ABUNDANCES
I first met and played with master drummer George Davidson while still in high school. In addition to being a major supportive influence on me, (among many others, including Ali Jackson, Karriem Riggins, and Robert Hurst) Mr. Davidson's resume includes stints with Aretha Franklin, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Four Tops, Eddie Harris, Tribe, and many others. I wanted to document our 11+ year musical relationship as well as the 30+ year rhythm section of Mr. Davidson and bassist Marion Hayden. This music was written in 2014-2015 as a reflective, expansive response to the darker, more intense music on Determination, compositions that in both cases reflected my experiences during those periods. This music was written specifically to showcase this rhythm section and draws upon many facets of Detroit music and indeed Mr. Davidson's career. [https://glenntucker.bandcamp.com/album/abundances]
w/ Marion Hayden (b) George Davidson (d)
SACRED AND PROFANE
This body of music was inspired and framed by ideas from Mircea Eliade's The Sacred and The Profane, a book about the innate spiritual needs of all humans. The music draws from some of my favorite sacred, spiritual, and mystical music: contemporary gospel, the music of John and Alice Coltrane, the music of Wayne Shorter, and the modern French liturgical organ improvisation tradition. For this group, I selected some of the most creative, well-studied, and sensitive musicians of my generation to form a group sound that draws upon groove-based collective improvisation modeled by the Wayne Shorter Quartet and electric Miles Davis groups as well as the hammond organ tradition.
w/ Jake Shadik (ts, electronics) Ian Finkelstein (rhodes, synths) Kayvon Gordon (d)
DETERMINATION
Inspired by Kenn Cox’s 1960s Blue Note albums, I wrote a tune entitled Determination in 2009. This was the catalyst for a body of music I wrote over the next five years culminating in my sophomore album of the same name. Ranging from a trio to a sextet, this group plays hard-hitting, gritty, soulful, and uplifting music that reflects the Detroit hard bop tradition as well as current events in Detroit. [https://www.detroitmusicfactory.com/artists/glenn-tucker] [http://idigjazz.blogspot.com/2015/10/pianist-glenn-tucker-gives-lowdown-on.html]
w/ Dwight Adams (tpt) Rafael Statin (ts) Vincent Chandler (tbn) Robert Hurst (b) Alex White (d)
JAZZ NATIVITY
In 2011, I had the chance opportunity to study as a beginning student in the studio of legendary pipe organ pedagogue Marilyn Mason. Some of the first pieces she assigned me were by modern French composer Olivier Messiaen, including a slow movement from his 1936 cycle La Nativité Du Seignuer. Professor Mason assured me that I would soon learn all nine movements, which I did over the next year. Having fallen in love with the music, I wanted to explore it the best way I knew how: by improvising over it. The following winter I debuted this jazz quintet project, which has now includes Messiaen’s other Christmas Cycle Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus (for piano) as well as other French Christmas music. Although this music can sound dissonant and complex, I hope that audiences find it colorful, picturesque, warm, and heartfelt. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38kLr1hwg-I] We've been lucky enough to present this music for the last five Decembers at Kerrytown Concert House, the Detroit Institute of Arts, First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor, St. Matthew St. Joseph Episcopal Church in Detroit, and the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle.
w/ Rafael Statin (fl-ss-ts-bcl) Ben Rolston (b) Jesse Kramer (d)