Martin Iaies featuring Julian Arguelles: New Beginnings

Born in Argentina but resident in Graz, Austria since 2019, Martin Iaies' aptly titled New Beginnings is the guitarist's second album, following Rewind & FF (El Club del Disco, 2018). And it is a zinger.

In Graz, Iaies completed formal guitar studies in 2022, and recorded New Beginnings the same year. He leads a quartet of Austrian-based musicians: Serbian bassist Miloš Čolović, drummer Andreas Reisenhofer and British saxophonist Julian Arguelles, the eldest player in the lineup, who teaches at the KUG Jazz Institute in Graz. Argüelles is one of the several singular artists who emerged from the off-the-wall Loose Tubes big band in London in the 1980s and, while each of the other three musicians on New Beginnings is a serious talent, Argüelles' inclusion is the icing on the cake.

Iaies writes that he was first inspired to take up the guitar by listening to Pat Martino and that his idol is John Scofield, but the first echo of another guitarist on the album is that of Charlie Hunter on the opening track. Built on a minor blues, "Pascanas #5" is exactly the sort of tune one would have heard from Hunter circa 2001 and Songs From The Analog Playground (Blue Note). Argüelles joins on track two, "Castelar," contributing an intense, vocalized soprano saxophone solo that Iaies, in his liner notes, says is one of the album's most powerful moments. He is right. Argüelles turns in another outstanding soprano solo on track three, "Zamba Para Fio" (see YouTube below), a poignant ballad based on the traditional Argentine dance the zamba (nothing to do with its homophone, samba). The next four tracks, which include a Brazilian samba in "El Mineirazo," feature Argüelles on tenor.

With all his experience, it is not surprising that Argüelles is the album's most memorable soloist, but Iaies is no slouch. He also wrote all eight tunes, which have character, and which together span straight-ahead and more experimental jazz along with the Argentine and Brazilian forms. "21/9" wears its debt to Scofield on its sleeve. Closer "PM," was written by Iaies the day he learnt of Martino's passing but is not in any way Martino-esque.