ON the Beat | From Berlin to More Mesa, Benjamin Lackner Scores with Lyricism, Again

Santa Barbara-bred and Berlin-based Jazz Pianist Benjamin (aka Benny) Lackner Returns with Another Moving ECM Album

From left, Matthieu Chazarenc, Linda May Han Oh, Benjamin Lackner, Mark Turner, and Mathias Eick | Photo: Sam Harfouche, ECM Records

We knew him as Benny. Now he is — officially, at least — Benjamin. Lackner, that is, Berlin-born and now-based, but who spent many formative wonder years growing up in Santa Barbara, the son of established theater artists Peter and Barbara. By whatever name, Lackner is a deeply lyrical and inspired jazz pianist-composer whose refined musical voice and vision has now been documented on two memorable albums for the mighty ECM label.

His recently released album Spindrift, a follow-up to 2022’s Last Decade, is an often meditative-but-never-idle and richly detailed pleasure to behold. Joining him this time is a subtle and potent two-horn front line, with Norwegian melodist Mathias Eick returning from the earlier album, joined by the remarkable “musician’s musician” tenor saxist Mark Turner, with bassist Linda May Han Oh, and drummer Matthieu Chazarenc, from Lackner’s own steady trio.

Benjamin Lackner | Photo: Henry Schulz, ECM Records

As such, this Lackner is a rare Santa Barbaran making very good on jazz’s world stage. (Incidental note: he shares the ECM stable status with current Santa Barbaran Charles Lloyd, who recorded for the German label for many years). Although Lackner belongs in the ranks of worldly jazz musicians, especially in the more introspective and Euro-centric realm which ECM has made one of its signature harvests, we might tend to cling to Santa Barbara connections.

Lackner’s latest does include notable Santa Barbara references, including the tune “More Mesa,” a painterly ballad with a warming gleam and a winsome, understated piano solo. We can read into the piece a nod to the therapeutic expanse of undeveloped open space — and open to the public — of More Mesa (the mesa, not necessarily the nude beach below).

More personally, Lackner’s “Anacapa” pays tribute to Santa Barbara’s great and underexposed piano master Dick Dunlap, an idealistic teacher for Lackner in his idealistic adolescence. The tune heeds a steady but soft pulse triggered by cymbal accents, its supple melody line melting into a collective horn improvisation on the offramp.

A sure high point on this album, aside from the quiet strengths of Lackner’s writing and delicate pianism, is the magnetic and sometimes fervent playing of the horn players, whether in unison, harmony or amicable contrapuntal conversation. Their fours-trading intensity and dialogue fires up “Mosquito Flats” (bowing to the location in the Eastern Sierras) and “Chambary,” and elsewhere.

Another California pride nod arrives in “Ahwahnee,” a paean to Yosemite luster with a late-night vibe, one which manages to be melancholy yet also restorative (putting the “rest” back in restorative). The same transformative quality can be applied to Spindrift more generally, an affirmation of Lackner’s musical gift and growth. Chalk up another one for local/global pride.

Turner, I have decided, is my favorite living tenor player. I have always admired and been lured into his musical thought trains through his work with Fly, Billy Hart’s band (both also recorded for ECM) and going back to surprisingly mature-sounding early work on Warner Brothers in the ‘90s. But Turner’s legacy has expanded in his mid-to-late-stride, and he is widely respected as one of those sax players who has carved out his own way, his own language. Whereas much of modern sax playing feeds at the trough of John Coltrane and hard-bop, Turner comes more out of the school of Lennie Tristano, Warne Marsh, and Lee Konitz, personalizing the art of improvisation by crafting linear adventures and musical architecture on the fly (so to speak).

Suddenly, we’re hearing more recordings from the sometimes-retiring and enigmatic Turner, who grew up in Los Angeles and has returned home when not on the road eastward and Euro-bound. A short list of impressive Turner recordings in recent years might start with his own last ECM project with his “chordless” quartet, Return from the Stars (2022), onto the latest Hart album, Just (listen here), and, with Brad Mehldau, Peter Bernstein, Larry Grenadier, and Bill Stewart, the enjoyable Solid Jackson (its title taken from Charlie Haden’s signature greeting), on Criss Cross.

Tilting more toward the avant-garde end of his music, Turner is a critical fourth of the new album The Music of Anthony Braxton, featuring the Steve Lehmann Trio (Pi records). Lehmann is another significant jazz figure who has made L.A. home, as a Cal Arts faculty member.

One of my favorite albums of the moment, genre-regardless, is Turner’s first solo sax outing, We Raise Them to Lift Their Heads (Loveland Music), which shows his range, his inside and outside instincts, and the creative impulses stripped bare for all to hear and admire. Recorded by Danish guitarist and sometimes collaborator Jakob Bro in 2019, the six-track album walks softly but carries vast artistic import, on his own improvised variations on Bro tunes, Turner’s own aptly named “Slow” and “Fast” and a lean Cubist deconstruction of Monk’s “Misterioso.” (Listen here). Memories and real-time awe are made of stuff such as this.

To-Doings:

After a relative slack time/spring break from Santa Barbara’s usual busy concert pace in the past week, the live music machinery kicks back into gear with some ferocity this weekend and beyond. On Saturday night, April 5, for instance, classical, jazz, and blues fans will have their dance cards tempted with the eminent cellist/humanist Yo-Yo Ma at the Arlington (thanks to UCSB Arts & Lectures), the return of friendly New Orleans–based jazz saxist Derek Douget at the Lobero Theatre, and soulful blues/R&B singer Sugaray Rayford and large band at the Carrillo Recreation Center, celebrating the 48th birthday of the Santa Barbara Blues Society.

Those of us with an eclectic embrace of multiple musical flavors may be caught in an either/or quagmire — although it’s possible to catch one earlier show and fall by the late set of Rayford at the Rec Center. Our town does tend to roll up sidewalks early, but the Blues Society can be counted on to keep the grooves going later than usual on the Center’s spring-loaded dance floor, praises be.

On Friday, April 4, the enterprising chamber outfit Camerata Pacifica, leans into an intriguing programing premise: The couples joined in marriage and instrumental choice, pianists Ran Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee and percussionists Ji Hye Hung and W. Lee Vinson, taking on an enticing menu of Stravinsky’s powerful four-hands version of “The Rite of Spring,” Bartók’s grand, raucous, and nuanced “Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion,” and a splash of Poulenc.

And don’t forget tonight’s special left-of-typical classical occasion, when the CAMA presenting organization hosts the British Chineke! Orchestra at The Granada Theatre, fulfilling a concert date planned five years ago but was interrupted by COVID.The acclaimed group, dedicated to music performed and composed by Black andunderrepresented artists, brings a juicy program of scores by Black composers, alive and otherwise, plus a dose of Haydn (see story here).

Less than a week later, CAMA’s chambered-mannered sister series, known as “Masterseries,” continues with an appearance by highly esteemed pianist Yefim Bronfman on Wednesday, April 9. Mozart, Debussy, and Tchaikovsky are on tap there.

Jazz worth hearing comes in various shades on this week’s SOhO calendar. On Sunday night, the impressive Steely Dan tribute band Dr. Wu, replete with horns, a spot-on trio of background singers, and a general reverence and proper jazz-infused perfectionist pop spirit, returns. And on Monday night, the stellar Santa Barbara City College Monday Madness big band, directed by excellent saxist Andrew Martinez, brings its Monday madness and swinging polish to this beloved club ambience.