Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Marko Djordjevic & Sveti, Something Beautiful 1709-2110

When a band gets a froth going, gets a kind of late-bop, post-Trane kick to it like later Lee Morgan and some of the Trane-influenced outfits of that late-'60s early-'70s and beyond period, I perk up and pay attention. That happened to me from hearing the opening "grooves" on with Serbian-born drummer Marko Djordjevic and his group Sveti on Something Beautiful 1709-2110 (Goalkeeper).

It's a hard-hitting set of very solid Djorjevic numbers played by a trio of the drummer and Bobby Avey on piano, Desmond White on acoustic bass. For half the set the band is ably augmented by the tenor of either Eli Degibri or Tivon Pennicott.

Djordjevic is an excellent drummer with great forward momentum, strong swing and his own sort of busy flourishes. With Avey pushing some hard comping in a post-Tyner vein and White laying down a rock solid bass foundation, things set up nicely for a three way cooking that allows Djordjevic to show his original heat in a very good light.

But it is strong modern mainstream hard jazz in the whole sense, not "just" a drummer's showcase. Avey plays strongly and the two tenors when present account well for themselves.

The final element that brings it all together are the tunes. Marko pens some really effective vehicles and that makes it all stand out and hang together start-to-finish. It's not all burners. There are some balladic changes of pace too. And there are traditional Serbian influences there also on melody lines and time signatures now and again.

This is a well-paced scorcher of an album. Don't miss it.

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