FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE [PRIVATE ADVANCE]
Anna Webber - simpletrio2000
To be released October 18, 2024 on Intakt Records
“Since forming in 2013, few working bands in improvised music have served up such fizzy technical rigor and reflected an adventurous spirit on par with Anna Webber’s Simple Trio.” –Peter Margasak
simpletrio2000, the forthcoming album by Anna Webber’s Simple Trio, will release on October 18, 2024 on Intakt Records. Composer, saxophonist, and flutist Anna Webber has been working with Simple Trio, featuring bandmates John Hollenbeck on drums and Matt Mitchell on piano, since 2013. The music of Simple Trio highlights what The New York Times called the “range of the group members: fulminous, intense collective improvisation” in songs that feel like living things and lead the audience in different directions on each listen. Their fourth album, simpletrio2000 (Intakt Records), is an exploration of polyrhythm and a celebration of a decade of working together; it additionally functions as a follow-up to their critically-acclaimed release Idiom, which earned Webber the accolade of being named the top composer of the year by JazzTimes in 2021. The band’s other prior releases are Binary (Skirl Records, 2016) and SIMPLE (Skirl Records, 2014).
As with most of Webber’s albums, simpletrio2000 is based on an initial compositional concept that she explores in depth, and eventually allows to loosen in order to best serve the music. For Shimmer Wince it was Just Intonation, for Idiom it was extended techniques, and Clockwise was an homage to some of her favorite 20th Century composers as seen through the lens of their works for percussion. The pieces on simpletrio2000 are based on polyrhythms, but you don’t need to know that to enjoy this music that is simultaneously sophisticated and approachable. In the hands of the longstanding Simple Trio (who happen to all be masters of executing polyrhythms) this music just sounds fun, and that is one of Webber’s singular traits: her ability to present a complex and musical concept in a way that is playful and accessible, and without distilling the essence. An overview of the individual pieces as well as some words from Webber about the album are available in the liner notes, written by Peter Margasak.
The 10-year-anniversary of Simple Trio is a good time to take a look back at just how much Anna Webber has accomplished in the past decade. If she had only released the four Simple Trio albums in that timeframe, it would be a notable discography for any composer/performer in jazz and improvised music. If you consider that during the same decade she released three additional internationally acclaimed albums as a leader, Clockwise (2019), Idiom (2021, disc 2 is for large ensemble), and Shimmer Wince (2023), written for and performed by vastly different ensembles, it has to be taken into consideration as one of the most significant discographies of any ten year period in recent modern jazz. Add to that the co-led albums Both Are True by Webber/Morris Big Band, and Capacious Aeration, a duo project with Simple Trio pianist Matt Mitchell, and it is easy to see why 2024 has been a year of such notable recognition for Webber. So far in 2024 she has been awarded the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commission, and was voted top of both the tenor saxophone and flute “Rising Star” categories in the Downbeat Critic’s Poll. All of this started with Simple Trio, as she states in the liner notes: “I would say my composition world has really changed since I started Simple Trio. It’s through working with this band that I feel like I came into my own as a composer.” With simpletrio2000 Webber continues down a path that is hers alone, as she continues to blend avant-garde jazz with new classical music in a way that no one has previously heard. If the past decade was any indication as to what is to come, it will be viewed as the beginning of one of the most remarkable careers in the history of creative improvised music.
RIYL: Mary Halvorson, Tim Berne, Henry Threadgill, Ches Smith, Ingrid Laubrock, John Hollenbeck (Claudia Quintet, GEORGE)
Recommended Tracks: #1 Slingsh0t, #2 Idiom VII, #10 Moveable Do (La/La Bémol)
Album Release Concert: September 26 @ Jazz Gallery, New York NY, tickets + info
Anna Webber (b. 1984) is a flutist, saxophonist, and composer whose interests and work live in the aesthetic overlap between avant-garde jazz and new classical music. Her music has been called "visionary and captivating," (Wall Street Journal), and “heady music [that] appeals to the rest of the body” (NPR). In 2024 alone, she received the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commission, and was voted top of both the tenor saxophone and flute “Rising Star” categories in the Downbeat Critic’s Poll. A prolific bandleader, in addition to Simple Trio Webber is also known for the Webber Morris Big Band, a group she co-leads with saxophonist and composer Angela Morris, and her quintet Shimmer Wince (featuring Adam O’Farrill on trumpet, Mariel Roberts on cello, Elias Stemeseder on synthesizer, and Lesley Mok on drums) which explores Just Intonation in a jazz setting. She has additionally performed and/or recorded with projects led by artists such as Dan Weiss, Miles Okazaki, Roscoe Mitchell, Ranja Swaminathan, Jen Shyu, Dave Douglas, Matt Mitchell, Ches Smith, John Hollenbeck, and Trevor Dunn, among others. Webber is a 2021 Berlin Prize Fellow, and a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow. She has additionally been honored with the Margaret Whitton Award (administered by the Jazz Gallery); grants from the Copland Fund (2021 & 2019), the Shifting Foundation (2015 & 2022), the New York Foundation for the Arts (2017), the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts; and residencies from Exploring the Metropolis (2019), the MacDowell Colony (2017 & 2020), the Millay Colony for the Arts (2015), and the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (2014). Webber is originally from British Columbia. annakristinwebber.com
Anna Webber - simpletrio2000:
1. Slingsh0t (5:50)
2. Idiom VII (6:08)
3. Fixed Do (2:16)
4. Foray (8:33)
5. Five Eateries (in New England) (8:06)
6. g equals GM over r squared (3:33)
7. miiire (10:09)
8. 8va (6:32)
9. Ch9tter (1:53)
10. Moveable Do (La/La Bémol) (5:22)
Anna Webber - tenor sax, flute, bass flute
Matt Mitchell - piano
John Hollenbeck - drums
Recorded on December 19 and 20, 2023 at Big Orange Sheep, Brooklyn, NY. Engineered by Chris Benham.
Edited by Anna Webber.
Mixed by Nathaniel Morgan at Buckminster Palace, Brooklyn, NY.
Mastered by Brent Lambert, The Kitchen, Carrboro, NC.
Press Inquiries + CD/DL Requests: Adam Hopkins | Scott Clark | farcrypublicity@gmail.com | farcrypublicity.com
