Each artist fills two discs up with music. That’s having something to say! More bang for your musical buck, to say the least…
Drummer Tony Moreno leads the most straight-ahead of the three releases, teaming up with the post bop team of Marc Mommaas/ts Ron Horton/tp, Jean-Michel Pilc/p and Ugonna Okegwo/b through a collection of cerebral and sophisticated originals. Pilc’s piano is crystalline and spacious, glowing with subtlety as Mommaas sighs on “Foxy Trot” and fluffs on the elliptical “Three For D’reen.” The team gets kinetic on “No Blues To You” and delivers hints of Monk on “Erroll Garner,” but most intriguing of all is a clever read of the war horse “C Jam Blues” that is slowed down to a soft ooze for Horton. Wonderful!
Pianist Dwiki Dharmawan mixes his Indonesian roots with forward looking jazz on this rewarding and thoughtful release. The two albums include a core team of bass (Yaron Stavi), drums-percussion (Asaf Sirkis), guitar (Mark Wingfield-Nicolas Meier) and the extra charms of reedist Gilad Atzmon, a rotating team of vocalists, and then some strings and orchestra for extra excitement. Nasal Indonesian voices meld with jazz senses on “Lir Ilir which is a traditional piece goosed up, while Atzmon’s clarinet (which sounds like it’s either in g or c) gets melancholy with the leader on “Bubuy Bulan” and drives like a stampede on soprano during “Frog Dance.” The team sounds like a remake of King Crimson on Robert Wyatt’s “Forest” with electric guitar while Zappa like voices and attitude careen on “London in June.” Chiming folk sounds meld with whirlwind strings on “Tjampuhan” and “Pasar Klewer” while you feel like you’re on a world tour of sounds. Exhilarating!
The trio of David Haney/p, David Bajda/g and Jorge Hernaez/b (hence the initials of the band’s name) create just under two hours of chamber moods. Haney’s piano is intimate with Harnaez on “ABACADA” and the free “Twelve Bars/Improve” and the trio gets subdued on “Night Sounding.” Soft bluesy sounds are emitted on “Dajo Half Step” and Asian pluckings give hints of a meditative moods during “Chronos of Lycea. Badja is sensitive in his musings, adding fragrances to “Resonance” and “Coming Sur” but the entire outing is a collection of small brushed watercolors.