David Bailis: Tree Of Life

Some jazz artists create distinctive sound worlds with their instruments and the bands they put together. In the "guitarist as leader" genre—on the popular music side), think Link Wray, Dick Dale, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Robbie Robertson. In jazz, think Wes Montgomery, Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, Sangeeta Michael Berardi. All of these musicians have a sonic worldview that they have been able to represent in their recordings faithfully. New York-based Guitarist David Bailis is knocking on the door of that club, with hisTree Of Life.

Bailis is, compared to the masters mentioned above, relatively new to the scene, and relatively young—two small kids at home young, at this writing, so comparing him to Metheny and Frisell might seem a stretch. In addition, Tree Of Life appears to be only his second album release. But if this is Bailis' signature sound—created with saxophonist Chris Speed, keyboardist Eric Lane and drummer Jason Nazary—he is on the right path.

Bailis' guitar sounds as if it glows, with a benign—if not salubrious—radioactivity, bringing '60s surf and garage rock to mind in its more exuberant moments. His solo on the disc's opener, "Rays Of Light" is sharp and concise, drawing energy from the cosmos, tuned into solar flares or the rings of Saturn. Speed's saxophone blows in from the spirit world, giving and taking with the guitarist's lines in a beautiful synchronicity.

The title tune dwells in a relaxed electro-pastoral groove. Bailis' guitar playing is virtuosic, moving from Wes Montgomery-like single noting to Sangeeta Michael Berardi/Hendrix-ian harmonic washes

"Open Your Eyes," the only non-Bailis original on the set, features the leader alone. He deftly uses percussive effects to create a pensive gem that evolves into an otherworldly realm. "Is Eternal" follows, closing the album with a tune that orbits around a celestial groove, the collective sound of the band locked into "bigger than the sum of its parts" mode; and the sum of the parts is a big one.