Mark Alban Lotz: The Wroclaw Sessions

Mark Lotz is bringing sexy back into jazz with his trio recording The Wroclaw Sessions. The German born / Dutch resident draws from not only jazz but folk and classical influences for these nine tracks, four of which are originals. It's sexy because the music conveys a certain charisma or musical pheromone fashioned to affect behavior as it is released into the aural airwaves.

Opening with Sam Rivers "Euterpe" from the 1967 recording Contours (Blue Note), Lotz makes an effective connection between the 1960s avant-garde and his appreciation of beautiful melodies. He strips the music down to its essence here with the assistance of two young Polish musicians, bassist Grzegorz Piasecki and drummer Wojciech Buliński. Credit the flutist with sharing the music-making equally with his companions. It is rare for a jazz-flute recording to present itself with such a robustness. Lotz' flute is capable of going toe-to-toe with either drummer or bassist.

The session was planned for trio, but after six tracks were laid down and Buliński's temperature hit 102, the trio became a duo. Maybe it was the feverish dreams of the drummer that gave us a chimera version of Charlie Parker's "Segment," which begins gently enough with bowed bass, cymbal washes and breathy flute. Parker's bebop is scrutinized at a cortège pace before accelerating into swinging hipness. For many the alto saxophone is the best imitator of the human voice, but it is the flute of Lotz' and his vocalizations you hear in your head after the recording has ended.