Two albums of mallets for your palates.
Chien Chien Lu plays both vibes and marimba on this post bop collection of originals and covers with a core team of Shedrick Mitchell/b, Richie Goods,dr and guests Jeremy Pelt/g, Zuintin Zoto/g, Ismel Wignall/perc, Lisa Lee/voc and a string section of Yoojin Park/vi-Phoebe Tsai/cel.
The strings sweep on the bluesy and soundtracky “We Live In Brooklyin Baby” with Mitchell’s electric bass coaxing things along here and also on the soulful “Blind Faith” with some nice wrist action delivered on vibes and marimba. Pelt’s warm horn hiply weaves through the sizzling “Invitation” and Zoto’s guitar gets into a gospel gear on “Mo’ Better Blues”. There is a collection of vignettes of “Path Interludes” that combine electronics and voices that finally climax into a rich complete track. Most alluring is the lovely read of the jazz standard “Blue In Green” with rich mallets teamed with organ for a kind of blue mist. Confident sticks.
Vibist Ben Zucker leads a quartet of pianist Mabel Kwan, bassist Eli Namay and drummer Adam Shead through a four part suite along with four other intuitive originals. The “Fifth Season” collection spotlights Shead in a playful groove on “II” , Kwan stretching out on “I” and getting delicate during the dainty “III”. The team is loose and dramatic on “Sussurigation” with some mix of bass and tympany going abstract on “Sixth Skin Pataforming”. Sticks used as paint brushes.