Featured Artist: Wishful Thinking

CD Title: Wishful Thinking

Year: 2007

Record Label: Clean Feed

Style: Progressive

Musicians:

Alex Maguire (piano), Alípio C. Neto (tenor sax), Johannes Krieger (trumpet), Ricardo Freitas (bass), Rui Gonçalves (drums).

Review:

Featuring mega-talented pianist Alex Maguire, this supremely talented European quintet generates some high-heat throughout this rather extroverted progressive-jazz date.  Awash with some snap, crackle and pop, the frontline of trumpeter Johannes Krieger and tenor saxophonist Alipio C Neto often indulge in concise lines, sparked with a horde of simmering dynamics.  It’s a democratic engagement indeed, where the musicians delve into playful escapades and off-kilter diversions, as they occasionally veer off into the free-jazz spectrum.

On the piece titled “John’s Fragment,” Maguire lays down a budding ostinato passage, used as a forum for the quintet’s bumpy, shuffle groove and regal horns choruses.  Needless to state, this unit packs a massive punch.  And it won’t take your ears that long to figure it out.  The plot thickens during the semi-structured work “Electrico 28,” featuring the soloists’ inverted unison phrasings and an assortment of stop/start segments. 

The ensemble goes for the gusto amid a myriad of combustible patterns, augmented with linear motifs and an aggregation of darting, crash and burn type movements.  Yet they tone it down some during “Ure’s Epitaph – DER HIRT in Memoriam Urs Zuber,” where the musicians render a subtle eulogy, highlighted by Krieger and Neto’s warmly stated lines.  Ultimately, this is a thoroughly happening jaunt that should easily stimulate a few brain cells, to coincide with the band’s largely, penetrating manner of getting its point across.

Record Label Website: http://www.cleanfeed-records.com

Reviewed by: Glenn Astarita

Click here for printer-friendly version of review.

Send this page to a friend.