Review: Bob Schlesinger’s ‘Falling From Earth’

To say that Colorado-based pianist/composer Bob Schlesinger’s Falling from Earth (Digmatic, 2025) was a long time coming is a vast understatement. The project – the sixty-eight year old keyboardist’s leader debut – had been simmering for half a decade. Tracks were recorded in two separate sessions, Sear Sound in New York City and Coupe Studios in Boulder, Colorado in 2018. While the coronavirus pandemic delayed the album’s release, it also gave Schlesinger time to reconsider the recorded tracks. He, along with engineer-producer John March mirrored the roles of Teo Macero and Miles Davis on Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) in taking studio jams and turning them into “Bait Tone Blues” and “Easy Off Ramp.” Six years later, the finished product ranges from ballads to high-powered fusion. Its range benefits from the presence of top-shelf artists on the album, including guitarist Mike Stern, bassist Eddie Gomez, and drummer Billy Drummond.

The album – featuring Bill Milkowski’s liner notes, from which some of this review takes inspiration – begins with the ethereal long-form “Easy Offramp.” It is one of the four tracks recorded in Colorado, all of which feature the bassist Kevin Axt and three different drummers. Steve Hass is behind the kit for this one. The origin of the piece arose from a story shared by one of Schlesinger’s friends who was working in hospice care at the time. She was with a cancer patient who was ready to pass, but his body kept living. Schlesinger said that he was looking for an easy off-ramp and improvised a short theme on the piano. While working on the piece, Lyle Mays passed, so Schlesinger, who was listening to lots of Pat Metheny at the time, took that direction with it.

Stern composed four pieces for the record, two of which are ballads. “Wing and a Prayer” floats, hymn-like, butressed by Axt’s earth bass and brushwork from drummer Karl Latham. In New York, they recorded the highly lyrical, emotive “Common Ground” with Stern, Gomez, and Drummond. In stark contrast, the fiery runs to which Stern is stereotypically connected are on full display on “Bait Tone Blues” as the leader alternates between electric piano and organ, Axt’s electric bass and Hass’s kit slam hard. The fourth piece is a contrafact to Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm,” featuring a ragtime solo piano intro that soon unleashes bebop inspired lines from Stern, accompanied by Drummond and Gomez with the latter sounding drastically different stylistically from Axt.

Schlesinger’s “Brush Stroke” begins with brief piano bursts before exploding in a funky workout featuring Stern in high-flying mode, backed by Axt and Dean Oldencott on drums. Tempo slows for the steady groove of “Left Field,” wherein Stern references his work on “Jean Pierre” with Miles Davis. Schlesinger, in turn, rips off Herbie Hancock-like riffs on the Rhodes. Drummond gets a brief solo before the leader, on acoustic piano, and Stern engage in a feisty dialogue. Schlesinger’s “But What Do You Want To Play,” continues the unbridled energy with a modern bop piece based on the changes to Cole Porter’s “I Love You.” The tandem of Gomez and Drummond is especially locked in here, giving Stern and Schlesinger free exploratory reins.

Falling From Earth concludes with three trio pieces, sans Stern. They render the beautiful Thad Jones ballad “A Child Is Born” a feature for Gomez on the bowed bass and, toward its end, in pizzicato. Schlesinger’s bright piano solo is sandwiched in between as Drummond lays down the samba rhythm.  The melancholic “Quien Es” seems like an outlier on this high energy album as the piece shows a patient Schlesinger, Drummond’s tasteful brushwork, and Gomez in his Bill Evans-like comfort zone. The closer is a surprising and inventive take on Bob Dylan’s “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” The leader likens it to a remix, commenting, “The opening section is kind of ECM-ish, and then when it comes down to the groove, that is my piano version of Dylan’s Delta blues thing. Then, when it gets all gospel-y, that’s the Billy Preston influence coming in.” Again, Gomez’s arco work is noteworthy.

Seldom does an album deliver such stylistic and emotional diversity. The long wait for Schlesinger to release an album of his own was indeed worth it.

‘Falling From Earth’ is out now.