Label: Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records, 2023
Personnel - Sam Bardfeld: violin; Jacob Sacks: piano; Michael Sarin: drums.
Violinist/composer Sam Bardfeld has the ability to employ traditional elements in his music without sounding linear or polished. His music is not totally free, as it is a perfectly structured work with themes and improvisation sections, but the mindset is close to what we find in free sessions, having exploration as its main focus. Refuge, his fourth album as a leader, brings him together with pianist Jacob Sacks, whom I love to hear playing here, and drummer Michael Sarin, who infuses elegance and beneficial understatement in the process. Together they give him a thrilling blend of stable and adventurous support.
The album opens with “It Might Not Work”, which advances with confident, well-measured steps and penetrating melodies. Sacks creates tension with occasional sudden strokes in the lower register, but also infuses lots of harmonic color. He plays unaccompanied for a while, before the rhythmic flow is resumed with a marching-like cadence.
Other Bardfeld-penned titles that stand out are the upbeat “A Ribbon of Sooty Thought” and the world-music-induced “On the Seat of Which”. The former is an AABA-structured piece whose swinging vibration and bop allure suggests an unheard mix between Stephane Grapelli and Don Pullen. Later on, Sacks’ out-of-the-box creativity takes it to more challenging territories, and we can spot a transient shift from quadruple to triple meter. The latter cut, with its violin plucks and bow fluency, recalls Billy Bang as the trio charges through variations.
This is music that exists at the border of post-bop and avant-jazz, and the two covers on the album, although distinct in style, demarcate light and shade with a variety of going-ons. With a strong contemporary pop-rock affiliation, the trio tackles Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” with a propagative brushed drum groove and delicious noir tones, which Sacks makes sure to maintain during Bardfeld’s solo. The other is the epic “Refuge”, a product of the musical mind of late pianist Andrew Hill (from his 1965 masterpiece Point of Departure), which, via smart figures, interesting ideas and slippery slides is turned into an emotionally engaging rendition.
Bardfeld’s approach brilliantly channels the American culture in its most different refuges. The credit goes not only to the violinist but also to his partners who melt their strong personalities into the music.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - It Might Not Work ► 02 - Atlantic City ► 04 - On the Seat of Which