All One

Ben Wendel (Tenor and Soprano Saxophone, Bassoon, EFX, Hand Percussion)
Cécile McLorin Salvant (Vocals)
Terence Blanchard (Trumpet)
Bill Frisell (Electric and Acoustic Guitar, EFX)
Elena Pinderhughes (Flute and Alto Flute)
José James (Vocals)
Tigran Hamasyan (Piano)

Produced by Ben Wendel

All instruments and José James' vocals recorded by Ben Wendel at various home studios in Maui, Paris, NYC, Los Angeles and Amsterdam, Fall 2020 through March 2022. Throughout guitar and saxophone solos tracked at Figure 8 Recording, Brooklyn, NY on May 28, 2021, Engineer Jack McLoughlin. In Anima piano and saxophone tracked at Lucy's Meat Market, Los Angeles, CA on June 13th, 2021, Engineer Pete Min. All other guests recorded themselves using their home studios.

Mastered by Nate Wood at Kerseboom Mastering, Queens, NY, June 16th, 2022. Mixed by Steve Wood at Benaji Studio, Laguna Beach, CA, November 16—20, 2021 & March 27—31, 2022. Hand percussion on Wanderers by Steve and Beth Wood.

Ben Wendel currently plays the KB Saxophone Vanguard Neck, Boston Sax Shop reeds and ligature. Terence Blanchard plays the David Monette RAJA Trumpet. Bill Frisell plays a JW Black electric guitar and a Steve Andersen acoustic on the album and uses D’Addario strings. José James is sponsored by Sennheiser/Neumann Microphones. Tigran Hamasyan is endorsed by Yamaha Pianos.

Bill Frisell & Terence Blanchard appear courtesy of Blue Note Records. Cécile McLorin Salvant & Tigran Hamasyan appear courtesy of Nonesuch Records. José James appears courtesy of Rainbow Blonde Records.

Album artwork by Oli Bentley, Split
Photography by Anouk van Kalmthout

Thank You: Tete and My Family for their love and lifelong support. Sincere gratitude to Cécile McLorin Salvant, Terence Blanchard, Bill Frisell, Elena Pinderhughes, José James and Tigran Hamasyan for sharing their incredible artistry. Dave Stapleton and the amazing Edition Records team – Oli Bentley, Daniel Garel, Olivia Williams. Anouk van Kalmthout for her incredible photography. Jack Finucane at the Boston Sax Shop, Kim Bock at KB Saxophone, Marcus Sasseville at Dynamic Watson. The amazing Tom Korkidis and Candelaria Alvarado at New Village Management. Mike Bindraban and Jurjen Mooiweer at Good Music Company. Mike Epstein, Michael Fox and Marie Le Claire at Epstein Fox Performances.

The roots of All One, Ben Wendel’s luminous new album for Edition Records, can be traced to his teenage years as a band geek. There were scores for orchestra around the house (at the time his mom, Dale Franzen, was a lyric soprano with the Los Angeles Opera); despite having no theory training, he attempted to write woodwind quintet arrangements of the pieces he loved, like Holst’s symphonic cycle The Planets. You know, for fun.

“I’d gather up my friends and we’d try to play these great pieces,” Wendel recalls. “Why in God’s name I was interested in that, I don’t know. I was maybe 14 – I had zero harmonic knowledge. I’d look at the score and listen to the music and just guess. But I just loved the sounds you can get with a group of woodwinds or brass.”

Fast forward to mid-pandemic. Wendel, still in the thrall of large ensemble winds and still playing his first instrument, the bassoon, began to hatch a recording project involving a woodwind choir backing singers or instrumentalists. It was still unrealistic to plan a conventional session with a large group of musicians in a studio. Next best option: A DIY orchestra, the Wendel ensemble. He began to sketch arrangement ideas for a multitracked chorale of tenor saxophones and bassoons, with him playing all the parts. At the least, he reasoned, he’d have fun with it as an experiment.

“I love to create with other people and suddenly I couldn’t collaborate or play music with people anymore. That was difficult. The question was, “How can I do something that’s creative even though it’ll be remote?” I started to experiment with voicing the saxophone and bassoon and using effects to make it sound like a chamber group.”

Once he landed on a basic approach, Wendel reached out to some revered artists – Cécile McLorin Salvant, Terence Blanchard, Bill Frisell, Elena Pinderhughes, José James and Tigran Hamasyan – he thought might be up for a challenge: Recording without a rhythm section, in some cases without even a click track.

Wendel, who’s been twice nominated for Grammy awards, is well versed in the collaborative dynamic – as an artist, composer, and producer. His acclaimed 2018 The Seasons began as a series of monthly duets with artists like Julian Lage and Joshua Redman, which were shared via YouTube before the album was made. He’s co-written songs with artists like Julia Holter, Becca Stevens, Gretchen Parlato and been involved in sustained – and terrifically inventive -- group exploration with Kneebody. The leaderless group, which first recorded in 2005, was at the leading edge of what came to be called post-jazz – its volatile, high-intensity approach connected the rhythmic languages of electronica and indie rock with wild, highly technical and frequently frenetic group interaction.

All One was a different beast. Wendel recognized that it couldn’t revolve entirely around improvisation: Working remotely meant he’d need to establish some structural frameworks, the outline of the sculpture, before anything else could happen.

“With each of the artists, I started by thinking about how they played and what might work best in terms of orchestration,” Wendel says. “I wanted them to be able to choose their own adventure: I offered to write an original inspired by the musician’s artistry, arrange a standard or do one of their compositions.”

Once the material was selected, Wendel began developing the arrangements. Though he used software programs, he avoided MIDI entirely; when his woodwinds suggest the sound of a low-brass choir, that’s not some fancy plug-in, that’s him. He thought about how each piece should unfold and sought unconventional ways to create dynamics and tension. He explored using close-knit chords by multitracking several bassoons; here, his exacting sense of intonation, honed at the Eastman School of Music, was crucial. “When you create dense harmony but are able to play with a hyper in-tune approach, it’s possible to make something that sounds really big,” Wendel says, adding that he rarely doubled the same notes twice. “I wanted this lush big density while trying to hide the fact that it was all me.”

Some of the pieces, like Salvant’s mesmeric rendition of “I Loves You Porgy” feature 30 different woodwind parts. Sometimes the tenor sax goes through an octave pedal and is pitched lower, to create a bassline. Sometimes bass is handled by bassoon – or bassoons. Wendel and engineer Steve Wood got granular as parts were added, experimenting with reverbs of different lengths and depths, panning instruments to the extremes of the soundscape, using digital post-production tools to create a multidimensional space.

Wendel sent each artist a rough version of the completed arrangement but offered very little written (or verbal) instruction – believing that it was his responsibility to create an atmosphere in which his collaborators would feel comfortable. “These are just such strong musical identities – who am I to tell them anything? I wanted a situation where it was evident [from the arrangement] that I knew the artist well, and they could take it from there. I just wanted them to do what they do – to me I’m successful if I don’t have to say anything at all.”

In final form, these pieces reveal previously under-emphasized dimensions of Wendel’s musicianship – his deep understanding of classical harmony, his tactical deployments of dissonance, his knack for conjuring memorably lyrical counterpoint lines and swirling, impressionistic sonic arrays. Still, for all the forethought that went into these arrangements, the music feels alive. That’s directly attributable to Wendel’s improvisational dexterity on the tenor: In brief, dazzlingly expansive solo bursts, he stretches the melodic ideas beyond the confines of the score, refracting established themes into vibrant, unexpectedly shape-shifted variations.