Kalia Vandever - Regrowth (2022) Hi Res

New Amsterdam releases “Pick it Up (and Drop it Again),” the first single from Kalia Vandever, a Brooklyn-based, Los Angeles-raised trombonist and composer, whose new album, Regrowth, arrives May 6, 2022. Vandever, a bandleader and a side-woman (who has performed on both Saturday Night Live and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee), writes music with “an unhurried, sighing attitude … melodies with long, held notes. The idea, it seems, is to dip you into a feeling or a pattern or a breathing speed, and keep you there.” (The New York Times). On Regrowth, Vandever’s second album, she possesses “tremendous instrumental facility and a highly melodic compositional voice” (Hot House Jazz Magazine), offering listeners eight ethereal tracks: wisps that, with springtime in the air, conjure both wistfulness and hope.

“‘Pick It Up (and Drop it Again)’ evokes the feeling of reaching for something that endlessly escapes you,” says Vandever. “It’s the act of going through the motions multiple times while acknowledging that you might never attain what you’re seeking. The piece has urgency and drive while being cyclical in nature.”

Regrowth, as a whole, is cyclical in nature, an album marked by renewal and discovery, by compositions that arose from improvisation, by the thrum of found melodies, each enlivened by Vandever’s longtime ensemble: saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Nick Dunston, drummer Connor Parks, and guitarist and producer Lee Meadvin.

“Composing and improvising have always provided a space for my own healing and growth,” says Kalia Vandever. “This work is my experience of rebuilding, of remaining open to the unpredictable. The act of being patient with myself when faced with change is a constant practice. I hope listeners recognize the importance of being patient themselves, too, especially in the face of loss or trauma. Regrowth is a reflection of that process.”