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Latest Reviews of Leaps of Faith

THE GOOD

NYTIMES -

The voracious sweep of postmillennial jazz has plenty of exemplars but few truer than the trumpeter Cuong Vu. Over the last decade he has upheld a dreamlike sound informed by post-bop but just as rooted in noise pop, grunge and ambient minimalism. He has an invaluable partner in the bassist Stomu Takeishi, who shares his fluency with electronics and his fondness for immersive lyricism. Together with the smart young drummer Ted Poor they have tended to an aquatic, darkly inviting, calmly exploratory style.

Each of their previous two albums featured a guest: the guitarist Bill Frisell, then the multi-reedist Chris Speed. “Leaps of Faith” has a fourth member too: Luke Bergman, who until recently was one of Mr. Vu’s music students at the University of Washington. But Mr. Bergman, who plays electric bass and also mixed and helped produce the album, isn’t an interloper here. His contribution changes the metabolism of the group — freeing up Mr. Takeishi, for one thing — without undermining its identity.

The album begins with three standards, which isn’t common practice for Mr. Vu. They land transformed, more remixed than covered, with creeping momentum and shadowy detail. But Mr. Vu is largely true to their melodies, bringing a terse caress to “My Funny Valentine” and austere clarity to “Body and Soul.” He gets teasingly atmospheric with the theme of “All the Things You Are,” laying out its distinctive intervals over a glacial groove. (He does much the same on “Something” by George Harrison, and “My Opening Farewell” by Jackson Browne.)

There are aspects of Mr. Vu’s tone that suggest the softer side of Miles Davis, or the moody poise of a Davis emulator like Mark Isham. But Mr. Vu has more subversive designs, which become clearer on the album’s three originals, notably “Child-Like” and “I Shall Never Come Back,” which develop like ominous weather systems, with sculptured distortion and drones. The title track, a collective improvisation, recasts John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” as hold music for a doom-metal help line.

“Leaps of Faith” was recorded live in Seattle last spring, but you could get pretty far into it before you register the presence of an audience. When you finally hear some applause, it sounds distant, filtered: yet another effect in an album reverberating with them. - Nate Chinen

Jazzreview.com

Review: It's a bold endeavor to believe you can invoke freshness and vitality into thinly worn standards like "Body and Soul," "All the Things You Are" and "My Funny Valentine." Trumpeter Cuong Vu meets the challenge head-on with imaginative results on Leaps of Faith, a quartet outing with wide-open improvisatory exploration, melding consonant lyricism with chaotic tumult.

Vu, a Seattle-based musician who has worked with a host of renowned musical personalities, such as guitarist Pat Metheny, stands out as a voice of reason among the intentional chaotic buildup from drums and dual electric bass. His emphasis on tone and delivery of a clear-cut theme, whether that of a standard or one of his own, such as "Child-Like," creates stand-still moments and sets up majestic climaxes. The trumpeter's tranquil rendering of George Harrison's "Something" is a disc highlight.

Electric bassists Luke Bergman and Stomu Takeishi conspire to create a multitude of effects-driven sound clusters, at times embracing the expected role of bottom-end provider, and at times completely eschewing it, building up sonic tension with drummer Ted Poor. This unique pairing works exceptionally well on the title track, a playful experiment on John Coltrane's "Giant Steps." As the two play off of each other, distinguishing each bass part from the left and right channels makes for interesting listening, although information regarding channel separation details isn't available.

Leaps of Faith is a musical paradox, conveying stillness and serenity through blatant expressions of noise. The results are brilliant. 

The NYC Jazz Record (Double Review of Vu 4-tet and Speak) 

March 2011 by Matthew Miller 

For all of his sonic manipulations, kinetic energy and creative focus, trumpeter Cuong Vu never strays far from a strong melody. It is a unifying element in a professional career that has spanned nearly 20 years with his own idiosyncratic groups and associations with artists like Pat Metheny, David Bowie and Laurie Anderson, among many others. On two new releases, Leaps of Faith and Speak, Vu is joined by a coterie of like-minded musicians who share the trumpeter’s vision and seem eager to push him into ever more exciting musical territory.

Leaps of Faith opens with a starkly atmospheric interpretation of “Body And Soul” that begins with a 30-second wash of sound, punctuated by sonic blips from electric bassists Stomu Takeishi and Luke Bergman. Vu emerges with a familiar melody made barely recognizable due to the piece’s glacial pace and lack of ornamentation. The entire performance has an otherworldly quality to it - like a familiar voice slowed down on tape. Vu takes a similar approach on “All The Things You Are” and “My Funny Valentine”, stretching the melody to the breaking point and in effect creating an entirely new piece.

The members of Vu’s 4-tet are equally committed to the leader’s approach. Takeishi - a long-time associate of Vu’s - often provides a foil to the trumpeter’s melodic line and melds perfectly with drummer Ted Poor’s sinewy percussion. Rounding out the unorthodox 4-tet is Bergman - a former student of Vu’s at University of Washington in Seattle and now a frequent collaborator - who somehow manages to supply chords and effects without stepping on Takeishi’s toes.

The group’s interpretation of Vu’s “Child-Like (for Vina)” is most illustrative of the 4-tet’s commitment to group cohesion and controlled freedom. Following Vu’s trumpet on an upward arc that climaxes ten minutes later with a storm of distorted bass, bracing percussion and ripping brass lines, the band’s flawless execution and collective focus is thrilling.

Vu made waves a few years ago when he left New York for his hometown of Seattle and in the ensuing years, he has helped to create a thriving scene both as a player and a professor at the University of Washington. The trumpeter’s bandmates on Speak are all former students, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it listening to the album. While the teacher’s influence can be heard throughout, it’s clear that the ensemble has moved way beyond a mentor/mentee relationship. Vu’s trumpet melds beautifully with saxophonist Andrew Swanson’s lines on pieces like “People of Cats”, an episodic and assured composition by bassist Bergman, but often takes a backseat to the contributions of his bandmates.

Each of the album’s six compositions is penned by a member of the quintet, with the exception of Vu, and from the keyboardist Aaron Otheim’s prog-ish opener “Amalgam In The Middle” to drummer Chris Icasiano’s furious and aptly-titled “Pure Hatred”, it’s clear that this young band takes its composing as seriously as its playing. While spontaneity and improvisation figure heavily into the performances on Speak, the thematically heavy compositions always end up sounding through-composed. While this undoubtedly has a lot to do with a composer’s modus operandi, it also speaks to the deep rapport of the group. It’s certainly nothing new for Cuong Vu and if this strong album is any indication, it’s a practice he has passed on to a new generation.

Allmusic.com 

Trumpeter Cuong Vu built a reputation out of his original compositions and their high levels of ambience and envelopment of the listener. With Leaps of Faith, he moves into the territory of jazz standards, applying sonic methods to constantly recognizable songs until they just break into unrecognizability. With a pair of electric basses, drums, and his own trumpet, Vu and his quartet start the album out by reworking songbook standards "Body and Soul," "All the Things You Are," and "My Funny Valentine" into experimental, looping soundscape versions of their former selves. A couple of originals provide slightly darker, more throbbing compositions and perhaps a nice look at Vu's usual methods for a new listener. The album ends with one more Vu original sandwiched between interesting takes on George Harrison's "Something" and Jackson Browne's "My Opening Farewell" -- slowed-down, almost entrancing versions of their original forms. Between stretched-out trumpet lines and the dual basses, Vu's sound is enveloping, bathing the listener at all times. And it has a strong point to make about the relevance of avant-garde jazz. - Adam Greenberg 

The Bad 

Jsojazzscene.org 

Right off the bat, this CD looked a little unusual. How often do you see a quartet comprised of trumpet, drums and two electric basses? But then I saw some possibilities in that the group was playing "Body and Soul," "All the Things You Are" and even the Beatles anthem "Something." Well, "Bo dy and Soul" has never been so frightening. It begins with a "horror movie" sound of resonating electric basses. And Vu's trumpet has a sound fit for Boris Karloff. Then it's Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are." But Mr. Kern never envissioned it as All The Things You aren't, as the sound of doom continues. The CD's title says it all. It would indeed take a leap of faith to find anything of real musical value in this apparent effort to say something. And having said all that, I can hear promise in the sound of the trumpet player. But he, like so many today, insists that the only sound that's valid is an original sound. Don't believe it. If this is the road on which jazz is traveling, pardon me while I take a detour. - George Fendel 

Older snippets of previous record reviews -

Vu-Tet Reviews

Vu composes and plays a kind of music that is both jazz and not-jazz, post-rock without the pretention, metal without the cookie monster voice. Whatever it is, it’s brilliant…but it’s going to take me the whole review to explain what it sounds like. Because the problem is that Cuong Vu hates jazz. Of course, he also loves it. This ambiguity is how we get our best music. It’s fair to say that this is pretty freakin’ great.

 - Matt Cibula, popmatters.com

Listeners coming from jazz won’t feel lost. Plenty of the genre’s current obsessions are here: odd-meter rhythm patterns, slow soloing over fast rhythms (vice versa too), and a kind of bucolic lyricism…the point of Mr. Vu’s music, at its best, is just that: to make you feel lost in it.

– Ben Ratliff, NY Times

Vu carves out intricate melodies that are so immaculately crafted they almost feel simple, pure. In the end Vu’s music homes in on one dynamic sound: om.

– Sam Prestianni, Jazziz

Indeed, the blending of contemporary jazz and rock define the Vu-Tet as much as their material does. That the Vu-Tet is able to make so many disparate elements intersect at all, let alone with cohesion and vitality, speaks to Vu and the Band’s marvelous imagination.

– Michael J. West, JazzTimes

It's Mostly Residual Reviews

Cuong Vu has established a firm identity as a progressive futurist, steeped in the technoinfluenced cum electric contemporary sound…This is yet another tremendous effort for Cuong Vu, a distinct, unique stylist and soloist that is rising ever swiftly as one of the very best modern trumpet players on the improvised or jazz music scene.

- Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide

Vu's music is a living residue of journeys taken and journeys returned from, in sound. A sound picture-within-a-picture, filled with brimming memory and emotion, it bears the audible traces of a various human life - a life, lived today.

- David Fujino, thelivemusicreport.com

The first sounds you hear on Cuong Vu's new album are ethereal trumpet moans joined by equally otherworldly clusters of notes emanating from a guitar. These sounds herald the beginning of a musical marriage made in electronic heaven. I'm not sure if Vu is dealing in metaphor, but with music organized and chaotic, at once over-the-edge and strangely engaging, he's created an apt tone poem for the 21st century. - Ron Netsky, Rochester City News