Dan Weiss: Even Odds

To say that "It Is What It Is"—regarding drummer/composer Dan Weiss's feverish first track on the fervently episodic Even Odds—misses the whole point entirely. It could be anything. And within its spacious yet oddly claustrophobic three-and-a-half minutes, evolutions come and go in real time. And real time is a bitch if you cannot keep up.

It is a wild statement but one that needs to be said, especially at the onset of music such as Even Odds. It means to herald its brash sentiment loud and clear; without apology or regret. Thus, the solo inspiration of "Recover the Mindset" is a virtual cakewalk of swinging soul and shuffling blues. Weiss preludes the stark quirkiness of "M and M" (named no doubt after his lone wolf collaborators, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon and pianist Matt Mitchell) ending with the lake-like ying, "Horizontal Lifestyle" and its yang "Vertical Lifestyle."

Free jazz is what it is because of trios like these: Zenón knows no limits, Mitchell has only one gear: exultation. Weiss digs into each characteristic and lets the fur fly. That is why the mad, locomotive energy of "Five To Nine," stands tall among other odds and ends as the parentally brooding "The Children of Uvalde." The capacious "Bu." The trance-like ecosystem supporting "Rising." The jumpy, jumbled meters that give "Nineteen to the Dozen" its exuberant charm.

It is no improperly stored, top-secret classified document that Weiss has for years sought to test the waters. His previous work alongside Zenón and Mitchell as well as Rudresh Mahanthappa, Florian Weber, Jon Irabagon, and Jamie Baum solidly testifies to that. So, whatever Weiss' compositional reasoning—it is explained in the PR that the drummer hoped to expand his explorations into other unknowns by finding the balance between aforementioned free rein and more traditionally schemed (even if somewhat and loosely) structures—the twenty wildly free and engrossing tracks of Even Odds has a resolute consciousness that is hard to defy.

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