Label: Cygnus Recordings, 2022

Personnel - Dan Weiss: drums; Jacob Sacks: piano; Thomas Morgan: bass.

The inventive drummer/composer Dan Weiss joins forces with two other creative musicians - pianist Jacob Sacks and bassist Thomas Morgan - for an album of dedications that consists entirely of original pieces. The deep understanding between these musicians, who have been playing together for 22 years, manifests on every track as they explore an array of quirky moods and undiscovered spaces.

Honoring the founder/vocalist of the unique, eclectic UK rock band Cardiacs, “For Tim Smith” reveals an appetence for polyrhythm, radical transitions, odd-meter sequences, and complex juxtapositions. In the end, you have an organically solid number that is also fun to listen to. Extremely challenging is also “For Nancarrow”, whose eruptive experimentalism pronounced with an underlying swinging motion made me think of a musical crossing between Tony Williams and Pierre Schaeffer. A mysterious opaqueness permeates the whole thing. There are crashing cymbals producing strange accents and exquisite piano runs elaborated with keen virtuosity.

Sacks is exalted with a piece. “For Jacob” is explorative, galvanizing, jazzy and avant-gardish; filled with coiled forms and transient flurries. In turn, “For Andrei Tarkovsky” (Weiss’ favorite filmmaker) shimmers like a delicate torch. It's impeccably synchronized and offers the playful clatter of an unforseen samba rhythm.

“For George Floyd” is filled with silences, tonal contrasts, dissonances, and striking motions; “For Elvin” has Weiss altering the speed of Elvin Jones’ pulse on Coltrane’s “One Down, One Up” from the album Live at the Half Note. Whereas he swings vividly here, he brushes the drums with elegance on the arpeggiated “For Grandma May”, demonstrating his love for his late grandmother.

Undeniably virtuosic and progressive, Weiss works in unconventional ways. This program relies on curious musical architectures that make us experience freedom while constantly waiting for surprises. And they never fail to appear.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - For Nancarrow ► 05 - For Jacob ► 08 - For Elvin

Label/Year: Panorama Records, 2017

Lineup – Steve Slagle: alto sax, flute; Lawrence Fields: piano; Scott Colley: drums; Bill Stewart: drums + guest Dave Stryker: guitar.

Experienced American altoist/flautist Steve Slagle, the former director of the Mingus Big Band, has a curriculum filled with fruitful collaborations in a wide variety of genres with respected names such as Joe Lovano, The Beastie Boys, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, Carla Bley, Steve Kuhn, and Milton Nascimento.

The successor of last year's Alto Manhattan is called Dedication. Released on Panorama Records, the album, an organic brew of post-bop statements frequently boosted by Latin infusions, comprises nine tracks dedicated to people or things that were relevant in Slagle’s musical career. In regard to the last album, the saxophonist maintains the pianist Lawrence Fields, drummer Bill Stewart, and percussionist Roman Diaz in the lineup, replacing the bassist Gerald Cannon for the ultra-competent Scott Colley and inviting his longtime collaborator, guitarist Dave Stryker, to participate in six songs.

The elated “Sun Song”, dedicated to saxophonist Sonny Rollins, spreads an uplifting lightness, conveying a fire-hose charm that feels very celebratory within its Latin nature. Slagle’s fluid, off-kilter language comes out with a brittle and tempered timbre, and on the tail of Fields’ unnerving solo, the band trades eights with the percussion team.

It’s definitely a strong start that doesn't lose steam when we go to “Niner”, a piece that honors the electric bassist Steve Swallow, and “Major In Come”, an ode to the art of swinging built on major chords in five different keys. The former composition, showing off the theme’s statement under a sax-guitar unison, is rhythmically dominated by an animated bass groove and funky pulse, while the latter provides us with a hard-swinging gush that would make Joe Lovano satisfied and features Stewart’s readable drum solo.

The band attests an easily bent temperament when digging “Triste Beleza”, an illustrative bossa nova appointment propelled by Stryker’s luxurious acoustic guitar voicings, Stewart’s gentle brushwork, and Diaz’s fortifying conga sounds.

The hefty swinger “Opener”, evoking the energy of saxophonist Jackie McLean, is adorned with hot rhythms and the bandleader’s double-faced output, first on alto sax and then wrapping up on flute.

Slagle incorporated two external compositions on the album: Stryker’s “Corazon”, a meek tribute to Weather Report’s keyboardist Joe Zawinul, and Wayne Shorter’s “Charcoal Blues”, harmonically defined by the guitarist’s amiable chords and spoken with the incumbent blues stratum in mind.

Dedication was aligned to furnish a sturdy opening, but the album wanes in vibrancy after the fourth track. Even feeling limited in extraordinary stretches, it fulfills its objectives with an unperturbed orderliness and should earn the attention of both classic post-bop and Latin jazz supporters.

Favorite Tracks:
01 – Sun Song ► 02 – Niner ► 04 – Triste Beleza