Juanma Trujillo: Howl

Guitarist Juanma Trujillo's Howl explores some of the ways acoustic guitar can flourish in a small jazz group setting. Instead of playing simple rhythm parts, he is fully engaged in the music made by his three bandmates. His tangled strumming makes an interesting counterpoint to Kevin Sun's barrelling tenor sax on "Catharsis." On "Howl," his abstract phrases pirouette over the stormy bustle of Matt Honor's drums and Andrew Schiller's bass before Sun storms in, stuttering and wailing off Trujillo's chords.

"Regular" is more in a Ralph Towner mode, with Trujillo picking deliberate phrases that are slowly shaded in by creeping bass and wispy tenor. All four instruments gradually combine to give this piece a feeling of dread. "Rojo" begins with a closely miked and intricate dance between guitar and drums, which gets a lively bounce when the bass enters. Then "Sun" comes in, jauntily honking and swinging, and the music eventually evolves into lumbering funk. A similar vibe emerges from the choppy rhythm of the closing track, "Instigation."

Trujillo's compositions on Howl are slyly unconventional. They blend acoustic guitar into the fabric of a saxophone trio to create frisky music with a layer of surprising grit. This results in unusual sounds which produce a full measure of sneaky fun.

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