Andrew Downing, Jim Lewis, David Occhipinti, Bristles

As I started out primarily as a drummer in my youth, I do remember the time when virtually every jazz album employed a drummer, except notably the Jimmy Giuffre Trio sides. Then by the early '70s drummerless groups became more and more common, and I adjusted to it, in part by paying more attention to the other instruments I played but also by appreciating the kind of interaction a drummerless ensemble can give.

So today's group does not surprise in its instrumentation of double bass, electric guitar and trumpet as it once might have. But it does give us a very open chamber sound that allows for a good deal of spontaneous interaction without the necessity of pulse or bar lines, though there are times when the music has a definite rhythmic pulse.

I didn't know this trio up until now. They seem to hail from Canada. It consists of David Occhipinti on electric guitar, Andrew Downing on bass and Jim Lewis on trumpet. The album in question is called Bristles (Occdav OM007).

The reference in the title is to modern art. The program alternates between fresh trio versions of standards and freewheeling tributes to modern artist-painters, such as Pollack, Twombly, Klee, Kandinsky, etc.

This alternating program gives us something different. The chamber-style standard coverage has a quirky feel often enough, such as "Once I Loved," which starts with a guitar feedback chord over which the trumpet states the theme. The artist tribute numbers are in a varied and interesting free-abstract mode.

All three are very capable players who bring to us a group dynamic that is nothing short of original. They make full use of their intimate threefold presence and there is solo space for all, which they use wisely.

I come out of the listens with a real appreciation for what the trio is up to. Well done!

Cumbia All-Stars, Tigres en Fuga

So today we travel a span of aural distance for some infectious contemporary cumbia music, a venerable Latin dance style with vibrant rhythm. The Cumbia All-Stars give us a contemporary slant on Cumbia Peruana sounds in their album Tigres en Fuga (World Village 450028).

It has the rhythmic vibrancy you expect, solid lead and call-and-response vocals, tunes that hit home, and perhaps most interestingly, a very guitar-centric approach. The lead and rhythm guitars are very outfront in a kind of Afro-meets-Santana hipness, meaning that the guitar work reminds slightly of the highlife-and-beyond African electric guitar tradition, is within the Latin tradition, yet has at times an almost rock feel as well.

Mind you this is not some kind of cumbia metal. The cumbia feel is always at the forefront. Yet the band sounds both magnetic and of today.

Guitar lovers will find this album most interesting, for the lead guitarist is good and very fluent. Yet the groove will grab you at the same time.

Bravo! Listen and enjoy!

Dave Specter, Message in Blue

Dave Specter has a bunch of albums out but for some reason I have not heard them. That all is remedied with his latest, Message in Blue (Delmark 836). He heads a unit that does the soul blues in the best Chicago style, which means there are horns, electricity and grooves in no small supply.

I am somehow reminded of classic Paul Butterfield in the cohesiveness of the band, the dynamic presence of Specter's very excellent blues guitar stylizing and the electricity of it all. Now I am not saying Dave sounds like Bloomfield or Bishop, but he has his own way that goes far to parallel the noteful excellence of those players, but with his own reverb-drenched power.

Brother John Kaatke on keyboards is central and does some excellent vocalizing, as does Otis Clay.

The tunes stay with you and grow in your head, with a few classics and some new ones by Dave, all good.

This is contemporary Chicago Blues in the capital "B" sense, with authentic drive and a relation to past greats. I am digging the album very much. I can't see how a few spins won't find you there, too, if the blues is important to you!

Hypercolor, with Eyal Maoz

A rather incredible drum sequence kicks off the new fusion album, the inaugural album by the trio Hypercolor (self-titled) (Tzadik 4007) and we are off to the races, so to speak. This is a very well-balanced, daring threesome of Eyal Maoz on electric guitar, James Ilgenfritz on electric bass and Lukas Ligeti on drums. I've covered Eyal and his guitar innovations here before (type name in search box above). Hypercolor is a group that balances the Eyal way of playing with a group orientation and a compositional fluidity.

Eyal uses vibrato, variable attack and an individual sense of sound to get his very characteristic style, which you can hear to great advantage on this trio outing. The music has an avant surf element, psychedelic largess, and a driving hard rock temperament to carve a group sound.

Ligeti is a drummer who has far more than a backbeat orientation here. There are lots of interesting things he does throughout. Ilgenfritz holds down the center and keeps things rock solid while doing worthy things as well.

There are free avant touches in here--it isn't all rhythmically straightforward, but also tumblingly free. And Maoz can take it out at times and does. There is also a touch of semitic tonality reflecting Israeli roots.

But all that may be true of a number of fusion outfits playing today. What sets Hypercolor apart is real originality. Eyal is fast becoming one of my favorite fusion guitarists because he refuses to stay with the given. He is one of a kind and Hypercolor is that, too.

Have I said enough to pique your interest? This is an excellent outing!

Marbin, The Third Set

If new fusion has a name, it is Marbin. Well, one of them anyway. The quartet returns in their latest, The Third Set (MoonJune 065). It is a gaggle of originals recorded live on location, ten songs at ten clubs throughout the midwest. They are on fire.

Dani Rabin plies the electric guitar, Danny Markovitch is on saxophones, Jusryn Lawrence gets on the drums and Jae Genrile plays electric bass. This is actually their fourth album, so I gather, their second on MoonJune. And it is a heater!

The key to it all is some hard-rocking fusion with a push and sixteenth notes flying away along with a centered drive that puts it all in place.

The third set as all club goers can understand is the one you stay for, where the band is loose and relaxed and can play to the house what it is they do well without constraint. That's what this album feels like. Dani Rabin plays some serious guitar here. Letting fly with speed but cranking with well-hit torque-soul, too. Markovitch stays with him with his own front-line indispensability. The rhythm team hits it hard and busy with charging-forward energy.

Rabin and Markovitch's Israeli roots come through now and again in good ways.

Otherwise this is a straightforward romp into metal fusionland that anyone who digs such things will appreciate. Guitarists will want to listen to Rabin especially. He is a stylist! But the music will get you regardless, I predict.

Corey Harris, Fulton Blues

Corey Harris, vocalist, guitarist, bluesman. His Fulton Blues (Blues Boulevard 250360) combines the old country blues and the electric urban blues in ways that have a contemporary ring. He sometimes picks out on an acoustic and reminds you of the early Delta blues, then gets a contemporary ensemble and does something inspired by Chicago greats.

In reality he gives us his own take on both periods of the blues, sings with a fullness and soul, and tells those blues stories that make it all real. He lived in West Africa for a year and brings some of that in, though more in terms of feel than the obvious riffs and such.

He can do much just with his acoustic and his voice, like the old masters but of course not to duplicate, because that is impossible and ill-advised.

But he gets something of his own out of it. And his guitar playing is very good, too!

I found much to like here. Recommended.

Tim Ferguson Inside/Out, Hold That Thought!

The haunting refrains of the late Charlie Haden's composition "Silence" begin the CD of Tim Ferguson's Inside/Out album Hold That Thought! (Planet Arts 301417) and give us as loving a tribute to the fallen giant as any I have heard. And that is just the beginning of the captivating set in store for listeners.

Bassist Tim Ferguson's Inside/Out is a trio with the somewhat unusual instrumentation of Tim on acoustic bass plus Rob Henke on trumpet and alto horn and Diane Moser on piano. It is no exaggeration to state that each player carves out a vital, indispensable space in the trio setting that makes this music special.

With no drummer present they are free to go into some very rubato feels or swing along according to the piece at hand. And they do. Tim can walk very nicely and very audibly given the setting, or become a third horn, so to speak. His inventiveness is key, but no less than Henke and Moser. They all are schooled in contemporary jazz and take on their experience with the vocabulary to whatever realms they choose to occupy. So there is postbop swinging, freedom and expressive balladings on originals and a few jazz standards.

Bass enthusiasts will certainly appreciate what Tim is doing. Rob and Diane have much to say too, and all manage to do it with their own take on what jazz is today.

It's the sort of album that has a classic quality that one never grows tired of. My fifth hearing right now is as fresh sounding to me as the first. And there is just a hint of middle-period Miles in Rob that sounds very good in this sort of trio.

Hear it!