Kurt Rosenwinkel: Chords

Rosenwinkel's debut release on ArtistShare finds him stretching out at length two CDs comprised of just eight tracks total in live performance at the Village Vanguard. He opens with "Chords," 16 minutes of high-energy jazz fueled by a rhythm section that supplies creative tension without firmly committing to either 6/8 or 4/4. Occasionally the players blend together, but more often they counter each other's moves in a series of engaging musical gambits. The composition is almost an "All Blues" from an alternative universe, reminding me of Miles even with the opening piano vamp and floating turnaround, but with everything topsy-turvy. Moods shift, textures change, rhythmic currents diverge. The jazz tradition haunts this track like a ghost hidden in the attic. Meanwhile Rosenwinkel presides above it all, with that new way of phrasing so popular with the current generation, the digital world replacing the analog, where you hit each note dead-center and send it flying out of the ballpark pop, pop, pop! Pay attention to this release: it will give you a taste of the jazz zeitgeist of the moment.