Chad McCullough: Transverse

Would all those who can locate North Macedonia on a map please raise your hands. Not many, it seems. For the benefit of those whose hands remained motionless, it is a part of the Balkan Peninsula in southeast Europe whose boundaries overspread parts of half a dozen Balkan countries including Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia and Kosovo. So much for geography. What is relevant for the purpose of this review is that the country has an active jazz scene, one that Chicago-based trumpeter and composer Chad McCullough discovered during his travels some years ago.

In 2018, McCullough sat in with three of the republic's finest at a café in Skopje and was so impressed he suggested after a later gig that the quartet record together. The result is Transverse, an engaging co-op album that blends contemporary post-bop jazz with traditional Macedonian folk music. McCullough wrote four of the session's eight charming themes, pianist Gordan Spasovski two and bassist Kiril Tufekcievski one, to complement Spavoski's colorful arrangement of the traditional "Lake Ohrid Lament," which opens the album on a commendatory note.

The group's fourth member is drummer Viktor Filipovski whose artistry and resourcefulness are an essential part of every number, especially McCullough's somber and suite-like "Forlorn Tale of Tomorrow," a 13-minute tone poem written to showcase each member of the quartet in a different milieu. The Macedonians are strong and confident soloists, well-schooled in the complexities and nuances of American jazz, which keeps McCullough focused and in sync at every turn, consistently unveiling his singular perception and gracefulness on trumpet or flugelhorn (which he uses more often than not).

The music entails enough weight and variety to hold one's attention, as the quartet dances nimbly through pleasing changes in harmony, mood and tempo while reserving ample space for creative improvisation. Spaskovski's lively "Across the Deep" is especially delightful, as is his second swinger, "Manu Casus" (Latin for "by chance"). Transverse is a very good album by four stellar musicians, three of whom hail from an area that many, if not most, Americans may have trouble pinpointing on a map.

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