Eric Hofbauer & the Infrared Band: Myth Understanding

Guitarist Hofbauer is a working definition of what it means to be respectful of the nebulous thing that is the tradition without treating it as though it's worthy only of reverence. It shows with this group just as much as it does in his work as a member of the Blueprint Project.

The music here is shot through with quirks so skillfully played that they seem integral to the success of its realization. There is for example, nothing even remotely self-conscious about "A Drunk Monk," wherein a line is seemingly subject to infinite variations and shadings making for deeply organic music, out of which Michael Montgomery's bass solo rises as naturally as the tide.

Reference has to be made to the very sound of this group. Although the precedents for tenor sax-guitar-bass-drums quartets are many, they still manage to make something fresh out of it, and in a manner so easy that it might leave listeners wondering why so few musicians seem to manage it. Kelly Roberge's tenor sax sound is dry without being parched, and on the likes of "Jac Mac Talkin'" and "Molecular Mischief" he rolls out certain phrases as if his knowledge of the music goes back at least as far as saxophonist Flip Phillips. The ebullience that implies however is not put to use for grandstanding purposes; if such a thing as joyous consideration is a viable contention then it's on offer in this instance.

Similarly, Hofbauer himself comes up with a take on jazz guitar that sidesteps the usual with easy aplomb, his paradoxically dry yet resonant tone enlivening the theme statement on the "The Chump Killer," where his solo is a model of telling understatement which only goes to show that the most compelling story is often the one delivered by a considered voice. The work of drummer Miki Matsuki on this one is also in the same mold yet seemingly alert to every twist and turn the music takes.

It all adds up to something special, not least because this is a group which seems to realize that the tradition is no end in itself but rather something that retains its validity only through periodic but ranging renewal.