Jordan VanHemert

Survival of the Fittest

82921

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MUSIC REVIEW BY C. Michael Bailey, Wild Mercury Rhythm

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We needn't consider jazz as only a product of the Ease and West Coasts. The American interior also provides its share of splendid jazz music and musicians. An example is tenor saxophonist Jordan VanHemert. Born in Cheongju, South Korea and raised in Holland, Michigan, VanHemert took up alto saxophone at 11, eventually gravitating to the tenor saxophone in high school. Following a degree in music from Central Michigan University and graduate studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, VanHemert finished his education off with a doctorate in jazz performance from the University of Illinois—Urbana - Champaign.

VanHemert is presently the director of jazz studies at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, smack dab in the middle of America. The saxophonist releases his fifth recording, Survival Of The Fittest, which was preceded by Deep In The Soil (Origin, 2024), Metamorphosis (Self Produced, 2023), Nomad (Origin Records, 2022), and I Am Not A Virus (Self Produced, 2021), which was created in response to the ill-treatment of Asians and Asian Americans in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating his own "Alabama."

An all-star quintet featuring trumpeter Terell Stafford, trombonist Michael Dease (who also produces the recording) pianist Helen Sung, bassist Rodney Witaker, and drummer Lewis Nash supports VanHemert on Survival Of The Fittest, giving prospective listeners an idea of the esteem with which the saxophonist is held by his peers. Each of the nine selections focuses on a different aspect of this band. The opening original, "Here And Now" sets a solid and well-behaved post bop path for the ensemble piece to unwind a path continuing with "Tread Lightly," "Sea Of Tranquility," and "Mo's Blues."

The album's center features a "Trio of Duos" pitting the saxophonist against drummer Nash in a Coltrane-Jones cum Sonny Rollins inspired reading of "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise." "Sea of Tranquility" is a lengthy Keith Jarrett-like conversation between VanHemert and pianist Sung, one that is probing and deep with grave, unspoken significance. Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday" put VanHemert together with bassist Whitaker. The latter is the most effective of the three provocative duo performances that hold down the center of this fine recording.








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