The thing that I really like about guitarist Rez Abassi is that he keeps one foot in the jazz tradition, but is not locked into it, always looking for new colors to add to the palate. This time around, he plays fretted and fretless acoustic guitars in a tribute to legendary gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. But, instead of a note for note imitation of his songs, he brings in Neil Alexander for some electronics and keyboards with Michael Sarin providing the drums for some wonderful fusions of forms.
The mix of synthesizer and Abassi’s nimble fingers on the unplugged strings makes for rich contrasts as on the post bop read of “Diminishing” and the gentle “Douce Ambience”. At times, the trio sounds like they drank from the well of the trio Emerson, Lake and Palmer, as the mix of a backbeat and synthy rubato on “September Song” makes for fascinating tension, while the team drives on “Heavy Artillery” and are peppy while they provide a taffy pull on the funky “Anniversary Song”. The 5/4 dance on “Hungaria” has Abbasi’s digits dancing in delight while some touches are stroked on the organic “Douce Ambiance”. Django Djams!