Search - John Lindberg :: Winter Birds

Sublime

Troy Collins | Lancaster, PA United States | 07/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"From his auspicious beginnings in the late 1970's loft jazz scene; co-founding the String Trio of New York and on to leading a number of small ensembles, bassist John Lindberg is more than just a reliable sideman. A writer of engaging and enjoyable melodies, it is a shame that wider exposure has eluded him for so long. This second recording from his quartet will help make amends.



A continuation of sorts to 2003's "Ruminations Upon Ives and Gottschalk," Lindberg's new quartet album consists of material honed on the road, then perfected and expanded in the studio.



Lindberg leads a quartet with international flavor. The leader's bass playing veers from exploratory percussive manipulations and resonant bowing to in the pocket grooves, while Susie Ibarra's incomparable percussion excursions embody tonalities found the world over. Steve Gorn spends equal time not only on the more traditional soprano saxophone and clarinet, but bansuri flute as well. Baikida Carroll doubles on trumpet and flugelhorn for alternately brash and lyrical playing.



The tunes themselves are marvels of restrained exuberance. The five thematically connected miniatures that open the album display the quartet's ability to swing in different time signatures and genres. Vivid riffing and buoyant rhythm section work lead into the more meditative title track, a gentle excursion in mellifluous, relaxed swing. "Resurrection of a Dormant Soul" begins with adroit call and response between vigorously plucked bass and manic hand drumming before a bluesy line emerges with the bass gently walking into a funky vamp for Carroll's pliant trumpet and Gorn's exotic bansuri flute. Otherworldly tonalities introduce the ghostly, Asiatic meditation, "Ether." Lindberg's neo-classical bowing can be heard to best effect on the "The Siladette Awakening," a stately chamber-esque opus. Closing out the record on a high note, "The Chicken Fix" is down home gritty free bop with soul, replete with Carroll's gutbucket smears and growls.



Lindberg is well respected in the closed but fertile scene he inhabits, but this album should find him the sort of expanded audience his talent deserves."