Joe Bowden: Music Is Life (Independent)
Award-winning musician Joe Bowden is back with a stellar lineup and stylish tunes. Music Is Life comes nearly 15 years after the drummer started to compose and record his own music. Based in Toronto, though born in Nova Scotia, he has made a name for himself crafting and solidifying his style of jazz fusion. With the terrific Warren Wolf on vibraphone, Manuel Valera on piano, Rich Brown on electric bass and Mike Downes on acoustic bass, the quintet has a mellow sound that retains sonic surprises that pierce through.
Jazz fusion can sometimes go on the wild and chaotic side, leaning into more expressionistic avenues. But like Pat Metheny, this Canadian drummer keeps the material light. Impulse Response fully incorporates Wolf’s technical skills, allowing for a lively atmosphere to emerge. On many of the tracks, it is Wolf who offers a specific sound to the group. Both bassists are energetic and can solo around whoever has the melody and Valera similarly supports and simultaneously takes centre stage without leaving the listener behind.
We also get some vocals, as on Way Out. Though the singer comes off as flat, the backing instrumentals shine without blemish. (Someday is a more sophisticated vocal piece that employs a gospel and protest-song style.) Later, The Next Step displays not only Bowden’s compositional abilities but the team’s ability to play together, smooth and sleek. There is also a vague Henri Mancini-ness, a whimsy, a bubbliness; as in, a modern version of the 60s film Charade might include these tunes. But we also get more extraterrestrial-sounding material like The Way, which plays with reverb. On all the tracks, there is a jovial mood. After all, a bandleader does not have to be forceful when all the musicians get along so well.
Julian Shore: Sub Rosa (Chill Tone)
The jazz trio is a standard setup. However, the musicians are the ones who really make the arrangement fresh, and on Sub Rosa pianist Julian Shore joins up with bassist Martin Nevin and drummer Allan Mednard. On their second effort together, the group prove they can blend and flow together with ease. It is this heartfelt collaboration that brings out the colourful elements in Shore’s compositions.
Must Keep Going nicely highlights his shifting moods without getting chaotic. He begins with jabs and darts, then he turns to runs and twirling phrases. It further transforms into something smoothed out with careful rhythmic accents. Blues in Blueprint slows the album down, allows it a breathe. Though not something you’d hear from Muddy Waters or Taj Mahal, the piece moves and has a vaguely Erroll Garner sound. Shore balances the tones and moods on the release well; he doesn’t become static. Even with only three instruments, it continues to be an amazing feat, the ability to have such dynamics and versatility over 10 tracks.
Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulders) comes off as more old school. Perhaps it is the relaxed tempo, but there is an air of sophistication that lingers delicately. Though a few songs pass by more underwhelmingly, the whole brings the threesome’s skillset to excellent use. Sub Rosa ends on Pegasus (excerpt), and it is a kooky little tune. With it, the group gets into a jazz-fusion mode, not quite Pat Metheny, more Jazz Messengers – one wonders what the project would have metamorphosed into if that style had been explored further. Yet, Shore shows his stuff, giving the listener music that lives and that will, hopefully, live on into the future.
Feed LA: More Feed (ME002 Mighty Eye Records)
Berlin-based collective Feed LA hosts members from two other bands – deep-funk outfit Poets of Rhythm and future-jazz group Faruk Green, for a fun time. Their project More Feed plays with funkified, psych-tinged and groovy sound. The fact that they cut each session live to tape shows their sense of the organic, their appetite for fluid playing and an unfolding of sound. Movement is everything to this Berlin group; they are on their toes, ready to mix things up.
Der Erste Dritte Tag (We Were Young) might come second on the release, but it is a soul-filled excursion. With Daniel Ray Gahn on drums and Michael “Treetop” Voß on trumpet, the piece makes its mark; it can become slightly entangled and messy, but these layers and musical lines give texture. Striezl Stuck keeps the psychedelic and reverberating vibes coming, but now Özgür Bayraktar on keys takes centre stage. The change in tempo further builds the hallucinogenic feeling, compelling the listener to pay attention yet still get lost in the sound. Bassist Jeff Özdemir keeps the players on track.
Having a variety of track lengths heightens the contrasting aspects of the tunes. Some are under 40 seconds, and some are over seven minutes. A group that can shift and slide and shake is a group worth listening to. Last Orders gives off late night in Paris and Miles Davis in a smoky jazz-bar atmospheres. There is a sense of excitement, as if something unexpected is about to appear or has the potential to do so. More Feed follows up their previous eponymous album (2023, Wax Thematique) in consistent ways while also adding in new flavours. Both incorporate Afro-influenced vocals, again showing a willingness to be inclusive and open to different sonic sensibilities. The group is clearly enjoying themselves, and it’s hard not to get into the swing with them.
