Experimentation ranks highly among the creative priorities of acclaimed drummer, bandleader and composer Mark Guiliana. While that notion might evoke images of wall-to-wall synthesizers and sets of tubular bells; his experiments are ones less concerned with lavish instrumentation and more involved in practicality and refinement.
On previous recorded projects, such as David Bowie’s profoundly moving final album Blackstar, the drummer experimented with ways of translating electronic ideas to acoustic instrumentation; retuning and modifying his acoustic kit to achieve sounds that replicated the late icon’s programmed beats, as well as complementing the Jazz musicians around him. However, on his sophomore Jazz quartet album Jersey, the electronics are stripped away, and operating within a purely acoustic environment, Guiliana and his bandmates ask themselves: “how much freedom and experimentation can we find?”.
Alongside their 37-year-old leader, saxophonist Jason Rigby, bassist Chris Morrissey and pianist Fabian Almazan leave no stone unturned in their search for acoustic latitude. Each of Jersey’s nine tracks represent a culmination of congruous musical ideas, a renewed take on post-bop and cool jazz forms, with enlightening solo passages, ensnaring rhythms and momentous compositional shifts.
The album’s title track Jersey; a dedication to Mark’s ‘center of gravity’ where he was born, raised and now resides, is a microcosm of his creative world and one of his most comprehensive compositions to date. A simple yet cinematic bass motif develops through passages of light and shade. Guiliana and Rigby rise and fall in unison, neither taking a clearly-defined solo, but each lifting the composition with their rising dynamics. Further highlights include Big Rig Jones, a track introduced by wrist-shattering polyrhythms that suddenly swoops into an incredibly cool, swung verse, before another shift exposes Almazan and Morrissey’s subtle interplay; a first-rate feature on the album.
It’s unsurprising that those involved in David Bowie’s final recording have been keen to pay tribute to him through their subsequent work. To show his gratitude, Guiliana has crafted a gentle rendition of Where Are We Now from Bowie’s penultimate LP The Next Day, to complete the album. Upon it, Rigby clings faithfully to Bowie’s melody, his intonation flawless throughout. As the band reach the song’s spiritual coda, a chorus of voices sing ‘as long as there’s me, as long as there’s you’. It’s a climactic end to a bold and wonderfully executed acoustic quartet album, capturing the individual talent and unified force of one of modern jazz’s top ensembles. David Crosby may have disliked Miles Davis’ adaptation of his Guinevere, but it’s plausible that Bowie would have appreciated the warmth and subtlety of Guiliana’s homage, and appreciated the maturity and assurance of the album.
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