Spheres Of Influence, led by 2007 Grammy Award winning trumpeter Brian Lynch, exemplifies the state of the art in the jazz idiom today. Reflecting its leader’s pedigree in both the jazz (Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Phil Woods) and Latin/world music (Eddie Palmieri) fields, Spheres Of Influence’s repertoire mixes jazz, Afro-Caribbean, and world music traditions in original works and arrangements by Lynch. The group is scalable from a quartet up to a nine-piece ensemble. Spheres Of Influence is a 2004 recipient of the CMA/Doris Duke “New Works – Creation And Presentation†Award, and has recorded for the Criss Cross and EWE labels.
Brian Lynch
"This is the end of the century, and a lot of music has gone down," Brian Lynch said several years ago. "I think that to be a straight-ahead jazz musician now means drawing on a wider variety of things than 30 or 40 years ago. Not to play a little bit of this or a little bit of that, but to blend everything together into something that sounds good. It doesn't sound like pastiche or shifting styles; it's people with a lot of knowledge."
Few musicians embody this 21st century credo as profoundly as the 50 -year-old trumpet master. A respected insider within both the hardcore bebop and Latin communities, he's as comfortable negotiating the complexities of clave with Afro-Caribbean pioneer Eddie Palmieri as swinging through advanced harmony with bebop maestro Phil Woods. He's performed in recent years with Buena Vista Social Club alumnus Barbarito Torres, classic jazz icon Benny Golson’s “We Remember Clifford (Brown) project. and the influential Latin alternative group Yerba Buena. He has arranged for Japanese pop star Mika Nakashima and top producer Shinichi Osawa, written string charts for Phil Woods, and played and recorded with such pop music luminaries as Maxwell, Prince, and Sheila E.
Born September 12, 1956 in Urbana, Illinois, Lynch grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he apprenticed on a high level with such local residents as pianist Buddy Montgomery and organist Melvin Rhyne, while earning a degree from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Located in San Diego in 1980-81, he gained further valuable experience in the group of alto master Charles McPherson.
Towards the end of 1981, Lynch moved to New York, and soon linked up with the Horace Silver Quintet (1982-1985) and the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra (1982-1988). Simultaneously, he played and recorded on the Latin scene with salsa bandleader Angel Canales (1982-83) and the legendary cantante Hector LaVoe (1983-87). He began his association with Eddie Palmieri in 1987, and at the end of 1988 joined what turned out to be the final edition of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He began his tenure with Phil Woods in 1992, and also worked frequently with Benny Golson around this time.
In 1986, Lynch recorded his first album as a leader, Peer Pressure, for Criss-Cross. There followed Back Room Blues and At The Main Event [Criss Cross], In Process [Ken], Keep Your Circle Small [Sharp Nine], and a string of sideman dates with Art Blakey and Phil Woods. On each, Lynch documented his fiery, coherent tonal personality. Whether limning a ballad or tearing through a searing bop structure, he projects a rich tone that ranges from warm to brilliant, uncoiling serpentine lines that land in the most surprising places.
He also made a name for himself as a composer, through numerous songs that play with and stretch harmony while never losing melodic essence and rhythmic thrust. In his tunesmithing he's much influenced by former employer Horace Silver. "I look to get that clean sound that Horace's compositions have." he comments. "You can play complicated or simply on them, always with something that connects to the public." Art Blakey recognized Lynch's skills, and recorded his originals "Chippin' In," "Chandek's Den", "Byrdflight", and "Green Is Mean" on albums for Timeless and A&M.
A 1997 recording called Spheres of Influence [Sharp Nine], which earned a 4-1/2 star Downbeat rating, was Lynch's first project to reflect the panoramic range of interests that influence his working life as a musician. During these years he documented cross-cultural investigations with Eddie Palmieri's seminal Afro-Caribbean Jazz Octet on Palmieri’s Palmas, Arete and Vortex [Nonesuch and RMM]. As the ‘90s progressed, he steadily refined his concept, eventually collaborating with Palmieri as an arranger, co-composer and musical director. In a rare gesture, Palmieri took advantage of Lynch's pen on the recent albums La Perfecta II and Ritmo Caliente [Concord Picante]. The synchronistic nature of their relationship continued in 2006 with a series of duo concert performances and Palmieri’s culminating (and Grammy winning) collaboration with Lynch on his ambitious recording project Simpático for ArtistShare.
Lynch has continued to advance the Spheres of Influence concept, gathering around him a repertory company of top-shelf Pan-American oriented musicians. These include drummers Dafnis Prieto, Horacio Hernandez, Robby Ameen, Ignacio Berroa, Ernesto Simpson, and Justin Brown; percussionists Richie Flores, Pedro Martinez and Roberto Quintero; pianists Luis Perdomo, Edsel Gomez, Zaccai Curtis, and David Kikoski; bassists John Benitez, Ruben Rodriguez, Luques Curtis, and Hans Glawischnig; and saxophonists Miguel Zenon, Gregory Tardy, Craig Handy, and Yosvany Terry.
The fruits of his work in this area are now becoming apparent through a remarkable series of recordings.
On Conrad Herwig's Grammy nominated The Latin Side Of Miles Davis [Half Note] and on Que Viva Coltrane [Criss Cross], a Herwig-Lynch collaboration, Lynch reharmonizes tunes like "Flamenco Sketches," "Miles Mode," "Wise One" and "Straight Street," fluently navigating the changes over dynamic guaguanco, songo, bolero and timba beats.
Joined by tenor saxophonist Ralph Bowen and pianist Luis Perdomo, he addresses his own compositions similarly on the 2005 Criss Cross date ConClave. Another release from that year by the Japanese label EWE, Spheres Of Influence Suite, showcases Lynch’s expansion of the Spheres Of Influence concept in a recording of a six part suite for a nine piece ensemble, commissioned by Chamber Music America and featuring the likes of Zenon, Handy, Prieto, and Perdomo.
On Fuchsia/Red, a live date from 2003, Lynch presented, in the words of critic Russ Musto in All About Jazz, "an electric Miles-inspired excursion conceived and executed with such assurance as to create a whole new perspective on Lynch's artistry." Musto added: The music is alternately earthy, spacey, pretty, funky and swinging and often, just like Lynch, all of these things at once."
But don't think Lynch has forgotten about his roots. That he's evolved into a major post-bop trumpet stylist is apparent on 2000's Tribute To The Trumpet Masters [Sharp-9], an instant classic on which Lynch, blending superlative technique with deep soul, pays forward-thinking homage to trumpet lineage spanning Dizzy Gillespie to Woody Shaw. Brian Lynch Meets Bill Charlap [Sharp-9] is a nuanced, interactive 2003 collaboration with the renowned pianist, a long-time Woods bandmate. "It's the kind of standard fare—ballads, bebop and blues—that is often lackluster in the hands of lesser bands, but brings out the best in these masterful musicians," wrote Russ Musto in All About Jazz.
Lynch also documents his touring units of recent vintage on recitals of mainstream repertoire in quintet with Miguel Zenon [24/7, Nagel-Heyer] and in quartet with pianist Rob Schneiderman [ the upcoming Further Arrivals, Zoo't].
Seeking to share his knowledge with others and to keep in touch with the fundamentals of his art, Lynch has turned increasingly to teaching in recent years. He currently holds faculty positions at New York University and the Prince Claus Conservatory (Netherlands), has taught at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, and has conducted workshops in numerous major institutes of learning, including The Eastman School of Music, Dartmouth University, the University of North Texas, and Columbia University among many others. Many of today's finest young jazz trumpeters call him a mentor. Brian is proud, but it works both ways: the interchange of ideas between he and the "youngbloods" challenges him to keep it real and keep practicing!
Lynch's creative efflorescence since the millennium bears out the truth of a remark he made several years in the liner notes for the Spheres of Influence album.
After crediting Palmieri and Art Blakey as the Alpha and Omega of his musical thinking, Lynch stated: "Eddie inspired me to want to do my own thing, because that's what he does, and how he energizes and leads the band. And being a Messenger is something that will never be taken away from me. I can see Art sitting up there saying, 'You've got to go on and be a leader.' It's easy to be a sideman; it's very hard to be a leader. Now I'm ready."
Ted Panken
