Full Tilt, by Adam Shulman

Full Tilt

by Adam Shulman

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$9.99 CAD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
packaged in a cardboard gatefold sleeve

Includes unlimited streaming of Full Tilt via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

$12.99 CAD or more
Full Digital Discography

Get all 4 Adam Shulman releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of We Wish You A Funky Christmas, Just the Contrafacts, West Meets East, and Full Tilt. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

$27.97 CAD or more (30% OFF)

1.	1. Fantasy in D Flat 07:36	buy track
2.	Lonesome Dream 06:13	buy track
3.	The Conqueror 09:12	buy track
4.	4. San Francisco National Cemetery 09:28	buy track
5.	Yeah....So 05:24	buy track
6.	6. 4th Street Strut 08:44	buy track
7.	Full Tilt 05:43	buy track
8.	The Night We Called it a Day 06:18	buy track
9.	Mr. Timmons 08:33	buy track

about

This dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker didn’t know Adam Shulman from Adam, pardon the bad joke, when the 38-year-old, Bay Area based pianist emailed to assess my interest in writing the liner notes for his fifth CD. As a sample of his bona fides, he attached “Fantasy In D Flat,” a hard-swinging contrafact of Cedar Walton’s “Fantasy in D,” known as “Ugetsu” when Art Blakey introduced it as the title track of a 1963 album for Riverside by his great Jazz Messengers sextet with Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, Walton and Reggie Workman. On this version, which opens Full Tilt, each protagonist—trumpeter Mike Olmos, alto saxophonist Lyle Link, tenor saxophonist Patrick Wolff, and Shulman, whose own declamation evokes Walton in full flight—blows melodic, eloquent lines in their respective argots, displaying their commitment to meeting bebop on its own terms of engagement, to practice it as a lifestyle, and not a flirtation.

I emailed back that if “Fantasy In D-Flat” was indicative of the entire album, it would be my honor to take on the challenge.

I was even more impressed when Shulman sent me the eight remaining selections. The well-crafted horn parts on each chart, sophisticated, elegant and visceral, reveal a master of the art of combo arranging, sufficiently intimate with the respective canons of Walton, Horace Silver, Benny Golson and Gigi Gryce to apply their devices with his own voice, towards his own aesthetic ends. Although Shulman doesn’t particularly use the tunes as vehicles to showcase himself, his pianistic chops match his prowess with the pen—he uncorks a series of fresh, lucid, soulful declamations in dialects spanning Bud Powell to Bobby Timmons to Kenny Kirkland to Benny Green..

“I’ve come to see bebop and hardbop as my musical personality,” Shulman says. “I like the intelligence. I like the freedom within constraints. My music and the music that I admire so much can be dense and harmonically challenging. Hearing people blow over it, weave lines through these difficult, thorny changes really appeals to me. It tickles my intellect and it feels so good. The music from that era touches on so many parts of human expression—the gut feeling of swing matched with this heady intellectual thing.”

A native San Franciscan, Shulman, who began classical lessons at 7, began playing and listening seriously to jazz in high school. He continued to dual-track stylistically while earning a degree in classical performance at University of California, Santa Cruz. “I’ve been interested in writing ever since I started playing,” he says. “I’ve always been attracted to how things work, using the basic building blocks of harmony and reconfiguring them.”

During Shulman’s years at Santa Cruz, the late pianist Smith Dobson, his primary mentor, introduced him to post Bud Powell bebop pianists like Barry Harris and Sonny Clark. After returning to San Francisco in 2002, Shulman gravitated to a generational peer group—including most of the protagonists on Full Tilt—in synch with his determination to pursue individuality through the streams of hardcore jazz.

The breadth of Shulman’s skill sets raises the question why, as he puts it, “I am not a well-known entity in the jazz world,” at least outside the Bay Area, where he been a first-call sideman for years, most famously with singer Paula West, but also with world-class bassist-composer Marcus Shelby. Gigs with his trio and the sextet heard herein are increasingly frequent, and Shulman plays several nights a week on sessions at San Francisco’s Club Deluxe led by Olmos and Wolff, exceptional stylists, as well as the polymath Smith Dobson V.

Shulman offers a clue to his relative obscurity in his program notes for the superb, self-released nine-tune homage to Billy Strayhorn, Strays, a 2010 project. “So many incredible musicians throughout the history of jazz don’t get the attention and credit they deserve because they are crowded out by the big personalities,” he wrote. “I would like...to celebrate those who quietly and consistently create great music with no thought of fame and notoriety... Billy Strayhorn...exemplifies the spirit of the craftsperson whose work is what stands for who they are, and not the edifice of their personality.”

Without comparing Shulman’s corpus to Strayhorn’s, and whether or not Shulman’s remarks are self-descriptive, the sentiments he expresses ring true. It’s time for this luminous tonal personality to emerge from the shadows; if affixing my name to this excellent CD abets that process, I’ll be delighted.

Ted Panken

credits

released January 19, 2018

Adam Shulman piano
Mike Olmos trumpet
Lyle Link alto saxophone
Patrick Wolff tenor saxophone
John Wiitala bass
Evan Hughes drums

Executive Producer: Cory Weeds
Produced by: Adam Shulman
Recorded at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley CA on June 17th 2017
Engineered & mixed by Adam Muñoz
Mastered by: Ken Lee
Photos: Adriel Olmos

license

about

Adam Shulman San Francisco, California

Adam Shulman has been a staple of the SF Jazz scene since 2002. He is a sideman playing with countless bay area musicians and vocalists. He has performed internationally with numerous renowned artists. In addition to his sideman work, Adam is a composer and arranger. He has released 4 albums of original music under his name and is the arranger for the jazz and cabaret singer Paula West. ... more

contact / help

Contact Adam Shulman

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Adam Shulman, you may also like:

Home Cookin'
by Cory Weeds

supported by 4 fans who also own “Full Tilt”
go to album
Henry Franklin JID014
by Henry Franklin, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad

The 14th release in the Jazz Is Dead series brings legendary bassist Henry Franklin to the forefront. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 23, 2022
go to album
The Assumption
by Michele Thomas

Based around the question “What is trust?” the latest from Michele Thomas is a bewitching combination of jazz and soul. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 27, 2022
go to album
Outra Coisa
by Anat Cohen

With excited horns and a rollicking 7-string guitar, it's no wonder this record was nominated for the Best Latin Jazz Album Grammy. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 14, 2017
go to album
Buoyancy
by Pablo Held

Rolling jazz with bright pianos and soothing brass lights up the latest from Cologne composer Pablo Held. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 16, 2023
go to album
Precious Energy ReUp
by Barney McAll

Remixed edition of the acclaimed jazz pianist and composer's "Precious Energy" LP, featuring Steve Spacek, Toshio Matsuura, and more. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 25, 2023
go to album
Milagro
by Alan Pasqua

Acclaimed jazz pianist and composer pivots from supporting player to bandleader, joined by a quintet of New York powerhouses. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 1, 2022
go to album