Dan Pitt Quintet: Horizontal Depths
A variety of guitar effects combined with the two horns and the slight integration of free jazz
The Ontario-based Dan Pitt Quintet's new album Horizontal Depths meets my evident musical bias for projects that come to the three-way intersection of the jazz tradition, an injection of guitar rock, and a pinch of free jazz. It hits me right in the Bill Frisell and Dave Douglas feels; I love it.
The instrumentation is two reed instruments up-front, Pitt the leader on electric guitar, and then bass and drums. The band plays Tyrant Studios on Wednesday, November 20. Previously this month, I heard the drummer Nick Fraser play one of two drumsets in the Brodie West Quintet at IronFest V – he's one of our country's greats on the freer side of the music.
I last found Dan at Rhythm Changes before I knew he would be bound for Vancouver, on the project Stages, which was with the bassist Alex Fournier and with Fraser as a trio. (Fournier and Fraser also played on his first trio recording, Fundamentally Flawed.) I went through Stages track-by-track and talked about descent and recovery, a darkness to the music; that's all here, but the new album adds range – it alternates between loud blasts of improv and churning rock soundscapes. An example: the riffy prog rock of "27 Hours" and the part-one of the titular composition.
The album title references Phil Nimmons, his teacher at UofT. The two parts of "Horizontal Depths" are the most jazz, right down to the bass solo and the boppier language from the soloists. According to the press materials, "[A]n early version of the piece 'Horizontal Depths' itself was originally submitted as part of Pitt's class with Nimmons, initially bearing only 'Depths' as its name. When Pitt got it back from his instructor, he noticed Nimmons had written 'Horizontal or Vertical?' next to its title."
Here's another duality within a single tune: "This is Fine" marches along before breaking out into some rockstar music like I heard at the jazzfest this year from The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis. "The Sorrow" takes it way down after that, like a perfectly colour-graded YouTube video from Danish guitarist Jakob Bro featuring Bill Frisell.
Pitt's guitar tones are something to pay attention too across the tracklist. On "Echo Park", the delay reminds me of not just the many contemporary creative guitarists who use this sound but also Who Wants to be a Millionaire? for some reason. The provides most of the accompaniment for Smith's burning tenor solo.
"Lester Sleeps In" is a funny reference – this is not a straight-ahead swinging album. But I know that people in the Dave Douglas extended universe like Chet Doxas have a reverence for Lester Young, as do so many jazz musicians across the spectrum, so it lands just fine.
The playing and especially the bass clarinet of Naomi McCarroll-Butler infuses the band with such possibility and adds thoughtful tenderness. "Tautology" is my favorite track: the variety of guitar effects combined with the two horns and the slight integration of free jazz. All the members of this ensemble are delivering this practice at a high level through their works as a leader, too. It's a sound that I'm after in my own music, so Horizontal Depths is a project that grabbed me right away.
released Nov. 1, 2024 | Buy CD (Bandcamp) | Available on streaming
