Eretik

Stage time, especially paid stage time, is a precious commodity in New York City. On stage is where artists compete for the public's attention in the hopes of establishing themselves. But the paid stage, whether in the club or the recording studio, is also the economic impetus that makes musicians convene over music, and thereby the impetus for musical development. For much of the last century, from 1926 to 1988, the restrictive cabaret laws in New York reduced the amount of live stage time artificially, making it scarce by requiring licenses for clubs hosting brass and percussion, and granting only a few. After the laws were overturned in 1988 on grounds of violating the First Amendment, the resurgence of jazz clubs in New York in the early 1990s suggested that pent-up demand had indeed exceeded the suppressed supply. One might ask whether this helps to explain the historical existence of a New York underground world of exceptional jazz talent that has been virtually unknown to the jazz-listening public. The newly arrived jazz clubs of the nineties did in fact reveal a number of artists to the broader public for the first time. Clubs such as Smalls featured artists like Frank Hewitt, who had been heard hitherto in recent times mainly at such places as the University of the Streets or the Jazz Cultural Theater, both grass-roots organizations known to few outside the jazz community. The new clubs also afforded younger artists a chance to be presented to the public in a timely way, and the hope of surviving long enough to become established. Now, about Sacha Perry. Born in Brooklyn on May 1, 1970, Sacha began to learn piano at age 6. As a standout student early on, he enrolled at Hunter College High School and began studying classical piano at Mannes School of Music at age 11. By age 17 his attentions were turning towards jazz. The inspiration supplied by a Thelonious Monk recording was a catalyst for what was to become a life journey. Sacha, a born self-educator with a keen nose for the non-obvious and a tendency to think far ahead of most people, recognized that the secrets and subtleties of modern jazz piano would only be revealed through the working jazz community. Sacha quickly found his way to the inner circles of the NY jazz world, aided in part by friends such as trumpeter Dwayne Clemons and pianist Rodney Kendrick, who introduced him to the enclaves of insiders who gathered nightly away from the limited clubs to play the subtle and urgent music that they and their associates originated in New York. Here Sacha met up with players such as Barry Harris, Clarence 'C' Sharpe, Junior Cook, Lou Donaldson, Tommy Turrentine, Leroy Williams -- and Frank Hewitt, the original subject of this label, who was to become Sacha's greatest influence on the piano. Also, fatefully, Sacha met up with future musical collaborators Ari Roland, Chris Byars, Zaid Nasser, and Mike Mullins, some of the young players on the scene who were singled out by their elders, and often invited to accompany. And here the stories converge. The arrival of new clubs brought to increasingly eclectic listeners a choice, and to artists an abundance of paid stage-time. Musicians who were previously forced to perform in obscurity received the opportunity to perform publicly and on a regular basis. Smalls, open until dawn every night of the week, could provide time enough to stretch out. Here Sacha and his collaborators, and their elder, Frank Hewitt, all found themselves together working, developing, and thriving artistically, if not financially. In the course of nine years at Smalls, Sacha played every Sunday in Across 7 Street, a product of his habitual collaborations with it's co-leaders, Ari Roland and Chris Byars. Sometimes Sacha would work on a Thursday with Zaid Nasser, lead his own trio early Friday and Saturday, and appear with Across 7 Street on Sunday. This proved the ideal environment for Sacha to pen and perform a steady stream of beautiful and challenging new compositions. The compositions found an outlet in the context of these groups, and the pl