Much-lauded Slovakian saxophonist Nikola Bankov had more or less done my head in with his screaming alto by two-thirds of the way through this much-heralded album. Much-heralded, one suspects, by promoters and record producers seeking the new and marketable in the much-cropped acres of jazz fusion.
In jazz-rock, it’s rock that’s often the pachyderm in the palace. That deadbeat dead beat of rock drumming, whose echoes of prog-arena excesses cannot be stifled even by today’s more sophisticated electronica, represents the old and threadbare. There’s plenty of gizmo creativity on an album of Bankov compositions arranged by him, but everything too often descends into anthem-like cacophony.
The appearance of trumpeter Randy Brecker doubling flugelhorn soloist on just two tracks is possibly a wasted opportunity in view of the fruits of his collaborations with other European musicians and the space they accord him (Bankov is based in Denmark). Odd, too, the barely decipherable rapping of Bacc El on the opening mixed-tempo track, with no other reference whatsoever to the genre and where Bankov’s yawping is partnered by Jonas Gravlund’s snarling guitar.
One seeks subtlety in the rock crevices, as it were. They have their source in August Korsgaard’s keyboard when an ethereal, almost magical, atmosphere is being established at the start of the brief Sketch 1 and in the celestial state sought on Heaven On Earth, notable for an extended solo by the accomplished bassist Jens Mikkel Madsen.
Plugs are pulled momentarily on In The Zone for Brecker to say something interesting and at length, though the “cutting” episode with Bankov on Dream Chaser is stilted and doesn’t work. If only Flight had stayed in orbit instead of descending to a temporal stadium clouded in dry ice.
This is a frustrating album. There’s talent aplenty, but it’s employed to cover old ground. If Bankov is to be “the bright young cat with fresh grooves” described by one critic, he should step on to untrammelled pastures.
Discography
(1) Soul Purpose; (2) Dream Chaser; (1) Flight; Sketch 1; Heaven On Earth; Traveler; Sketch 2; (2) In The Zone (36.13)
Bankov (as); Jonas Gravlund (g); August Korsgaard (kyb); Jens Mikkel Madsen (b); John Riddell (d). Aarhus, Denmark, September 2021. (2) add Randy Brecker (t, flh).
AMP Music and Records ATO 111
