Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Dan Marschak: Likewise

143

Dan Marschak: Likewise

By

View read count
Dan Marschak: Likewise
Dan Marschak's debut, Likewise, is a friendly jazz outing, showcasing the Los Angeles-based pianist/composer's compositional talents, piano chops and leadership role as both player and producer. With all but two of its ten tunes written by Marschak, its unconventional approach, melding elements of progressive, fusion, funk—even a touch of classical—makes for a varied and challenging first impression.

The introduction of the opening "Caffeine Dream" sounds eerily similar to the opening bars of Ogden Nash and Kurt Weill's standard, "Speak Low," but quickly develops a progressive texture, aided by Marschak on keyboards, and a strong showing from drummer Miles Senzaki. Co-written by Kalil Wilson, "I Love You" is the first of two vocal pieces, where both Wilson and singer Lindsay Noelle Jackson share the lyrics. Displaying a good measure of funk, with Marschak on Hammond organ, this is clearly the liveliest track of the set.

Offering a taste of contemporary sound, Marschak's "Body Heat" is one of the album's highlights, featuring Hitomi Oba on a burnished tenor solo, accompanied by Tom Altura's clever bass lines. Delving into the classical repertoire, Marschak introduces his "Variations On Brahms," performing the number with acoustic bassist Greg Swiller, continuing in the classical vein with a beautiful solo on the warmly-toned finale, "Hymn For A Quiet Man." On the disc's only other solo piano piece, Marschak glides across the keys, with a calm soft approach to the classic "You Don't Know What Love Is."

The music takes an unconventional twist on the fusion-tinged, modern "Elevated People," which highlights the instrumental voices of bass clarinetist Max Kaplan and alto saxophonist Justin Janer, continuing in the same vain with "Twelve." With its interesting and genre-varied repertoire of largely original music, Likewise turns out to be quite a challenging debut album from the young Marschak, a pianist whose talents—both as a composer and player—are well-displayed on this first effort.

Track Listing

Caffeine Dream; I Love You; Body Heat; Variations On Brahms; Calamari; Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You?; You Don't Know What Love Is; Elevated People; Twelve; Hymn For A Quiet Man.

Personnel

Dan Marschak: piano, keyboards, Hammond C3 organ; Kalil Wilson: vocals (2, 6); Lindsay Noelle Jackson: vocals (2, 6); Hitomi Oba: tenor saxophone (3, 5, 8, 9); Justin Janer: alto saxophone (8); Max Kaplan: bass clarinet (8); Tommy Folen: electric bass (2), guitar (6); Tom Altura: acoustic bass (3, 5, 8, 9), fretless electric bass (8); Greg Swiller: acoustic bass (1, 4); John Avila: fretless electric bass (1); Julian Hogan: drum (2, 6); Miles Senzaki: drums (1, 3, 5, 8, 9); Josh Duron: percussion (3, 5).

Album information

Title: Likewise | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Self Produced

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.