of Ray Brown, and throughout the album, her sound and ideas are inspiring. Emotion meets intellect on the title track, which includes the lush exploration of Bell’s zaftig alto flute and a beautifully lyrical piano essay from Hendelman.

"Brooklyn Dreaming" serves as a calling card for those unaware of Bell’s considerable prowess on the instrument, and it’s a career defining moment for the longtime San Diego musical treasure." Robert Bush - NBC 7 (San Diego)

"In the 1970s and early ’80s I worked at the Summer House Inn in La Jolla as a combination desk clerk, switchboard operator, bell man, reservationist, and whatever odd job that needed to be done that didn’t require driving the company car. It was an okay job, nothing great, but the greatest benefit of working there was that Elario’s, at the time one of the best jazz clubs in Southern California, was perched on 11th floor of the high-rise. It was at Elario’s where I was introduced to the music of Brooklyn native and San Diego resident Lori Bell, a jazz flautist (or flutist?) in live performance. Playing with the very fine pianist Dave McKay and with her own groups, Bell’s flute work was a revelation of sorts. Her tone is firm and she shows a virtuoso’s command of the sounds it produces. Whether digging into the sub-atomic emotions that are the genius of the blues, releasing a torrent of inspired runs on the obstacle course complexities of bop or the nuanced, minor key subtleties of a ballad, Lori Bell played her flute in any fashion she chose. Delicacy and strength, firm and rhythmic, unfaltering and malleable, hers is a sound with verve and lyricism.

That said, Bell has released her ninth studio album, Brooklyn Dreaming, a tribute to her place of birth and where her heart and roots remain. She is joined her by Matt Witek on drums, Tami Hendelman on piano, and Katie Thiroux on bass, an ensemble reveling in what seems like telepathic communication during in both the softer and more dynamic album selections. The album is a tribute to the vital elan of Bell’s fabled native grounds, but over anything else this album’s main attraction are the top shelf performances. These sessions wails, soars and swings on the good grace of superb musicianship.

Noteworthy are the hard-charging interpretations on the twisting turns of Charlie Mingus’ “Nostalgia in Times Square”; brisk, given to fast tempo changes and the odd quirks Mingus is known for in his writing, Bell’s solo is magnificent, building with simple statements and gradually accelerating the speed, upping the ante, and dancing on the edge of the rhythm section’s sublimely kept pace. Bell’s original compositions—“Times Squared,” “Brooklyn Dreaming,” “A Dog on Coney”—provide what we can take as the New York attitude: fast, in-your-face , loquacious, but friendly and swinging. Bell finds the mood, explores the variations, makes it all swing, her notes precise and rounded, fleeting and wild in their spirit.

Hendelman’s piano work has that extra-sensory element suggested from before. His chord voicings chime magically to provide a suitable push and texture to the ensemble, and his solos are rich complements to Bell’s, matching her in stratospheric outlay of ideas but adding his own deft touches. Half chords, short runs, and bell-tone octaves make him the necessary musician to have around. Likewise, the teamwork of the Witek and Thiroux rhythm section move this wonderfully realized session with an ease dually dynamic and apt. The songs cover a wide swath of styles, and the team is there, keeping the pace lively, varied, soaring. I would ask that the musicians take a bow, one by one, for the fine work they created for this very fine album." Ted Burke - San Diego Troubadour

"Bell’s Jan. 15, 2016 release is her ninth album and a constantly moving stream of flute-led innovation, from the Monk standard to “Nostalgia In Times Square” by Charles Mingus, to the majority of her own original compositions. Producer Bell wrote six of them and arranged three of the covers.

With her on C and alto flutes are pianist Hendelman (Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra), bassist Katie Thiroux (DownBeat featured player), and drummer Witek (John Pizzarelli Quartet). For such a small quartet, everyone comes through loud and clear on every song. Nobody’s hidden behind a raucous rhythmic line trying to get a bead on an Afro-Cuban safari. They stick closer to Bell’s former home base, a comfort zone of lovely melodic strands.

Brooklyn Dreaming is Bell paying tribute to the city and the people in it that contributed to who she is today. The title track says everything you need to know about this wondrous borough and her place in it. It’s beautiful and full of possibility, as Hendelman initially handles the weight of melodic indecision in the face of so many alluring memories around every corner. Bell lifts the escapist tune into the clouds. This is the tune you will keep coming back to, for it’s the heart of her love for Brooklyn and her people there.

What’s even more remarkable about this album is there’s not a hint of classical stereotype in Bell’s flute playing. It’s pure jazz energy in the fire of her light switch, the tongue-in-cheekiness of “A Dog On Coney,” and the thousand-mile gaze in her deep tones that go on forever for the finicky, flow-over of “Lower Manhattan.” Carol Weber - AXS

"Thomas Wolfe may have been wrong when he wrote You Can’t Go Home Again, if flautist Lori Bell’s latest album Brooklyn Dreaming is any indication. Fronting a quartet featuring Tamir Hendelman on piano, Katie Thiroux on bass, and Matt Witek on drums, the West Coast transplant takes the opportunity of her ninth studio album to put together a nine-track musical return to her roots in Brooklyn and Manhattan (since six of the tunes reference New York City). Home is where the music comes from.

Although the album’s main focus is on original Bell compositions, she begins with a swinging version of the Charles Mingus classic “Nostalgia in Times Square”—note the appropriate emphasis on nostalgia to set the thematic tone. The other covers are a brilliant romp through Monk’s “52nd Street Theme” and Earle Hagen’s “Harlem Nocturne” which closes the set.

The latter cut provides a bit of personal nostalgia, recalling the rock and roll blues version of Sam “The Man” Taylor, a favorite of my own youth in Brooklyn, here treated with a Latin beat and some elegant solo work from Bell and Hendelman. It is tough competing with youthful memories of Alan Freed and the Brooklyn Paramount, but Bell and her quartet manage quite well.

The original material includes an inspired and almost mystical “Times Squared,” with a dynamic conversation between Bell and Hendelman and a smoky “Streets of New York.” The title song, with its dreamlike melody, reinforces the nostalgic theme, while “A Dog on Coney,” a real jazz romp, changes the mood entirely. “Lower Manhattan” and “3 Deuce Blues,” with a wispy opening leading inevitably to the blues in its title, round out the album.

The Lori Bell Quartet is an ensemble that demands attention. These are four top notch musicians who work as one. Bell has a vision, and Hendelman, Thiroux, and Witek buy into that vision with gusto. Their collaboration has produced an album that is both beautiful and intelligent. Brooklyn Dreaming is a winner." Jack Goodstein - Blogcritics