Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Jack Gold Quartet: Daylight

123

Jack Gold Quartet: Daylight

By

Sign in to view read count
Jack Gold Quartet: Daylight
Daylight, a set of "instantly composed" tunes, opens with a seaching blend, trumpet, sax, bass and drums poking around for common ground, arguing and jostling each other for position until Michael Monhart's tenor saxophone asserts itself, sounding raw and wounded. Then Jim Knodle's trumpet takes a turn, straight at you, with a bit a truculence in his tone. The song is "So-No," and an undercurrent of ready-to-explode intensity pervades, even in the lower tempos.

The "spontaneous composition," "free jazz" side of sound proves itself an aquired taste here, with lots of contentious interplay that includes generous and welcome doses of "small percussion," clatters and rattles that add interesting textures to the horns/bass/drums approach. The impression here is of a spirited and high energy CIMP session group influenced by the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

"Spiritual" lies back a bit, in contrast to the opener, coming in with that "small percussion" and Michael Bisio's loping bass, with Michael Monhart switching—a few minutes in—from tenor to soprano saxophone, leaning Eastward with long, sweet sinuous lines.

Jack Gold holds down the drummer's seat, and this is one of those you might guess, based on a blind listen, is a drummer-led effort. His percussion mode is often aggressive in a way that keeps his band sounding fiery and on edge, by turns pushing things toward chaos then reigning the sound back in structure's direction. He sounds like roiling thunderhead clouds on "Shelter." And having said that, Gold goes mainly textural on the disc's closer, "Homeless," behind a relatively straight-ahead horn duel.

Not for those uninitiated in the joys of instantly composed sounds, but a bracing and invigorating listen to those who've been there.

Track Listing

So-No, Spiritual, Out Alone, Shelter, Nightfall, Homeless

Personnel

Michael Monhart--soprano and tenor saxophones; Jim Knodle--trumpet, small percussion; Michael Bisio-accoustic bass; Jack Gold--drums, small percussion

Album information

Title: Daylight | Year Released: 2004 | Record Label: Sol Disk

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

What Was Happening
Bobby Wellins Quartet
Laugh Ash
Ches Smith
A New Beat
Ulysses Owens, Jr. and Generation Y

Popular

Eagle's Point
Chris Potter
Light Streams
John Donegan - The Irish Sextet

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.