Harris Eisenstadt: Canada Day III (2012)

GLENN ASTARITA,

Glenn Astarita

Senior Contributor since 1997

Longtime contributor to AAJ and Downbeat, Jazz Review, EjazzNews, Radio DirectX.

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Published: July 13, 2012

Track review of "The Magician of Lublin"

Drummer Harris Eisenstadt has gained steam on the progressive jazz front, largely due to his complex and harmonically variant compositions amid glittering support from like-minded musicians who often lead solo careers as well. His Canada Day band reemerges with a strong program, seeded in multidimensional jazz-tinged spinoffs, featuring free form segments, intricately executed structural components and other factors.

Bassist Garth Stevenson Garth Stevenson
launches "The Magician of Lublin," with a creaky and cranky arco bass riff, segueing the band into a crisp, yet restrained mid-tempo swing vamp. Here, vibraphonist Chris Dingman Chris Dingman
b.1980
vibraphone takes charge via his softly resonating lines, followed by the hornists' linear and odd-metered unison choruses. Soloing ensues as the frontline injects many emotive qualities into the schema, with Eisenstadt kicking it up a few notches, only to throttle it back.

Ultimately, the musicians explore, counteract, and work within an airy and wide open soundscape. The players trace the storyline either with temperance or by rendering edgy intonations atop swing and bop parameters. However, they variegate the pitch and close the piece out with zesty choruses, treated with unconventional time signatures.

Eisenstadt produces yet another winning combination of ideas and disparate formats, and leads his band into a many-sided incursion, sparked by his thought-provoking compositions.

Personnel: Nate Wooley: trumpet; Matt Bauder: tenor saxophone; Chris Dingman: vibraphone; Garth Stevenson: bass; Harris Eisenstadt: drums, compositions.

Record Label: Songlines Recordings
Style: Modern Jazz