Dear All About Jazz Readers,

If you're familiar with All About Jazz, you know that we've dedicated over two decades to supporting jazz as an art form, and more importantly, the creative musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made All About Jazz one of the most culturally important websites of its kind in the world reaching hundreds of thousands of readers every month. However, to expand our offerings and develop new means to foster jazz discovery we need your help.

You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky Google ads PLUS deliver exclusive content and provide access to future articles for a full year! This combination will not only improve your AAJ experience, it will allow us to continue to rigorously build on the great work we first started in 1995. Read on to view our project ideas...

East West Quintet: Vast

By LYN HORTON
September 1, 2009
Sign in to view read count

Apparent in the Brooklyn-based East West Quintet's Vast is the way the music teeters between colors, tunes, dynamics, rhythms and abstractions. Varying degrees of crescendos and decrescendos transform the mixtures of melodic temperament from peaceful to anthem-like, from quickly paced to mellifluously slow. That the band members play a multiplicity of different instruments is crucial; they take turns weaving solos throughout the pieces to grow textures that have highs, lows and indisputable middle ground. Except for trumpeter Phil Rodriguez, featured on the first two tracks, and drummer Jordan Perlson, saxophonist Dylan Heaney, guitarist Simon Kafka, pianist Mike Cassedy and bassist Benjamin Campbell composed the music.

The integration of drums, piano, keyboards and guitar is a graceful one, with penetrating tonality. The piano/drum darkness often evokes emotion that falls into the realm of the blues. When a vibe sound creeps in, midway through the record, lightness abounds, beginning a transition into a series of musical statements that examine voices particular to the piano, sax and guitar. The drums act as the core to the music, taking off in flurries or remaining rhythmically steadfast behind repeated synchronized choruses or tuneful individual displays from the other instruments. The layering is clearly detectable. For that reason, the music loops, twirls, sings and drives through a strangely syncopated terrain that is Vast but not intractable.

Track Listing: The Triumph; Catalyst; Vast - Pt. 1; Vast - Pt. 2; Over the Falls; Comet; Daffodil 11; View from Above; Gangster Rap; Brooklyn.

Personnel: Dylan Heaney: alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute; Simon Kafka: guitar; Mike Cassedy: piano, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer; Benjamin Campbell: acoustic bass, electric bass; Jordan Perlson: drums, percussion; Phil Rodriguez: trumpet (1, 2).

Title: Vast | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: Native Language