Kevin Brunkhorst: After the Fire

Guitarist Kevin Brunkhorst, an alumnus of the University of North Texas and its celebrated One O'Clock Lab Band, has been teaching jazz in Canada for more than two decades, and his able sidemen on After the Fire are from the Nova Scotia area, where the album was recorded in October 2023.

Brunkhorst moves seamlessly from acoustic to electric guitar while doubling as composer and arranger in a session that consists of seven of his original works. He shares the front line with trumpeter Paul Tynan and tenor saxophonist Kenji Omae, amplifying a rhythm section comprised of bassist Tom Easley and drummer Tom Roach.

The emphasis throughout is on leisurely to mid-tempo sketches wherein Brunkhorst, Tynan and Omae are free to improvise broadly, sharing for the most part concepts that are respectable albeit less than unique. In other words, well-spoken but otherwise unremarkable. The same can be said of Brunkhorst's well-written themes (one would expect no less from a musician with his experience) but they fail to elicit the sort of enthusiastic response that would separate them from the herd.

The overall impression is one of measured uniformity, a pleasant yet largely pedestrian nexus that would be extremely well-served by a blunt change of pace or two. Brunkhorst has the right idea, as far as it goes. The problem is, it does not go quite far enough, at least not on After the Fire, a lukewarm vessel in search of a fiery source to set it ablaze.