Label: Out of Your Head Records, 2021
Personnel - David Leon: alto saxophone; Sonya Belaya: piano; Florian Herzog: bass; Stephen Boegehold: drums.
Aire de Agua, the exciting debut album from the Brooklyn-based Cuban-American saxophonist David Leon, showcases a collection of interesting original pieces presented alongside pianist Sonya Belaya, bassist Florian Herzog and drummer Stephen Boegehold. The quartet transpires youth but also sounds experienced, probing a variety of possibilities within the creative trio aesthetics.
The opening track, “Strange and Charmed”, has an explosive start, bringing a powerful saxophone figure that skids across an inventive tapestry weaved by the rhythm team. Stringing along with accents, silences and multiple color in their stable interplay, this piano-bass-drums fellowship creates moments of pure connection, taking advantage of Leon’s microtonality and hyper-articulated phrases. The intonation of some of them reminded me of the saxophonist Steve Lehman.
While “Horrible, Horrible Service” employs swinging mechanisms to ease the tension initially created, the title cut implies a slight Latin feel, incorporating flux breaks and then metamorphosing into something new. There’s an enthusiastic bass solo before the reflective stillness imposed by a passage with bowed bass and spectral pianism.
If “First You Must Learn the Grip” goes from the bop-influenced lines of the theme to an off-kilter improvised section in which Leon’s fearless blows ensure timbral allure (Darius Jones appears as a possible reference), then “Expressive Jargon II”, involving motivic call-and-response, doesn’t shroud the classical and chamber music influences.
The group strives to create different shapes and forms, and “Pina”, inspired by the German dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch, has a special tone. Evolving in a more delicate and poetic avant-jazz setting, it showcases Leon’s command of slap tonguing technique, here curiously matched in sound by the cross-stick snare bumps. It prompts us to accept a more breathable, airy feel.
Aire de Agua is a splendid debut from a young saxophone player who, starting with the right foot, promises to make a name for himself in the creative jazz scene.
B+
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Strange and Charmed ► 03 - Pina ► 05 - First You Must Learn the Grip