Ben Rosenblum: The Longest Way Round

On The Longest Way Round, New York City-based pianist and composer Ben Rosenblum and his cutting-edge Nebula Project take listeners on a wild and exhilarating ride across musical boundaries, through multiple genres and around customary interactions to a destination that is as fresh and pleasing as it is creative and unique.

While contemporary jazz remains the core element, this is music whose broad framework flows beyond the confines of normal depiction to encompass a harmonic and rhythmic panorama that lends new meaning to the phrase "creative design." Rosenblum's compositions (he wrote and arranged every number) are shrewd and inventive with nary a trace of dubiety or discord. Even when treading more moderate paths, as he does for the most part on the second half of the album, Rosenblum always manages to find something clever and engaging to entice a listener's ear.

"Merengue x Fantasy," the session's opening number, is a case in point, as Rosenblum deftly uses the accordion to accentuate the song's charming melody and robust Latin rhythms as a springboard for sturdy solos by soprano saxophonist Jasper Dutz and trumpeter Wayne Tucker. An Irish ambience pervades the bright and convivial "Sheridan's Reel," whose seductive strains lead to the pleasurable three-movement suite, Scenes Frozen in Time, the first of which ("Berlin") reintroduces Rosenblum's nimble accordion to underpin sharp solos by Tucker and Dutz, this time on clarinet.

Rosenblum returns to the keyboard for the balladic "Old Friends," wherein guitarist Rafael Rosa and bassist Marty Jaffe play key supporting roles while Rosenblum proves himself a master of the more easygoing posture. The last movement, "Onslaught," opens in a similar vein with Rosenblum's unaccompanied piano giving way to more fervent unison passages by the ensemble and fiery solos from Jaffe, Rosa and the leader as the tempo moves from laid-back to rapid-fire. "Circulo" is another Latin-based highlight wherein drummer Ben Zweig sets the pace—as he does on every number—to enrich its charming melody and endorse creative solos by Rosenblum (accordion), Dutz (soprano) and the leader again (this time on piano).

The album's last four numbers are more customary but no less pleasurable, starting with "Albatross," the band's straight-ahead salute to pianist Mulgrew Miller, and including the billowing "Blue Water," the groovy "Fool's Gold" (for Horace Silver) and the melodically alluring "Last Call," composed, Rosenblum writes, with trumpeter Tucker's background in the realm of neo-soul and R&B in mind. Dutz confirms his versatility there with a splendid flute solo (elsewhere, besides soprano and alto saxophones, he plays clarinet and bass clarinet).

The Longest Way Round is a clear winner from start to finish, a luminous and impressive feather in the cap of Ben Rosenblum and his remarkable Nebula Project.