Jay Rosen Quartet: Canticles For The New Millennium

Jay Rosen is rapidly becoming a drummer of choice within New York City’s fertile modern jazz/improv scene. Rosen has been involved on numerous sessions for the C.I.M.P label despite the fact that the liners indicate he is not the house drummer for the label. Yet the artist mans the helm on this recent release titled, Canticles For The New Millennium, featuring West Coast woodwind specialist, bandleader and composer Vinny Golia, trumpeter Paul Smoker and frequent collaborator, saxophonist Mark Whitecage.

Rosen leads this bass-less quartet through various episodic pieces spearheaded by his resonant bass drum, polyrhythmic excursions and fervent time keeping. The set opens with the aptly titled, “Intro Please” where the musicians state supple themes yet pursue climactic evolvement via the drummer’s pulsating rhythms and the soloist’s sassy dialogue and storming convergence. With the track titled, “Ah Stenato!” (ostinato) the band surges forward with the spirited conviction of military pilots engaged in a simulated dogfight. Here, Rosen works through odd-metered funk-backbeats amid the soloist’s harmonious three-way dialogue and intensifying conveyance of excitement and adventure.

Essentially, Canticles For The New Millennium is all about musician’s leaving their egos at the door. - Here, everyone chips in mightily as each player contributes to the overall sound via some slightly distorted yet communicable sense of harmony and coalescence. After all, there is an art to improvising and for those who still don’t get it, you might want to check into this thoroughly impressive effort brought to you by some of the best in the business........

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