Paul Dietrich's Elemental Quartet: A Small Patch of Earth

Anyone who spends much time watching contemporary instrumentalists on the internet is bound to come away impressed. Modern players, it sometimes seems, can do just about anything. And that is particularly true of some instruments in the brass family, where the advances in technique and range over just a half-century are particularly impressive. There are many trumpet athletes, able to leap impossible intervals in a single bound and circular breathe their way smoothly through half a concerto and generally play upstairs where only Maynard Ferguson or Cat Anderson were able to venture. As players say, this week's squeak is next week's note. It is, if nothing, slightly intimidating.

But then there is often something missing—music. Is there a melody here for the ear to contemplate? Is there any sense of structure other than another display of impressive, if empty virtuosity? All too often not. As Chet Baker was once reputed to have said, "If I could play that way, I wouldn't."

So one turns with some expectation to Paul Dietrich, a Midwestern trumpet player who seems less interested in yet another display of chops than an exploration of colors, moods and sonorities in A Small Patch of Earth.

Dietrich's quartet is his fifth album as a leader. Featuring a high level of interaction and improvisation, it draws inspiration from the natural world. Dietrich offers meditations on the middle range of the horn, with bass and guitar harmonizing his choice of notes. He favors pentatonic explorations. with titles like "Dust," "Confluence" and "Dry County." The music is spare and exploratory, displaying a minimum of decoration but often in open dialog with guitarist Matt Gold and bassist Brian Courage.

The compositions are original, and if there is any real drawback, it is that they mostly (but not completely) favor slower, adagio-like tempos. Drummer Devin Drobka thankfully makes no real effort to hurry things along. So one gets a sense of reflection, with pieces that occasionally sound academic, bordering on melodic free jazz, but are a welcome break from the din of so much improvisatory music. And then an occasional elegy breaks through. On the whole, this is music that is pretty but not precious or mannered. It manages to stay spontaneous even at relaxed tempos. The closing track, "Galaxies" which rolls along, overdubbed, in an odd meter almost seems boisterous, with faint echoes of a New Orleans second line. An interesting effort, by a polished group.