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Keefe Jackson Quartet: Seeing You See
ByFormer Ken Vandermark 5 trombonist Jeb Bishop (The Engines, Lucky 7's), ubiquitous bassist Jason Roebke (Jason Adasiewicz, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Mike Reed, Jason Stein) and Japanese drummer Nori Tanaka (Jason Ajemian, Jeff Parker) are all regulars in the fertile Chicago scene. Their stylistic familiarity with Jackson's writing lends this date a thematic cohesiveness common to the current Chicago sound. A traditionalist at heart, Jackson's compositions offer subtle alterations to classic jazz conventions rather than radical re-contextualization.
From the pneumatic hard bop swagger of "Eff-Time" and "Turns To Everything" to the aleatoric meditations "Since Then" and "Close," Jackson and company instill each of these varied pieces with a sense of congenial interplay and cohesive logic. "Maker" and "Word Made Fresh" demonstrate Jackson's debt to past masters; the former tune rides aloft a languid Ornette Coleman-esque melody, while the later burns with a frenzy reminiscent of Albert Ayler's ESP-Disk sides. Delving deeper into tradition, "If You Were" abstracts the blues, while "How-A-Low" and the title track wax poetic as supple ballads.
Jackson's vociferous tenor saxophone and pliant bass clarinet are ably complemented by Bishop's garrulous slide work. Together they make a dynamic front-line, their understated ruminations on "How-A-Low" the inverse of the coruscating sheets of sound that dominate "Word Made Fresh." Their muted statements on "Since Then" drift across the threshold of audibility, while "Maker" finds them trading vociferous ideas at the speed of thought.
Roebke and Tanaka are a superlative pair, providing insistent forward momentum to the rubato title track as efficiently as they keep the boppish "Put My Finger On It" in the pocket. Their elastic timing is omnipresent throughout the date, with Roebke's pensive behind the beat phrasing on "If You Were" and Tanaka's vacillating tempo displacements on "Turns To Everything" notable examples of their prowess.
An excellent debut on par with his efforts in Project Project and Fast Citizens, Seeing You See is another magnificent example of the current Chicago jazz scenetraditionally aware, but conceptually forward thinking.
Track Listing
Maker; If You Were; Put My Finger On It; How-A-Low; Eff-Time; Seeing You See; Turns To Everything; Since Then; Word Made Fresh; Close.
Personnel
Keefe Jackson
saxophoneKeefe Jackson: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Jeb Bishop: trombone; Jason Roebke: bass; Noritaka Tanaka: drums.
Album information
Title: Seeing You See | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Clean Feed Records
Comments
About Keefe Jackson
Instrument: Saxophone
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