Confluence: The Ireland Sessions

Saxophonist/composer/educator Benjamin Boone is known as a project artist in the first degree. His collaboration with major modern poets has produced a foursome of albums on the Origin Records label, including two with US Poet Laureate, Philip Levine. His saxophone approach could be described as colorful melodicism, a quality accentuated by Boone's open ended compositions that lack the confinement of dense chordal harmony. His playing can then function off the leash so to speak, darting off in a full spectrum of melodic destinations.

In the world of modern jazz, the music is off the street and in the classroom largely for those seeking relevance in the genre artistically and for that matter, professionally. As an educator at Fresno St., Boone is that mentor that one would have found in the corner of a late-night jam session in Manhattan, or any major urban hub in Black America, where this art form was born and where Black culture and struggle has proliferated. The fact that he has so prominently included spoken word art in his personal lexicon as an artist and conceptionalist of the genre, is highly relevant and important in current times. He has produced work where the poetic narrative is high art just as jazz music is the height of artistry in American music. As an individual, he is an out front, living example of the fact that Black American music and its culture has been gifted to the world, shared with a multitude of cultures and geographic locations, and has had a profoundly strong impact that transcends the music in itself.

Boone has been a US Fulbright Scholar to Moldova (2005), Ghana (2017-18), and most recently to Ireland. On his latest release, Confluence: The Irish Sessions (Origin, 2024), he shares the fruits of his time spent in the city of Limerick, on the shores of the River Shannon. He performs new original compositions inspired by his experiences with local musicians, in this most unlikely place to uncover musical life that has sprung from the seeds of African American culture. It is music that expresses a unique view of Americanism that has found life in this city of 120,000 on the island of Ireland.

The album features eight original Boone compositions written during a year-long stay on the Emerald isle. along with a fresh interpretation of the traditional Irish song, "She Moved Through the Fair." Boone incorporates a collection of highly motivated Limerick musicians, including dynamic guitarist Joe O'Callaghan, innovative drummer John Daly and vocalist/lyricist Jane Fraser, aka, JaYne.

"On the Banks of the Shannon" conjures images of American contemporary music more than any notion of Irish culture, reminding us that the collection of tunes is interpretive through the sensibilities of an American artist. The title track almost immediately erases any notion that may have been formed in the listener's mind, as the rambling fusion piece introduces O'Callaghan's lethal guitar chops and those of James Miley on Fender Rhodes.

Fraser brings a vocal touch to the proceedings with "Your Eyes in Mine," and "In the Twilight," with guitarist O'Callaghan as the accompanist. She possesses a narrative style within her own lyrical contributions of these two tunes, each more leaning to the singer/songwriter side than anything having to do with jazz. The vocal tunes seem to gain context with Fraser's heartfelt foray into "She Moved Through the Fair." This is, after all, Boone's reflections on his year in Ireland, a land well known for a strongly lyrical, storytelling tradition within its musical landscape. While these tunes may not present as strong a canvas for Boone's eclectic style on alto, they are a strong echo of a year that has come and gone in his life, but has left a lasting impression in the process. In essence, this is what art is supposed to be about, is it not?

"Monkette" is exactly what the title indicates—a Thelonious Monk-ish melodic foray that leads to the most swinging few moments of the recording. Boone's alto sings like a long blues into the night, seeking resolution it may or may not attain. "The Clash of the Ash" is a rocker with an explosive intensity on all counts. Again, Boone's saxophonisms are prone to emotional fluctuations like a honey bee moving from flower to flower, cross-pollinating culturally. O'Callaghan joins Boone in a brotherhood of intensity that hovers above the proceedings. The guitarist's edgy, probing sound is a true high point throughout the album's nine offerings.

This album is best appreciated within the context of Boone's work as a whole. If one is sifting through the top jazz recordings of 2024, this collection of tunes may very well have escaped one's attention. The music tune by tune is not going to set itself apart from the dozens of outstanding recordings the year has produced. The individual musicians encountered by Boone in Limerick are not going to stand out in a crowd of the world's most prominent jazz artists. But what Boone has accomplished here, as he does with all of his projects, is to utilize American jazz as a vehicle of cultural exchange that can lead to an understanding of what humanity truly is, and how that can be expressed in concert with whomever we may encounter on the journey we have all embarked on in this life—exactly what art is supposed to provide. It expresses a certainty that the artist will continue to extend his hand in openness to whatever and whomever may pass his way and provide new understanding.