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Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Music review: Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord, Accomplish Jazz
Posted by Eric Snider on Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 2:22 PM
Brooklyn-based guitarist/composer Jon Lundblom and his quintet Big Five Chord play the kind of forward-thinking, boundary-stretching jazz that still manages to sit well on more mainstream ears. Accomplish Jazz (Hot Cup Records), the band’s third album, runs the gamut from contemplative drones to noisy blasts, often within the same tune. Unlike pure free jazz, Lundbom and company start with defined, mostly swing-based grooves and well-wrought melodies, then let the music and mood take them down highly exploratory avenues, which split off into side streets and occasional cul-de-sacs.
The band’s two saxophonists — Jon Irabagon (alto) and Bryan Murray (tenor) — make consistently engrossing statements, often concluding with skronky crescendos. The closing tune, “Baluba, Baluba,” begins as a riffy funk number and winds its way into an intoxicating three-way sparring match between Lundblom and his two horn mates.
Lundblom’s far-reaching six-string approach, liberally influenced by rock and 20th Century avant-garde music, can stir up quite a ruckus with fuzz and feedback, but more often launches into probing improvisations that provide plenty of surprises and suspense.
The rhythm section of bassist Matthew “Moppa” Elliott and drummer Danny Fischer deftly steers the ensemble through sections that, in less able hands, could devolve into incoherence. Fischer, in particular, is especially intuitive about when to drive the groove, busy up his hands to build intensity, or lay back and add color.
A winning intangible that Big Five Chord brings, often missing in avant-jazz, is a sense of fun and humor. “The Christian Life (Louvin/Louvin)” is a loping, country-gospel-style piece played with an abundance of gusto; Murray’s dissonances add subversiveness without undercutting the stylistic spirit of the song.
Clocking in at 48-plus minutes, Accomplish Jazz is an expansive yet succinct statement that remains consistently exhilarating from first note to last.
Rating: 4 stars
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