BLINK: BLINK

It bears repeating: collective improvisation is far more challenging than individual soloing. It demands discipline, trust, and, as musicians like to say, exceptional ears. Composer and alto saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra's BLINK demonstrates all three, bringing together five musicians whose listening skills are as sharp as their instincts.

The project is built on Dijkstra's long-running Porch Trio, featuring electric bassist Nate McBride and drummer Eric Rosenthal. That core group previously expanded into a sextet for PorchBone (Driff, 2024). With BLINK, the trio adds two guitarists—Eric Hofbauer and Gabe Boyarin—to form a quintet with a strikingly elastic sound. Dijkstra conceived the music to move like flocks of birds or swarms of insects: constantly shifting, adjusting and finding form in motion. Influences range from African highlife and Indonesian gamelan to Delta blues guitar traditions, with the guitars tuned a quarter tone sharp to create subtle, intentional instability.

The album opens with "Rub," a web of interlocking intervals layered at different tempos, through which Dijkstra's alto saxophone threads like a guide rope. "Yet" unfolds a slowly emerging blues motif that slides seamlessly into Ornette Coleman territory. The connection to Coleman's Prime Time band—particularly its dual-guitar interplay—comes into sharper focus on "Hop," a piece with the taut precision of math rock, and "Pulse," which channels the buoyant drive of West African dance music. Throughout, the music maintains a continuous flow, layers folding and refolding in unpredictable but natural patterns. Dijkstra nods to one of his key inspirations, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, on "Shape," where the quintet pecks and darts through rapid-fire figures while maintaining a steady forward procession. The cinematic "Trans," originally composed for the 24-piece David Kweksilber Big Band, closes the album with a sense of restless travel: a caravan of sound that builds momentum but resists the lure of a final, climactic arrival.

With BLINK, Dijkstra transforms collective improvisation into a living ecosystem. Each musician listens and reacts with the sensitivity of a creature sensing changes in air currents, creating music that is alive to every flicker and shift. The destination matters less than the shared motion—the exhilaration of five distinct voices moving as one.

Comments