Juan Dhas: Catharsis

Acutely adept at both the simmer and boil of his mercurial compositions and a fluid improviser, guitarist/composer Juan Dhas, a Summa Cum Laude graduate from the Berklee College of Music at the age of twenty, proves himself a maturing, expansive and ever thoughtful player on Catharsis.

As first heard on Embracing Clarity, his self produced 2014 debut, Dubai-born and Bogota-based, twenty-four year old Dhas has quickly developed an elementally warm, crisp, and highly accessible tone that gives free wing to fully probe his articulate imaginings. "Reverie" opens with a ballet of clear, ringing lines settled within the assured confines of his equally agile rhythm section of upright bassist Kike Harker and the shivery, light touch of drummer Ramón Berrocal. Like advance scouts, Harker and Berrocal open the way for Dhas to follow his many studied leanings, be it the John McClaughlin inspired ballad "Alma," which starts out diaphanous and dreamy, only to evolve into a slow, emotional burner, or the Pat Metheny float and fusion of "Deeper Spirit." "If I Only Could" is a richly contoured, yearning solo. "Story of Night" and "Beacons" then propels Dhas, Kike, Harker and Catharsis into more elastic, outer realms of dynamic interplay and shimmering, melodic wanderings. It's assuring to know this adventurous player is in our listening future.