Mike Casey

The Complete Public Access: WPAA TV Session

Self-released

Tenor saxophonist and composer Mike Casey and his longtime trio had one important, televised performance to deliver before the Connecticut resident departed for Los Angeles, where he is now based. The Complete Public Access: WPAA TV Session, his tenth overall release,  was originally staged as a 4-track EP in 2023, garnering an award in Amazon Music’s “Best Jazz of 2023” as well as acclaim from other outlets and significant airplay. Two new tracks have been unearthed from that session – “Iguana Crossing” and “Faith,” making it now a full-length recording, yet it only runs for 25 minutes. Looking back, Casey says, “…there is definitely an urgency in the music, it feels like maybe we subconsciously felt that it might have been the last time we were going to play together, at least regularly, for a while, since I was moving to Los Angeles about one month later.” Casey’s compositions have graced television and film, notably Netflix’s Spy Ops, so the move to L.A. was likely to further those endeavors.

 His trio had been together for ten years. Casey and bassist Matt Dwonsyk met at the Greater Hartford Academy for the Arts in high school, and drummer Corey Garcia is from the Jackie McLean Institute/Hartt School of Music, where the trio later honed their chops.  Like all musicians, the trio was anxious to play following COVID, from which Casey emerged with about 20 new compositions. The sax/bass/drum trio had previously released 2017’s The Sound of Surprise: Live at the Side Door and Stay Surprising: Live at the Side Door from the same 2016 show.

WPAA is the local public access TV station in Wallingford, CT, less than an hour’s drive from Hartford. Video is available for each of these six tracks. Note that there will be a forthcoming album from a recording that took place just a few days later at New Haven’s Firehouse 12. The clarity of this recording is exceptionally bright, with each voice coming through prominently. Dwonsyk and Garcia lay down a filthy, funky rhythm in “Space Chill,” over which Casey soars with languorous lines as the bass and drums keep churning. One can sense Sonny Rollins’ influence as well as Casey’s cinematic bent in “Dusty Wheel”, inspired by Casey’s cross-country drive through the American West. We hear some feisty improvisations by the saxophonist and a hearty blend of lyricism and rhythm in Dwonsyk’s bass solo, while timekeeper Garcia stays in the pocket.

“Remote,” with its Moroccan rhythms deftly steered by Garcia, is the tune that appeared in the Netflix show. Here, Casey gets into a fierce improvisation mode, leaving room for Garcia to stir it up on the kit. “Ahava” honors his roots growing up, as it has tinges of Klezmer music. Casey impressively jumps from the higher to the lower registers, playing fervently. Again, Garcia is inventive in using the array of sounds that his kit offers. The saxophonist’s sustained, melodic lines in “Faith” lie between the hymn-like and folksy Americana. The closer inevitably resembles the architect of the sax-bass-drum trio, Sonny Rollins’ approach in its calypso flavorings.

The Complete Public Access: WPAA TV Session packs about as much diversity as possible in its 25 minutes.  The seasoned trio plays with energy and finesse. Their chemistry is palpable.

• Jim Hynes

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