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| Boston based Quartet to release "Window Panes" Following up its Nosferatu-themed silent film adventure and live concert experience Eine Quartett des Grauens (2023), the Dylan Jack Quartet could have gone any number of directions. Half-jokingly, the Massachusetts-based drummer calls the group's fifth release, Winter Panes, a "holiday album." It is the first DJQ album to feature no original music. The impetus was an invite: on a recent tour, one venue asked the group back for a holiday concert. Jack and DJQ stalwarts Jerry Sabatini (trumpet), Eric Hofbauer (guitar/effects) and Tony Leva (double bass) began to brainstorm "less common ways of looking at the winter landscape, " the drummer recalls. Feeling the cold took no imagination: "We recorded in January, " Jack says. "It was cold as hell that day. It was, like, two degrees the next day. It was so cold. We recorded in a church, and when I walked up the stairs, there was this window outside, just covered in ice, so beautiful, with a chandelier hanging above it. I took a picture and it just had to be the album cover. Then I thought about naming the album after this picture in some way, with different cultures representing these different panes. If you look out this window, you might see the more eastern side of it, maybe, but it's still the same landscape no matter what—part of this bigger, larger window." The first two DJQ albums, Diagrams (2017) and The Tale of the Twelve-Foot Man (2020), documented Jack's emerging compositional voice and established a sonic signature for the band. Hofbauer's full-bodied, close-miked guitar sparks vibrant exchange with Sabatini's horn (or Todd Brunel's reeds on Diagrams), a setting in which Leva and Jack are free to weave in and out rhythmically and texturally. Any instrument might offer an extended solo passage or split off into duos (akin to the space Hofbauer and Jack explored on their 2019 duo release Remains of Echoes). Hofbauer deepens his idiosyncratic approach to electronic effects on Winter Panes as well, foregrounding an acoustic tone while triggering dramatic echo and fuzztone timbres that seem to lurk in the shadows. Peering through the first pane, we encounter "New Africa, " by the late Grachan Moncur III, in a pedal tone–based, viscerally grooving DJQ treatment with Sabatini spitting fire in an almost post-bop vein. Jack's point of reference is the version from Archie Shepp's Kwanza, recorded for Impulse! in 1968-69, released in 1974. "I was struck by how Kwanza was not necessarily a Kwanzaa record, " Jack explains, "and yet it embodied this idea of community with the sound of this unusual big band." James Brown's "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" is a Hofbauer choice, a staple in the guitarist's house come holiday time. ("Tell 'em James Brown sent you, " the Godfather of Soul exhorts old St. Nick on the 1968 original.) The DJQ's version is infectiously playful, driven by Jack's locked-in groove under a swinging ostinato bass figure, muted trumpet background riff, and wah-wah from Hofbauer on the main melody. Sabatini is in fine form on his leadoff solo, followed by Hofbauer's authoritative statement, more tonally based than "New Africa" but just as fresh and rhythmically inventive. Along with the Moncur piece, Jack brought in a rhythmically skewed version of Vince Guaraldi's "Skating" from A Charlie Brown Christmas, and a tight arrangement of "Marley and Marley, " the big Statler & Waldorf number from A Muppet Christmas Carol (a seasonal must-watch in Jack's household). Sabatini's lead playing is Bubber Miley-esque, supported by Hofbauer in a role split between accompanist and co-soloist, all animated by Leva in rock solid accord with Jack's supple, improvisational beat. "Skating" is in three, but Jack's arrangement layers four on top, "a polymeter going over the bar line, " he explains. "I was thinking about how I might skate a little less, uh, glamorously than if the melody were nice and smooth. I wanted it to feel almost jolting." The poise and invention in Jack's 3/4 swing feel is the common thread, with riveting solos from Hofbauer, Leva, Sabatini and Jack in turn. "Las Mañanitas" (the beloved mornings), a Mexican cultural staple sung on birthdays, Mother's Day and other occasions, was adapted by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass for a 1968 release simply titled Christmas Album. Sabatini's arrangement, one of three for Winter Panes, jettisons orchestral bells and soft-rock beat for something brighter and merrier, with an extended solo guitar intro and a spirited round of Hofbauer/Jack trading with Leva solidly keeping time. Sabatini also chose the Ladino-language "Ocho Kandelikas, " a Sephardic Hanukkah number, slow and stately at first, with a declaratory trumpet intro rich in melodic ornamentation. After Leva's solo the lively tango feel comes to a pregnant pause, and … let the gradual and ultimately frenetic accelerando begin, in the authentic Jewish celebratory style. The versatility on display is striking, not least on the traditional "Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow, " another Sabatini pick, which closes the album in rousing major-key spirits, with some of the tastiest, folkiest guitar language from Hofbauer to date. Across idioms and traditions, Jack and his cohort meet the music on their own terms. "Maybe we sold out?" the drummer quipped in an initial exchange about this "holiday album, " one unlike any other, stretching musical parameters while keeping the song in the forefront. What's not to love? About Dylan Jack Dylan Jack is a percussionist, improviser, composer, educator, and organizer participating in multiple genres within the New England music scene. As a performer, Jack divides his attention between playing as a sideman with some of the region's top improvisers and leading his main creative outlet, the Dylan Jack Quartet. Jack has released six recordings as a band leader or co-leader and one film score (an original version of the 1922 film Nosferatu). Jack is also the director and curator for the Not So Silent Film series in Providence, RI which focuses on improvising along with public domain silent films. As the founder of the Dylan Jack Quartet, an ensemble focusing on his own original concepts and compositions. Combining intricately composed segments that utilize odd meters and phrasing with free improvisations, the music is described as "… bristling with rhythmic intelligence and rich in dynamic contrast and ebb and flow. - (David Adler)" In September of 2017, they released their first album, Diagrams, which received favorable reviews from the jazz press. In June 2020, they followed up with the album The Tale of the Twelve-Foot Man. Both are on the Creative Nation Music label. Jack also co-leads the duo Hofbauer-Jack with premier Boston guitarist, Eric Hofbauer who released the album Remains of Echoes in 2019 where his innovative playing is said to "… coax the broadest range of sounds and timbres he can from his kit. Careful tunings of his toms and the use of a second bass drum allow for a highly nuanced and melodic rhythmic foundation for the album…" - (All About Jazz) He is one-quarter of the DJQ off-shoot collective Hofbauer, Jack, Leva, Sabatini, who in 2021, saw the release of Period Pieces where Jack's playing is described as "a masterclass in minimalist groovemanship…" - (JAZZIZ). JAZZIZ also chose Period Pieces as a Critic's Pick for 2021. In 2022, Jack organized, composed music for, and produced multiple performances for his quartet where they performed a live improvised score to the silent film, Nosferatu, to capacity crowds. Their version of the film and an album of music inspired by the characters entitled "Eine Quartette des Grauens" was released in October of 2023 where "Jack's quartet captures the dark menace and lost innocence of it all, with subtle harmonic implications, stark instrumental timbres, extended techniques and modest use of effects.” - (David Adler). Aside from jazz and improvisation, Jack is the drummer for classic Massachusetts death metal pioneers, Scattered Remnants. As an educator, Jack is part of the percussion and jazz and contemporary music departments at the Groton Hill Music Center in Groton, MA where he teaches private lessons, group classes, and creative ensembles. He is also part of the affiliated faculty at Emerson College in Boston, MA where he teaches multiple sections of The History of Jazz. Jack received an associate's degree from Middlesex Community College, a bachelor's degree in Percussion Performance from the McNally Smith College of Music in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and a Master of Music in Modern American Music from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. write your comments about the article :: © 2024 Jazz News :: home page |