Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Ben Adams Quintet: Old Thoughts For A New Day

239

Ben Adams Quintet: Old Thoughts For A New Day

By

View read count
Ben Adams Quintet: Old Thoughts For A New Day
The vibraphone is not often a lead instrument, but Ben Adams brings it up front on this quintet outing featuring an erudite set of tunes that he wrote. The music breathes through several harmonic patterns, which makes it interesting all the way. The musicians contribute to make the experience all the more absorbing, maintaining focus and employing an impeccable sense of time and swing.

Adams chooses to open with "Avery's Bedtime Song, a lovely tune that floats gently on the flugelhorn of Erik Jakobsen, the nuances creating an elliptical path with their changes in emphasis. Mitch Marcus' tenor gives the melody a deeper hue, and with Adams' coming, the atmosphere becomes more relaxed. The band swipes into the upbeat with the sprightly bop of "Conversation with Martin. Sameer Gupta sets a pliant pulse on the drums before Marcus comes up with a big, brawny tone. Adams is lithe, indulging in the melody even as he pushes the structure and completes the lure.

The strongest quintet collaboration comes on "Pocket Fiction, which skips in happily, the buoyancy kick-started by the horns. Gupta's drumming is crisp, his accents changing on the cusp of the tempo. Adams swings lightly, his path lit by the language he evokes from the vibraphone. The beat and the mood take an angular turn on the dark lines brought in by Marcus. Finally, Jekabson gets into bop mode and brings the tune full circle, the weave now complete and quite splendid.

Track Listing

Avery's Bedtime Song; Conversation with Martin; Patron Saint of Lost Causes; The Actual; Sheltered Circle; Old Thoughts for a New Day; Pocket Fiction; Ghost at Infancy; Sea of Cortez.

Personnel

Ben Adams
vibraphone

Ben Adams: vibraphone; Erik Jekabson: trumpet, flugelhorn; Fred Randolph: acoustic bass; Mitch Marcus: tenor saxophone; Sameer Gupta: drums.

Album information

Title: Old Thoughts for a New Day | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Lunar Module 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.