Chad Taylor and Smoke Shifter at the Jazz Gallery

The most excellent album, Smoke Shifter (Otherly Love Records, 2025), places Chad Taylor in the foreground as a bandleader, but his enduring presence onstage is evidenced by a long career built on deep collaborations. He is widely recognized for his close musical bond with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, an association that ranges from duo work to trios to their standout, acclaimed Molecular Systematic Music Quartet. That same responsive intelligence has shaped Taylor's roles across the various Chicago Underground projects and with artists such as Marc Ribot and Fred Anderson. Taylor has long been a leading drummer in the creative jazz scene, prized for his feel, his imagination, and his ability to lend shape to a group sound.

The Chad Taylor Quintet debuted the album for a small but enthusiastic audience at the Jazz Gallery on December 13, 2025. The group features Taylor on drums, Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet, Bryan Rogers on tenor sax, Victor Vieira–Branco on vibraphone, and Matt Engle on bass. I have had the pleasure of hearing Finlayson and Taylor many times, but the other musicians were new to me. From the first note, the quintet sounded less like a leader with sidemen than a unit with a shared language. Over the course of the set, they moved fluidly between tightly drawn melodic material and open, exploratory stretches, deftly straddling the usual inside and outside boundaries.

The performance opened with Don Cherry's "Elephantasy," a free jazz touchstone whose joyous, infectious quality set the tone. Taylor laid down a loose-limbed groove that immediately got heads nodding, and Finlayson and Rogers stated the playful, fanfare-like theme in spirited unison, capturing the buoyancy of Cherry's original. The trumpet and tenor dialogue resurfaced throughout the set as a kind of connective tissue and remained a recurring highlight.

Vieira Branco's vibraphone had a shimmering, almost startlingly modernist edge, bringing to mind contemporary players such as Patricia Brennan and Jason Adasiewicz. The sound grabs your attention and creates a subtle tension, a feeling of suspension that was especially effective in the band's more spacious passages. It also stood apart from more traditional vibraphone approaches that lean on groove and blues inflection, which is a great tradition with a different aesthetic aim.

The group then shifted to material from the album, beginning with "Avian Shadow," a tune by bassist Engle. It opens with a repeating bass line that sets a steady, slightly tense groove. Finlayson and Rogers played the main melody in unison, and the piece soon opened up for an intriguing vibraphone solo from Vieira Branco, whose percussive, melodic phrasing locked in tightly with Taylor's drumming.

The emotional center of the set arrived with "Waltz for Meghan," a Taylor composition. The ballad was handled with an easy warmth, the melody stated simply and without emotional overstatement. Finlayson on trumpet was especially compelling here, bringing a rounded, steady tone that matched the piece's intimacy. Engle's bass solo fit the mood as well, woody and lyrical, letting the line sing as it moved into the upper register without drawing undue attention to itself, before easing the band back toward the theme.

The title track, "Smoke Shifter," settled into a mid-tempo groove shaded with melancholy. Here, the focus shifted to the interplay between Finlayson and Rogers, who moved beyond unison lines to engage in a distinct call-and-response dialogue. Their horns answered each other with conversational intimacy, weaving a spontaneous narrative over the rhythm section's steady pulse.

The set closed with two pieces that were smartly sequenced. "October 26," composed by Vieira Branco, leaned into sustained sound, the vibraphone ringing out to create a suspended, bell-like atmosphere. Here, the band made space part of the composition, letting resonance and decay carry the meaning as much as the notes themselves. The closer, "Broken Horse," a Rogers original, brought the night to its most charged point. Rogers built his solo patiently, moving from gritty rhythmic phrases into fierce upper register runs, pushing outside and meeting Taylor's forward drive head on. The intensity held through a tight exchange between Vieira Branco and Taylor, the vibraphone's percussive attack locking into the drums before the full band returned for the final theme.

The excellent set was built on a foundation of strong compositions and a cohesive unit that seamlessly bridged the gap between intricate melodic structures and a freer, more exploratory approach, creating a very satisfying musical experience.

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