Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Adam Rogers: Sight

325

Adam Rogers: Sight

By

Sign in to view read count
Adam Rogers: Sight
Guitarist Adam Rogers returns with Sight, an album that continues his exploration of heady originals and standards, in the trio format that, with Time and the Infinite (Criss Cross, 2007), took a left-turn from his earlier quartet and quintet records.

Surrounded by friends old and new on Time, with Sight Rogers returns to longtime drummer Clarence Penn after that brief hiatus. John Patitucci may replace equally longtime bassist Scott Colley, but they're hardly new acquaintances. Rogers spent plenty of time with Patitucci in the studio and on the road with the late Michael Brecker's Quindectet project, Wide Angles (Verve, 2003), resulting in a trio chemistry here that possesses both that wonderful "first encounter" energy, and no shortage of established empathy between the individual players. That best of both worlds makes Sight an improvement over the undeniably fine Time.

As meticulous here as in his sideman stint with saxophonist Chris Potter's Underground on Ultrahang (ArtistShare, 2009), in the director's chair Rogers is more decidedly cerebral, with often knotty and unpredictable compositions and arrangements. That doesn't mean a lack of resonance, however. Rogers' title track grooves mightily, a modal tune that opens with a vamp which could easily ratchet into the red zone were it not for the same dark, warm, and woody tone that largely defines Rogers playing throughout the disc, the one exception being his fairly literal look at the balladic standard "Beautiful Love," that Rogers makes his own on nylon-string guitar.

After emerging as a chops-meister in the 1980s with Chick Corea's Akoustic and Elektric bands, Patitucci has evolved into one of his generation's most important bassists. His work in Wayne Shorter's nearly decade-old quartet has contributed to the revitalization of the legendary saxophonist/composer's career, and he brings a similar telepathic elasticity to Rogers' trio. He constantly juggles the role of anchor with that of lyrical foil, and while he clearly still has chops to burn it's never in service of anything but the music. The near-classicism of Rogers' "Kaleidoscope" finds Patitucci acting as contrapuntal partner and harmonic focus for Rogers, whose lithe, graceful lines weave in and out of this ethereal composition with the increasing confidence that's marked the guitarist's trajectory for two decades.

Penn engenders loyalty, whether with Rogers or trumpeter Dave Douglas, in whose electro-acoustic quintet he's held the drum seat since inception nine years ago. Here he creates a stable but flexible pulse to Rogers' complex rhythmic, harmonic, and temporal rearrangement of Jerome Kern's "Yesterdays" and a more faithful version of Woody Shaw's enduring "The Moontrane," the latter a song that—with brass removed and guitar its primary melodic and chordal instrument—still swings, but with in a lighter, more open-ended fashion.

When compared to Kurt Rosenwinkel's standards-heavy Reflections (Wommusic, 2009), Sight is a more challenging and overtly virtuosic look at music that spans decades. For a younger generation of players, it's clear that music at the very foundation of jazz continues to provide inspiration for ultra-modern exploration.

Track Listing

Sight; I Hear a Rhapsody; Kaliedoscope; Yesterdays; Memory's Translucence; Let's Cool One; Hourglass; The Moontrane; Beautiful Love; Dexterity.

Personnel

Adam Rogers
guitar

Adam Rogers: guitars, piano (1); John Patitucci: bass; Clarence Penn: drums.

Album information

Title: Sight | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: Criss Cross

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

What Was Happening
Bobby Wellins Quartet
Laugh Ash
Ches Smith
A New Beat
Ulysses Owens, Jr. and Generation Y

Popular

Eagle's Point
Chris Potter
Light Streams
John Donegan - The Irish Sextet

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.