Jason Adasiewicz - Rolldown

482 Music

Chicago continues to constitute a hothouse for creative improvised music. Musicians a generation younger than Ken Vandermark, an erstwhile figurehead of the scene, are currently making their marks and the activity doesn’t appear to be diminishing in terms of quantity or quality. 482 Music remains a prolific documentarians of this younger breed. Enter vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz who has already made a malleted splash on several projects for the label. He’s among a pool of musicians previously known as sidemen (at least on disc) who are gradually gaining their own opportunities to record as leaders. Adasiewicz’s compositions and arrangements immediately bring Blue Note-era Jackie McLean and Eric Dolphy to mind, but the sourcing, while obvious, doesn’t feel slavish or hackneyed. The instrumentation of two-horn frontline, vibes, bass and drums also engendrs instant comparison, but again it’s hardly evidence of plagiarism. Adasiewicz and his colleagues absorb the basic tenets put forth on those Sixties vinyl classics and place a 21st century personal spin on them.

Fanfare-style heads disperse into freer interplay and soloing on pieces such as “Good Looking Android”, which sounds a close cousin to Dolphy’s “Straight Up and Down”. Aram Shelton’s dry and flinty phrasing echoes the aforementioned alto elders while Josh Berman’s cornet comes from starting point of brass counterparts like Hubbard and Cherry. Bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Frank Rosaly develop just the right rapport, dividing their time between supporting solos, like Adasiewicz’s cascading affair on “Small Potatoes”, and stepping up for their own assertive statements on the breaks. Shelton’s clarinet glides gracefully into chalumeau territory on the low-key ballad “Valerie”, backed initially by sparse, but expressive commentary from the rhythm pair. A resonant pizzicato plus brushes blend on “Nearby” offers another example of their ability to enhance the action through a relatively economical presence as the horns voice sibilant textured tones. Adasiewicz’s oscillating spatially-attuned sustains turn up the tension without compromising the prevailing melody-minded mood.

“Creep” personifies its title, unfolding in staggered increments on another stutter-stop head before a loose string of solos, among them a stinging turn by Shelton’s clarinet quite different from his earlier balladry. “Gather” goes forth at a similarly laggard clip with the band’s chamber side on bold display. As a bonus, visual augments audio with an appended video file of another piece, “Hide”, filmed in the studio. Vibraphonists seeking to extend the pioneering work accomplished by doyens like Hutcherson and Dickerson are relatively few. Adasiewicz is certainly countable among that modest number and this debut will hopefully mean the first of many more albums to follow.

~ Derek Taylor