Alex Wintz: Collage

Grammy-nominated guitarist Alex Wintz is not only a frequent performer, both with his own group and with artists such as the trumpeters Etienne Charles and Jeremy Pelt and trombonist Nick Finzer, but also an educator on the faculty of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center Jazz for Teens program and a clever composer. Collage features six excellent original tunes along with the jazz standard "The Shadow of Your Smile" and George Harrison's "Isn't It A Pity" and follows Wintz's two prior releases as a leader, LifeCycle (Culture Shock Music, 2017) and the very well-regarded Live To Tape (Outside in Music, 2020). Wintz's outstanding band on this date—all of whom, like the leader, trained at the Berklee College of Music and/or Julliard School—features bassist Matt Penman, nimble drummer Jimmy Macbride and pianist Victor Gould. Collage is a continually engaging album of superb compositions played with taste, groove and swing.

Wintz gets a beautiful, pellucid tone from his Collings semi-hollow, heard immediately in album opener "Pondhop," inspired by the guitarist's international travels. Gould sits out this one, allowing Macbride's prominent tom accents and snare cross-sticking to drive this blues- based tune with a sunny West African twist to its prominent melody. The addition of Gould's piano vamp gives the gently swinging "Apt. 3C" a melancholy underpinning over which Wintz weaves a wistful melody that seems to invoke memories of past homes while moving into a new one. When Penman's deep-toned bass moves into a walking pattern under Gould's beautiful solo, Macbride's swing becomes jaunty, and the leader's own solo develops into one of his best on the record. Album highlight, "Innings Eater," begins with a meaty bass solo before settling into a wicked 5/4 groove eliciting wonderful interaction between the trio of Wintz, Penman, and Macbride. Special mention here should be made of the drummer's beautifully-tuned and well-recorded kit, with every subtle tom roll and hi-hat dynamic clear and present.

Gould's piano returns for the bouncy "Better Half," dedicated to—who else?—Wintz's wife Francesca. It is a lovely tune of muted riffs, harmonically rich chord progressions and well-placed pauses that sound like the punctuation at the end of the conversation's sentences. In "The Wheels of Justice," a kind of modified blues waltz for the core trio, Wintz puts on a clinic of classic modern jazz guitar playing, pausing towards the end to give Penman and a chance to shine in his subtle solo before trading fours with Macbride. Complementing Wintz's excellent original tunes is a refreshingly funky take on Johnny Mandel's "The Shadow of Your Smile" and "Isn't It A Pity," in which the core trio avoids the rather dirge-like feel of Harrison's original, instead adopting a wry groove that will have listeners dancing the despair away. Deserving of a wide hearing, Collage is a superb jazz guitar record featuring Wintz's memorable tunes played with finesse by a talented, sympathetic band.