First Weather
On "Sunday", the new album by Vinnie Sperrazza Apocryphal
The band I’ve led intermittently for the past 10 years is called Vinnie Sperrazza Apocryphal, and we have a new album out on Loyal Label called Sunday. To listen, click here.
Years ago, reading around, I kept coming across the word ‘apocryphal’, a word with a nesting set of meanings.
It comes to us from Greek, and it means, roughly, ‘a thing kept hidden’. In our time, an ‘apocryphal tale’ is a story that’s repeated and told, but isn’t really true; George Washington and the cherry tree is the usual example.
That sense of the word goes back to the Reformation, when some folks began calling certain biblical texts ‘Apocrypha’, meaning ‘low canon’. Like an unauthorized comic book spin-off, a low canon or apocryphal text is read and appreciated, but, according to some, not the real deal.
Around the time I kept noticing the word, I wrote a tune with a melody that sounded sort of like “My Heart Belongs To Daddy”, but with a tonic chord that kept switching willy-nilly between major and minor. When I played it through, with its fake Cole Porter melody, and changes that only sort-of worked, I said: “this tune is apocryphal”.
Writing that song unlocked something, because I soon had enough material to gather guitarist Brandon Seabrook, bassist Eivind Opsvik, and saxophonist Loren Stillman for two albums: Apocryphal (2014) and Hide Ye Idols (2017). These were well-received, widely reviewed, and I’m very proud of them. Both were produced by Geoff Kraly, bassist, lyricist, and sound designer, best known as one-half of paris_monster.
The story of how Loren, Brandon, Eivind, and I came together is long. The short version is: I was in the audience at their shows, and then I got us together.
They were much more developed musicians than me when I formed the group. It’s always a good idea to be the least-developed in the band, and truthfully, though I’ve come a long way, I feel they’re still ahead of me.
Eivind Opsvik and Loren Stillman I first heard when I was in college. Eivind was playing with Jacob Sacks, Sam Sadigursky, and Don Peretz in a great band called Spirals, and soon after, he formed Overseas, who I followed obsessively— I think I was at every early 2000’s gig on his Overseas Live release. Eivind is a composer and improviser, a recording, mixing, and mastering engineer, a collaborator, bandleader, has a huge beat, and loves Count Basie.
Loren was always playing with the best drummers, doing gigs with Ted Poor, Take Toriyama (an important voice who we lost in 2007), Jim Black, and the great Paul Motian. It was frightening and inspiring to see Loren, exactly my age, making music on that level. Loren’s been a professional jazz musician since he was in his early teens, and his playing is a brilliant, natural, unfettered expression of his personality.
A singular voice, a conceptualist and composer, a fully-formed and completely unique musician, Brandon Seabrook has been on the cutting edge since he moved to NYC in 2006. We first connected over a shared love of Keith Moon, and I’ve grown so much playing with him; he’s sort of a mentor to me. As exciting and energizing as he is, Brandon is one of the easiest musicians to play with. He’s got huge ears— he hears everything, and simply responds as himself.
But I need to especially praise producer Geoff Kraly for his musicianship and intelligence. Much of the character and sound of Apocryphal and Hide Ye Idols are the result of manipulation by Geoff after the sessions. Those two albums have Geoff’s fingerprints on every note. I’ve known Geoff since high school, and his contributions reflect his generous spirit and highly-developed sense of humor. He’s a much-valued part of every project he undertakes, and we were lucky to have him.
Thank you gents, an honor to be working with you all.
To my great joy, Apocryphal has a new album, Sunday, (Loyal Label, 2024) which came out on Friday, and is best enjoyed on Bandcamp. Jim Macnie is the first to write about it here.
It’s a suite of songs that depict the moods and actions of one man in NYC on a random Sunday and is sort of a sequel to Saturday (Fresh Sound, 2023), which featured Ethan Iverson and Michael Formanek. Each tune on Sunday is a specific time of day, emotion, and action— waking up, leaving the house, looking at art, having coffee, taking a train, walking home, going to sleep.
Initially, I planned on using an expanded version of the group for the album, with Charlotte Greve, Geoff Kraly, and Josh Dion added to the quartet, and make full use of the modern recording studio. But scheduling difficulties prevailed, so instead, I put the focus on the four of us: Loren, Brandon, Eivind, Vinnie, in the studio, in real time— no edits, no punches, no overdubs. Because it was the opposite of what I wanted, and because it was a response to circumstances beyond my control, I knew it was the right choice.
The imaginary man whose moods we’re tracking is sort of stuck: he’s not growing or changing, he’s spinning his wheels— thinking the same thoughts, living the same life. He spends his entire Sunday trying and failing to take just one step forward; in the last five notes of the album, he might get there.
Below are some descriptions of the music, a way to hear the tunes as a story. But it isn’t a soundtrack, it’s a jazz record. These are only suggestions. You are free to hear it any way you choose.
The melody of “Presence”, rendered three times, is human awareness coming online— basically, waking up. Your awareness, your presence, changes something about the air around you. I love Loren’s soliloquy, and Brandon’s cracked rendition.
On “First Weather”, a drum solo, we take a the look out the window and a look inside, sensing the emotions, mood, memories, and hopes for the day. I wanted it to sound like Chad Taylor’s Myths and Morals, but it came out more like Ginger Baker’s“Toad”.
After coffee, you’re ready for the day. Ambition and desire are fueling your every move, and you strut down the street, tearing it up. But it isn’t you, it’s the coffee, you’re just having a “Caffeine Dream”. Loren and Brandon are on fire on this track.
Indeed, when the caffeine wears off, your resolve leaves. You head into a museum, see all the people there, see all the lives you didn’t live. “If Only” you’d made another choice. You feel yourself drift from your goal of the day, and you’re powerless to stop it. Love Eivind with a bow.
So you get some more coffee. Maybe that will help. Forget it, nothing you can do, it’s the “PM Drift”, the firm resolve of the morning becoming torpor and distraction. No reason to fight it— better to just let it come and hope it doesn’t last.
It’s night now, and the moon looks like a dandelion. Disappointed in how little you’ve accomplished, you head out, destination unknown, but at least you’re out. As you sit on the train, crossing the river into the city, you fixate on one idea, prompted by Stew’s Passing Strange: “Culture Is Cosmetic”. Is it true? Maybe all these emotions don’t live naturally within you, maybe it’s all learned behavior.
At the end of the night, the whole thing has washed away. And I think of American Splendor and “Harvey Pekar”, who insisted on meaning, who carved out a space for value and beauty, who made a path, no matter how unglamorous, that may have led to moments of quietude and joy.
But that’s not enough. Aspiring to be like someone else is a spiritual Twinkie. It’s a good prompt, but it won’t quiet the night fears. As you lay in bed, and watch the insects of anxiety“Hithering and Thithering”, vaulting across the ceiling, you obsess, once again, about the day and the future and the past, about everything.
But we’re in D dorian, which Miles Davis’ “So What”, which is one way to live.
Monday after this Sunday might be the teensiest bit different, since the last five notes on the album, E-A-D-G-B, Bill Evans’ voicing for “So What”, are the last thoughts he has before falling asleep.
I’m thrilled that the record is done, out in the world, and ready for you to hear. I’ll be talking about it and looking for more shows for us throughout the year, so hopefully you’ll get a chance to hear it, maybe even come to a gig of ours. This week I’ll put up the charts of the tunes for paid subscribers.
This album is a labor of love from a long-standing group, made in pursuit of truth and beauty. I sincerely hope you have a good time listening to it.
We all have a need for meaning, and these eight tracks depict a search for it. The guy on the album spending a Sunday looking high and low for it won’t know what to do when he realizes it’s right in front of him.
sounds great! listening now.. thanks!
Streaming and loving it as I write on Apple. This might be a silly question but why is Bandcamp superior?