Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Gene Ess: Apotheosis

2

Gene Ess: Apotheosis

By

View read count
Gene Ess: Apotheosis
The inspiration for Apotheosis, Japanese-American guitarist Gene Ess's fourth album, is taken from mythologist James Campbell's book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces," first published in 1949. In this Campbell describes apotheosis as "the expansion of consciousness a hero experiences when defeating his foe."

His theories concerning fictional heroes have been used as a template by many modern writers and artists, including George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars films. Now Ess is applying them to jazz.

He hopes listeners to the album will experience apotheosis, just as he says he did when creating it. On the opening number, "The Return," he is helped by Thana Alexa's wordless vocals and Yasushi Nakamura's bass, followed by Sebastien Amman on piano. Along with the leader's guitar, they create a dense but always melodic entity.

With "Sands of Time" Ess (his full surname is Shimosato) attempts an aural portrait of Okinawa, Japan's southernmost, semi-tropical island, where he was raised on an American military base. Alexa ventures progressively into ever more stratospheric territory, until brought back down to earth by Ammann's piano.

"Same Sky" is based on a poem by Ess and Alexa, "Mine is the same sky we look to, you and I." This is followed by an existential, philosophical question, "How did our eyes learn to see differently?"

"Bluesbird" is wild, choppy and Eric Dolphy-esque. It's followed by Ess's "Tokyo Red" in which he seeks to capture the ambience of Shinjuku and Shibuya at night aided by some lowdown, bluesy piano from Ammann.

"Fireflies of Hiroshima" commemorates the dropping of the atomic bomb that helped to force Japan's surrender at the close of World War Two. It's remarkably lighthearted—the influence of the fireflies no doubt -but with hints of menace here and there. Ess dedicates the album to "those who have endured"—heroes one and all.

Track Listing

The Return; Sands of Time (Okinawa); Same Sky; Bluesbird; Tokyo Red; Fireflies of Hiroshima; Day for Night; Two Worlds.

Personnel

Gene Ess: guitar, synthesizer; Thana Alexa: vocals; Sebastien Amman: piano; Yasushi Nakamura: bass; Clarence Penn: drums.

Album information

Title: Apotheosis | Year Released: 2019 | Record Label: SIMP Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About 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 make 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.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves 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

The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante
All In Motion
Dave Redmond
Cat & The Hounds
Colin Hancock's Jazz Hounds Featuring Catherine...

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

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

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.