ROB MAZUREK — Skull Sessions (review)

ROB MAZUREK — Skull Sessions album cover Live album · 2013 · Eclectic Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
kev rowland
OCTET SKULL SESSIONS CUNEIFORM Cornetist, composer, and conceptualist Rob Mazurek first learned the foundations of improvised music while studying jazz theory and practice with David Bloom at the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago, and first came to prominence when he formed the Chicago Underground Collective (which ranges in size from duo, trio and quartet to full orchestra depending on what is required and has been going for well over 15 years). He has also worked with more mainstream acts such as Sterolab and Tortoise and has worked on more than 40 albums. This is the first album by the octet and is a combination of some composition and a great deal of inmprovisation in an incredibly charged atmosphere. While often in jazz there is one solist at the time, with the rest providing the support, that is not really the case here as what we have is everyone soloing at the same time, but somehow keeping together providing a direction.

The personnel for this album, along with Rob, was drummer John Herndon, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, flutist Nicole Mitchell, Guilherme Granado on keyboards and electronics, Carlos Issa on guitar and electronics, Mauricio Takara on percussion and cavaquinho (Brazilian ukulele), and Thomas Rohrer on C melody saxophone and rabeca (a rustic Brazilian viola associated with the northeast). It sounds as if Zappa at his most eclectic is having a battle with Miles which results in the sonic equiavalent of a massive thunderstorm. This music is incredibly charged, and one can visualise the lightning passing between players as new ideas spark yet another onsluaght of notes and a different direction.

Mazruek describes the approach as “personalities blending sound ideas that have the potential to expand or contract at any given moment in order to find the hidden spaces that must exist for the elevation and understanding of the origin of where we possibly come from and where we might be going.” Complex and complicated, hard to listen to, this is music that is driving exploration into new areas of jazz that leave the listener drained by the end. www.cuneiformrecords.com
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Green Puma / Tropical Dandy Jazz Related Rock
THE LINK QUARTET
Buy this album from MMA partners
Vinny Golia Quintet : Can You Outrun Them? 21st Century Modern
VINNY GOLIA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Bow Code Fusion
SAMPO HIUKKANEN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Anthem For No Man’s Land Jazz Related Improv/Composition
ANDREAS SCHAERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Cabaret Eclectic Fusion
MARIUS NESET
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Paper Plane Pilot
MIKE DE SOUZA
js· 79 minutes ago
Green Puma
THE LINK QUARTET
js· 83 minutes ago
Heavy Cream
SAMPO HIUKKANEN
js· 3 hours ago
Sunday afternoon
FURIO DI CASTRI
snobb· 16 hours ago
Harmônicos
FABIANO DO NASCIMENTO
js· 1 day ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed