While it was done predominantly within the constraints of Covid isolation, Dave Zinno’s third recording with Unisphere, Fetish, feels like a massive celebration, an uncorking of fizzy jazz freedom.
Like most musicians for most of the past 18 months, Zinno and his bandmates—Mike Tucker on tenor sax, Eric Benny Bloom on trumpet and flugelhorn, Leo Genovese on keyboards, Tim Ray on piano, Rafael Barata, drums and percussion, and special guest Rafael Rocha on trombone—have been, no surprise, writing and practicing, biding their time until the light of day began again to shine through life’s window. Somehow, Zinno and friends took advantage of the down time and recorded a brilliant album.
“The song ‘Fetish’ grew out of pandemic isolation,” he says. “I came up with the bass figure for this piece one day while improvising. It's kind of over the top and I was calling it ‘Bass Fetish.’” Zinno then took that motif and turned it into a song for Unisphere.
Without question, Zinno’s 2020 fetish was his bass, and we’re all the better for it. Zinno and the boys recorded Fetish in late November 2020 in two six-hour sessions. Because everyone was writing at the time, the band’s set list had grown to a whopping 16 numbers. They ended up recording 12 of them. All told, Zinno believes the tunes on the record are incredibly diverse, reflecting the personalities and styles of all his accompanists. “Everyone contributed compositions or arrangements to the project, which I feel creates a picture of the diversity of the group. Tim Ray, for example, arranged a beautiful tune from Edu Lobo that is a wonderful breathing point and definitely a highlight of the record.” Further to Zinno’s point, Mike Tucker contributes three originals in three different styles. Leo Genovese's tunes are strongly rooted in modern jazz and are written with strength and energy. Eric Bloom contributed two tunes that reflect his love for contemporary jazz styles. Zinno’s own tunes - “Fetish,” “So Close So Far,” and “Nile” all vary in style as well. “‘Fetish’ begins sounding like ‘the sky is melting,’ but settles into a joyful groove meant to offer hope. ‘So Close So Far’ experiments with an Afro groove framing a hummable theme, and ‘Nile’ explores exotic soundscapes.”
The colorful panorama, tonal palette, and sonic breadth featured on Fetish are breathtaking. Zinno’s Unisphere is—through all three of its recordings for Whaling City Sound—jubilant, rapturous, and free. It could be that walls aren’t closing in on us any longer; the prospects of playing out and unleashing the spirit of live music is finally at hand. And this may be the sound of that catharsis, a primal release of beautiful energy. “This project is the culmination of a year without live music,” says Zinno. “Every ounce of energy and ambition, in reserve from not expending it for so long, is on this record. I hope people feel what we felt while creating it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment