What came first: the vision or the title? Nashville bassist Chris Mondak saw individuals inside glass bubbles, hence the cover of his album, which shows members of his quintet inside their individual light bulbs. It doesn’t suggest the barrier-free paradigm of connectedness and cooperation one associates with jazz, but let’s leave that for the moment.
Venezuela-born Mondak graduated from the New England Conservatory in 2020, where his teachers had been Cecil McBee, Dave Holland and Bob Moses. Former college classmates Hunter Smith (tenor sax) and Gabe Feldman (piano) join him, North Texas University alumnus Lindon McCarty (guitar) and Australian drummer Chris Broomhead in the quintet.
The quintet’s essaying of Mondak’s charts and arrangements is well-intentioned but sometimes raw and less than fully persuasive. In having a go at everything from swing to free improv, they perhaps overstretch themselves when concentration on one might have yielded more satisfying results.
In Sleep has some avant-garde meandering followed by a break-out after a long-held sax note and then some manic drumming; by default it shows how difficult it is to play in a style that many still think beyond the pale. Pop-inspired, The Only One has sax above repeated guitar phrases and some rimshot-like taps and a rock beat, but it’s all a bit dreary. The opening Low is conventional mid-tempo swing with a queue of soloists and some unsurprising final trading between principals and drums. Juicy Red is a good-time tune with more rota solos and a perfunctory ending.
The most successful track was probably the easiest to perform. Hats Off pays respects to street carnivals and second line but, like the opening of the driven Oath Keeper (inspired by Game Of Thrones), it’s a bit unfocused.
Mondak left college to face – as did the rest of the industry – “difficult times”. So there’s a long career ahead and hopefully less difficult times to build on this album’s undeniable enthusiasm. But eagerness in music-making will not stand alone.
Discography
Low; Oath Keeper; Brume; In Sleep; Juicy Red; The Only One; Hats Off (40.53)
Hunter Smith (ts); Gabe Feldman (p); Lindon McCarty (g); Mondak (b); Chris Broomhead (d). Nashville, 21 December 2020.
Summit Records DCD 792
