Label/Year: Zoho, 2017
Lineup - Oscar Feldman: tenor and soprano saxophone; Leo Genovese: piano; John Benitez: bass; Antonio Sanchez: drums + guest Guillermo Klein: vocals, keyboards.
Versatile Argentine saxophonist Oscar Feldman opens his new album, Gol, with an inspired Latin feel associated to the colorful harmonic discernment of Duke Ellington’s “I Let a Song Out of My Heart”, impeccably arranged by Paquito D’Rivera. It features electrifying improvisations by the bandleader and his fellow countryman pianist Leo Genovese.
Another Argentine, Guillermo Klein, a highly respected pianist/composer with a flair for contemporary jazz exodus, appears as a special guest on “La Cancion Que Falta”, translated into ‘the song that’s missing, an original of his own where he sings the initial theme and plays keyboards, blending the agreeable linearity of a pop song with the profundity of the Argentine sentiment. Feldman reinstates the theme’s final melody on soprano saxophone.
Feldman borrows another challenging composition from Klein. Standing for ‘no name’, “N.N.” references the disappearances of several innocent people during the dictatorship in Argentina. The denunciation is made via vibrant soprano speeches, curious shifting rhythms, electric piano expansions, and meteoric percussive strikes.
“Viva Belgrano”, Feldman’s only original, couldn’t be more vivid and enthusiastic as it celebrates the moment that his hometown soccer team scored an important goal. The narration by Matias Barzola is placed at the beginning and end of a post-bop bravado stirred with hasty swinging passages and flammable solos. By the end, before the theme’s reinstatement, drummer Antonio Sanchez scores a monumental goal while signing his famous reverberant percussive attacks.
More swinging bass movements laid over post-bop harmonic preparations arrive with “Is That So?”, a Duke Pearson’s composition arranged by Bill Nelson. Besides Feldman’s expressive soprano trip, this tune also thrives with expeditious piano surges hooked up with shimmering voicings and the infatuated rhythmic dialogue between Sanchez and bassist John Benitez.
The exploration of diversified genres is effortlessly embraced through “Murmullo”, a traditional Cuban bolero that delicately intensifies the maritime air of a sweltering night on the Caribbean island, also Beck’s melodious song “Nobody’s Fault But My Own”, and The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine”, engendered with a straight ahead attitude to grasp variable time stamps and rhythmic flexibility. Feldman’s famous tonalities find groovy refreshment on the net created by Benitez’s propelling electric bass lines, Genovese’s nimble cadences, and Sanchez’s metrical impetus.
Suggesting persuasive moods, these expressive renditions are totally redesigned from scratch rather than imitated from the original versions. Gol, a product of Feldman’s personal maturation as a musician, is full of dominant counter-attacks and brings a fresh lure to the game.
Grade B+
Favorite Tracks:
03 - Viva Belgrano ► 05 - N.N. ► 08 - I Feel Fine