Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » John Esposito / Jeff "Siege" Siegel / Jeff Marx: Inyo

240

John Esposito / Jeff "Siege" Siegel / Jeff Marx: Inyo

By

View read count
John Esposito / Jeff "Siege" Siegel / Jeff Marx: Inyo
Experiment with form lies at the heart of everything pianist John Esposito plays or composes. Whether he's exploring and redefining the language of the standard with his trio or writing for a large ensemble as on A Book of Five Rings (Sunjump, 2008), he has the ability to immerse himself completely in the form that's explored. This is also the case with Inyo, which is a collaboration with saxophonist Jeff Marx and drummer Jeff Siegel—both of whom played with Esposito in the group Second Sight.

Inyo takes its title from the Japanese and refers to the male and female principles that are known in Eastern philosophy as Yin and Yang. It's a very fitting title because if there's something that the album does, it is to unite unlikely opposites. Thus, the sound on the album could best be described as unquiet meditations or chaotic lyricism.

The key to understanding the challenging textures of Inyo, coming across as both melodically inviting and intellectually difficult, lies in the combination of instruments. The lack of a bass gives a decidedly more free feeling, with Esposito alternating between playing the bass patterns on the keys and painting abstract blocks of chords. However, the musical initiative changes all the time among the participants.

"Crescent Sound" starts off with Siegel entering the eye of the hurricane with a large battery of percussion sounds before saxophonist Jeff Marx takes some bold flights on the saxophone, as Esposito moves to the background.

"Chuckster" is humorous march, merging sly saxophone and semi-ragtime musings, while "Upward Decent," whose title itself is a paradox, combines a funky beat with Esposito's impromptu piano voicings.

"Horizon" ends the album, however, on a thoughtful note, with Marx's curling, windy lines and the soft tones of the piano falling like drops of rain from a tree. This is, to stay in the Eastern terminology, a true moment of musical Zen created by three masterful musicians.

Track Listing

Premonition; Thirteen Steaks/One Salmon; A Note to Myself; Fudoh I; Apprehensive; Crescent Sound; Inyo; The Chuckster; Upward Decent; Fudoh II; Horizon.

Personnel

John Esposito: piano; Jeff "Siege" Siegel: drums; Jeff Marx: saxophone.

Album information

Title: Inyo | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: Sunjump Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About 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 make 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.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves 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

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

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

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.