Jason Adasiewicz's Sun Rooms: From the Region

An imagined overheard conversation in heaven between Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi goes something like this: "If only all music could swing this hard, there would be no need for war."

Okay, maybe it wasn't MLK and Gandhi, but it could have been Horace Silver and Joey Ramone.

In a trio format, Vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz picks up his mallets where Sonny Rollins set down his saxophone after recording the classic trio date A Night At The Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 1957). Maybe a better comparison would be to the rock trios, Cream, Nirvana, or The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Adasiewicz's From The Region is a power trio recording masquerading as a jazz band.

This, their third recording, follows a self-titled debut (2010) and Spacer (Delmark, 2011). The lineup has changed with Norwegian bassist (now Austin, TX resident) Ingebrigt Håker Flaten replacing Nate McBride. His other bands, The Thing (with Mats Gustafsson and Paal Nilssen-Love), The Young Mothers, Atomic, and Raoul Björkenheim's Scorch prepare him for Sun Rooms' audacious attack. Same for drummer Mike Reed, whose morphing ensemble People Places and Things, is a thoroughly modern band that doesn't lack for reverence for tradition.

The impetus is explained by Adasiewicz in the liner notes, "We are all drummers in this band, and we all want to swing."

From the outset the rat-a-tat flavors "Lezza." Adasiewicz's vibes clang more than ring, pound instead of chime, and reverberate instead of resonate. When he plays opposite Haker-Flaten, as he does on "Classic Route," his notes ricochet off a tenacious bass groove. The trio here pushes (and pulls) against each other constantly, like a power trio, except the dialect they speak is jazz. Even though Adasiewicz is comfortable in the free jazz modality and can be found in collaborations with Peter Brötzmann, here the emphasis is placed on swing. But not your fathers-Milt Jackson-swing. Sun Rooms begins with Bobby Hutcherson's work on Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch (Blue Note, 1964) then upsizes the vibraphone as the force majeure. Credit must also go Mike Reed, a self contained power unit, who sparks his partners adherence to road-mapping a rhythmic pattern throughout.