Label: Loyal Label, 2019

Personnel - Chet Doxas: tenor saxophone; Jacob Sacks: piano; Zack Lober: bass; Vinnie Sperrazza: drums.

Landline consists of a stellar crew of four contemporary bandleaders and improvisers, who take their compositional prowess to another level with a new challenging concept envisioned for their self-titled debut album. The process, based on the popular broken telephone game, has each member - saxophonist Chet Doxas, pianist Jacob Sacks, bassist Zack Lober, and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza - sending written notes to one of his bandmates, who has two weeks to work on it as he pleases and pass it along to the next member and so on. Each musician may ignore, alter, or maintain what was written. This well-prepared yet full of freedom process combines composition and improvisation in a totally different way and the result is 12 not-too-long episodes revealing strong capacity of invention and tightness.

The titles were given according to the final product and “Michael Attias”, the opening piece, couldn’t be more appropriate since the sax-piano unisons hold that curious ambiguity so characteristic of the aforementioned alto sax player. Snare drum assertiveness, cymbal color, and a bass pedal, here sustaining echoed phrases professed by Doxas and Sacks, are transported to the following tune, “Modern Jazz”, whose swift lines and pungent accents confer it a rock energy. The bass is then loosened to groove along recurrent expressive sax melodies soaked in chromaticism, while the entangling piano comping is fundamental to attain a perfect atmosphere.

A sheer vitality is also observed in other highlights such as “Feel the Bernstein”, which adheres to a freshly swinging mobility; the pop/rock-inflected “Flim Flam”, played with gorgeous accentuations and slight angular playfulness; “Yup”, whose disorienting tempo and contrasting timbres are complemented with absorbing individual statements from bass (introductory section), sax and piano; and “After The Money”, a successful crossing between the bluesy modal post-bop of Andrew Hill and the rock energy of Beat Happening, declared under an encouraging rhythmic thrust attributable to a dance floor.

There are also slow-moving chapters counterbalancing the more energetic ones. Examples are “Twelve Years”, which consolidates a dismal melody, continual cymbal effervescence, and dark chordal work; “Crystalline”, an exercise in piano minimalism with glacial moments and silences; and the vague “Shiny Things”, which meditates through popping sax sounds, sparse piano activity, snare drum calls, and moody bass notes.

Told half-and-half by Sacks and Doxas, “An Anecdote Regarding Anthony Braxton” climaxes in an ultimate collective laugh that closes out the recording with a bright touch of humor.

You’ll find immersive moods and textures on Landline informing us that these guys’ music is never clumsy or forced. Their big sound, open aesthetic, and compositional variety are great part of the appeal.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Michael Attias ► 02 - Modern Jazz ► 11 - After The Money

Label: Clean Feed, 2018

Personnel – Jacob Sacks: piano; Ellery Eskelin: tenor saxophone; Tony Malaby: tenor and soprano saxophones; Michael Formanek: acoustic bass; Dan Weiss: drums.

Pianist/composer Jacob Sacks has been an important voice in the adventurous jazz with the stamp ‘made in New York’. Although revealing dynamic writing skills, he doesn't record as much as a leader, preferring to disseminate his irresistible sonic zest in projects of likes such as David Binney, Dan Weiss, and Eivind Opsvick or co-leading duos (with singer Yoon Sun Choi) and quartets (Spirals, 40Twenty, Two Miles a Day). The exceptions to this rule are his quintet albums Regions (1999) and No Man’s Land (2013).

Always leaning on the avant-garde without neglecting traditional forms and sounds, Sacks now convenes a pungent new quintet with provocative saxophonists Ellery Eskelin and Tony Malaby, bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer Dan Weiss, the only one who remained from the former group.

Released on Clean Feed label, Fishes features eleven tracks, five of which are sketchy, relatively short collective improvisations with Carnegie in the title. The ambiguity of these sonic canvases usually comes from two disparate melodic threads created by the reed players, fulminant single-note drives and disarming chords that sometimes lead to whimsical piano textures, and an unimposing bass-drums flux.

The stimulating “Saloon” kicks in with a mix of gabbles and cackles in the frontline after which a majestic, swinging groove installs to welcome Sacks’ atonal inflections, illustrated with a strong rhythmic feel. The saxophonists shine one at the time, juxtaposing their sounds for brief moments as the tune comes close to the final.

The highly motivic “This Is A Song” swings even faster, creating a flickering curtain of instrumental forces prior to setting the improvisers free. It’s curious how the pianist, with all his probative legato cascades and staccato attacks, has a sure sense of swing. It’s all modern in its construction.

Displaying tangible themes and perceptible structures, both “The Opener” and “III Blues” strive with unisons and spiky improvisations. Whereas tenor, soprano, and piano inflame the former piece, which also features Weiss with his expressive drumming style, the latter is navigated at a triple time with fragmented, Monk-like deconstructions.

“Five Little Melodies” has the reedists’ circumnavigating a romantic classical axis with nonchalant melodies. In opposition, the more obscure “Chopped In” is introduced by Formanek’s quietly weeping arco bass, with Sacks’ non-invasive pianism gradually taking control of the scene. It’s a moody chamber exercise with a prevalence of timbre and cinematic quality.

The creative ideas either take seductively cerebral or emotionally spontaneous forms. Even though it carries some complexity, Fishes is still an approachable outing from an adventurous pianist in full bloom and at the helm of his own group.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Saloon ► 03 – This Is a Song ► 11 – III Blues