Label: SteepleChase Records, 2023
Personnel - Max Light: guitar; Noah Preminger: tenor saxophone; Kim Cass: bass; Dan Weiss: drums.
Suitable for straight-ahead jazz curious and inveterate post-boppers alike, guitarist Max Light’s sophomore album, Henceforth, comes with a healthy quota of adventure as well as precise interactive playing. Exclusively composed of originals, the album features him alongside reliable associates: saxophonist Noah Preminger, bassist Kim Cass and drummer Dan Weiss. This is the same quartet that brought to life Preminger’s 2020 album Contemptment. Their skills allow them to play tightly and also be open to spontaneous change.
“Barney & Sid” is an exciting standout. The bass and drum workout passes a sensation of wobbliness in the step due to challenging rhythmic accentuations and tempo, while Light and Preminger provide unison melodies weaved with plenty of intervallic allure to keep us focused. The latter expresses his highly developed language, extracting an impressively dark and robust sound from his instrument. His unquestionable tonality serves as a foil for the guitarist’s fluid solo that arrives next. Over its course, he has Cass hopping and sliding across the fingerboard, almost creating polyphony. Always so rhythmically intense, the bassist opts to make the notes soar on “Animals”, a brushed and expressive ballad.
With a laid-back posture and peculiar exotic fragrances in its fabric, the title cut develops from a central guitar lick that is followed by the saxophone. At odds with this vibe, “Subjective Object” spreads out of the speakers with a punchy, not-in-the-pocket rhythmic swirl that intrigues before ending in a vamp wherein Preminger and Light work in parallel. They are the improvisers of “High or Booze”, which culminates the album with a powerful emotional arc. The tenorman blows with range and cites the theme as he concludes his statement, whereas the guitarist lines up clean-limbed notes that ricochet with liveliness.
In addition to all these ingenious post-bop numbers, Light offers two plain neo-boppers - “Luftrauser” and “Half Marathon” - developed with a sinuous, strong complexion. Max Light is a talented instrumentalist and composer to follow closely, and this well-planned album doesn’t disappoint.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Barney & Sid ► 02 - Henceforth ► 08 - High or Booze