Rob Luft: Dahab Days

The beauty of holiday snapshots is that they can capture the good times (interesting places, pleasant sights) without necessarily reminding you of the possible downsides (weather issues, travel hassles, deadly pandemic, etc). Rob Luft's stay in Egypt might not have been a true vacation, considering that it came during a rampant period of Covid-19. Still, if his memories of the time included any lingering worry or uncertainty because of the circumstances, Dahab Days shows few discernible hints of it. He and his band spend this radiant hour musically basking in the sunshine.

Luft's third outing is the work of a consummate player, arranger and composer. The bouncy pieces evoke one sunny vista after another, dropping in some organic percussion or hints of minor Eastern scales without turning into pastiche. The title track evokes a leisurely river cruise with the leader's clean-toned guitar floating on the breeze; with the thoughtful likes of "African Flower" and "Endless Summer," he alternates his quicksilver lines with some hazy echoes to let his cohorts take turns at center stage. Joe Wright provides some particularly peaceful saxophone lines in those spots, topped only by Alice Zawadzki's dreamy vocalese drifting over an unobtrusive string quartet.

"Flim" makes the brightest spot of sunshine music with Wright's sax and Joe Webb's jaunty rolling piano alongside Luft's soaring fretworks, although the capering "Sunshine Music" itself is very close behind thanks to some chirpy penny whistle. The only overly Egyptian-sounding moment comes with a sinuous and lightly funky snake-charmer jam at the album's close, feeling like a patient wind-down at dusk—and a well-deserved one after such a fun and frisky romp. Dahab Days is a finely-crafted piece of work, thoroughly satisfying and uplifting.