Lena Bloch, Feathery

Lena Bloch plays the tenor saxophone. Like Richard Tabnik, whose music we considered a few days ago, she has been influenced by the Tristano school of jazz players. In her case she fell in with Lee Konitz after some considerable shedding and found that Konitz, Marsh and Tristano himself gave her something, a base within which she could express her individuality.

Her debut album, after much dues paying, shedding and gigging, is with us. Feathery (Thirteenth Note 006) gives us a good look at her music in a quartet setting--with Dave Miller on guitar, Cameron Brown, bass, and Billy Mintz, drums.

It's a wide-ranging set with a couple of Tristano school numbers and some band originals. They alternate between a swinging pulse bop and post-bop approach and some more free expressions. She is a looser player than someone like Konitz in his typical identity. She is not a line weaving speed-demon here as much as a player with real creative inventive qualities.

The band plays a full four-way role with plenty of time and space for their soloing and interacting.

Lena comes through with an interesting, even exciting debut. I hope we continue to hear from her and see where she goes but for now this is a promising start.

Jacob Varmus, Terminal Stillness

Everything that moves lives. Music moves yet. Music is still alive. Music is very much alive in the mind and trumpet playing of Jacob Varmus. His album Terminal Stillness (self-released) gives you plenty of evidence.

Jacob has a beautiful sound, perhaps slightly reminiscent of Kenny Wheeler and perhaps Dave Douglas at times in that medium-hard purity of execution. He writes some very nice music in a kind of post-ECM lyrical mode. He gives us a great version of "Ju-Ju" too. And he fronts a band that has talent, subtlety and Kris Davis on piano (who we've gotten to know and love from her Clean Feed sides especially).

This session is from 2006, but it doesn't matter WHEN because it comes across as beyond time. Varmus is a talent, a beautiful player and composer-arranger. That's what this disk tells me and I am glad everytime I hear it.

More, please. Thank you!

Chris Greco Quartet, Trane of Thought, 1994

Why does an album as good as Trane of Thought (GWS FourWinds 71959), recorded in 1994, take so long to come out? Whatever the reasons, they aren't about the musical quality. To the credit of composer-saxophonist Chris Greco, he's been very prolific, creating compositions that are getting attention, and like all of us he has to raise money to eat as priority no. 1. And in the end it doesn't matter, as long as the music is here now.

This is a grouping of eight Greco compositions plus Mal Waldron's classic "Soul Eyes," played by a together quartet of Greco on reeds, electric guitarist Brad Rabuchin, Dean Taba on acoustic bass, and Kendall Kay on drums and conga.

The music has a post-Trane torque (though Greco doesn't sound like Trane exactly, more himself) but with the changed texture that the substitution of guitar for piano can bring. Rabuchin comps nicely and can solo well too and Greco has a very creative solo approach. The rhythm section swings and burns with a quiet but busy fire. And the pieces have genuine substance.

I am sorry I missed this Greco conflagration back then, but very glad to catch up with them now. This is a real sleeper!

David Bindman Ensemble, Sunset Park Polyphony

The David Bindman Ensemble, in their recent 2-CD opus Sunset Park Polyphony (self-released), follows in the footsteps of ensembles dedicated to modern jazz composition and adventurous improvisation. Like the ensembles of Henry Threadgill, Dave Holland, and Tim Byrne, this band's music has structured compositional elements interwoven with contemporary soloing that is not quite free in the sense of Ayler or Ornette, but neither is it tied into bop-lifting, according to the jazz detective I hired to investigate.

All humor aside (and perhaps it is already aside anyway) the ensemble has much going for it with Bindman's compositions, his alto and his tenor, plus Wes Brown on contrabass, Royal Hartigan, drums, Art Hirahara, piano, Frank London, trumpet and flugel, and Reut Regev on trombone.

This is Bindman's showcase and that of his ensemble. If they keep moving in this direction they'll have something. Perhaps they might free it up a little bit more often but that's just my gut reaction. Nice music.