Sketches: Volume One

This Brooklyn-based jazz quintet comprised of nascent talent takes a unique approach to composition. Here, the musicians share a sketch from a notepad, denoting an incomplete composition or musical fragment and another band-member runs with it to use as a foundation for a new composition. Nonetheless, it's a balanced program, where the musicians fuse probing melodic content via regimented flows and loose grooves, while occasionally skirting the outside realm. Essentially, these pieces are structured by design, yet the band doesn't constrict itself. They use space as an additional instrument, but turn up the heat during various movements.

"Dusk on the Porch," was composed by bassist Martin Nevin, based on a sketch by drummer Ziv Ravitz. It's a capacious slow-tempo blues vamp, partly tempered by the drummer's brisk brush-work. They shape a laidback vibe, softened by alto saxophonist Jeremy Udden's breathy lines and fluid developments. And the quintet takes great care building on variations of the blues groove, teeming with low-key emotive attributes, but slightly intensified by pianist Jarrett Cherner's swiftly rendered clusters. After the bridge, Nevin plucks his strings hard, emphasizing the slow-moving pulse as the band finalizes with the simple and rather convivial melody line. Hence, an album that touches on many aspects of the jazz vernacular, yet it's a comprehensive agenda that is impressively concocted with the ensemble's hallmark sound and unassuming complexities.