Unclassified Affections

Track List

Unclassified Affections

  4:34

Holotype

  7:28

Perfection’s Loneliness

  6:45

Mansions of Madness

  5:18

Consoled Without Consolations

  6:48

Existence Ticket

  8:10

Plusgood

  7:45

Dead Wall Revelry

  9:38

Unclassified Affections is the entrancing new release from drummer and composer Dan Weiss that features the convergence of some of the most captivating musicians on the scene: Peter Evans on trumpet, Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, and Miles Okazaki on guitar. The music features intriguing orchestration, deep rhythmic textures and harmonic invention that makes full use of its unique instrumental combination. The compositions, which were written by Weiss specifically for these musicians, range from deep, meditative moments to intense, high-energy peaks, inhabiting a world of labyrinthine rhythms and delicately layered improvisation where the unusual musical palette contributes to an otherworldly sound universe.

Weiss is one of the most in-demand drummers on the New York jazz scene. He has appeared on well over a hundred releases as a leader and sideman, including playing with the likes of Lee Konitz, Miguel Zenon, Dave Binney, Ohad Talmor, Ravi Coltrane, Chris Potter, Sylvie Courvoisier, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Linda May Han Oh, and John Zorn. He has four releases as leader on Pi Recordings: Fourteenand Sixteen: Drummers Suite, his sui generis large ensemble works; and two with his metal/prog influenced group Starebaby, with Craig Taborn, Matt Mitchell, Ben Monder, and Trevor Dunn. His trio featuring Jacob Sacks and Thomas Morgan has been active for over two decades. His latest album Even Odds, which features Mitchell and Miguel Zenon and released on Weiss and Okazaki’s Cygnus Recordings, was called “meticulously constructed…  allowing us to focus on its jaw-dropping precision and invention” by DownBeat.

The album’s title is taken from a passage found in the Virginia Woolf novel To the Lighthouse: “He was not ‘in love’ of course; it was one of those unclassified affections of which there are so many.” Other composition titles are taken from works by the likes of Dickens, Melville, and Orwell. Indeed, the entire work is heavily influenced by Weiss’s new-found love of reading classic novels, which he credits for helping him thinking about composing in a variety of different ways, from stream of consciousness to purposeful storytelling. Each track feels like a chapter in an unfolding story that takes place in a magical realm shrouded in mystery. The music radiates out of a deep, quiet space, full of tender and haunting melodies that explore a multitude of soundscapes.

Weiss compositions foreground orchestration and complex drum cycles with effortlessly flowing layers of rhythm and contrapuntal interaction. They range from the mostly through-composed “Existence Ticket,” to the title track, “Unclassified Affections,” where the musicians improvise an inventive aural mesh from the tune’s three concurrent melodies. Polyrhythms abound, like on “Holotype,” a blazingly fast post-bop tune, and “Consoled Without Consolations,” with its unusual rhythmic structure of three against seven. “Plusgood” features an exacting drum part that hooks up with the vibes and guitar in different ways that is inspired by Weiss’s love for the music of West Africa. “Dead Wall Revelry” mutates from introspective guitar to a hocketing groove before going out in an ambient calm.

Though full of compositional intricacies, there is plenty of room given to the consummate improvisors, each of whom is an accomplished composer in their own right. Evans is universally acknowledged as one of the top trumpeters spanning the entirety of the modern creative music scene. His playing astound with their invention, piercing each moment with clarity. The sonorous vibraphone of Brennan, whose release Breaking Stretch was named a top album of 2024 by the New York Times, imbues the album with an atmospheric layer of shimmering resonance. Guitarist Okazaki – a key contributor to Pi Recordings with his three recordings as a leader and nine as a sideman – entwines luminous harmony with surprising dissonance. Weiss’s innovative drumming is intricately woven into the musical tapestry, guiding the ensemble through diverse and complex musical terrains. His rhythms are relentless yet subtle, framing each performance with the precision of a master architect while still allowing the spontaneous energy of the moment to flourish.

According to Okazaki, who has known Weiss since 1998 when they attended the Manhattan School of Music together, “Dan listens with extreme detail, which is one of the reasons he’s such a great accompanist and sideman. He has a deep well to go to because he’s played in so many bands and knows so much music. He’s also able to comprehend other people’s way of playing really quickly, which allows him to come up with material that fits the personalities of the players. It’s like he can really imagine the sound and interaction of the group even before anything has been played, which allows him to give the whole group freedom while still maintaining structure and form. It’s a hard balance to strike, but he seems to be able to pull it off with ease because his intuition for shaping a performance is stronger than anybody I’ve ever played with.”

Unclassified Affections is another transcendent project from a truly unclassifiable artist.