JEREMY ROSE – CHIBA

Jeremy Rose is one of those curiously old-fashioned jazz players – his wheezing alto sax recalls the boisterous musical brews of Coltrane and Hancock, while maintaining a sense of melody in his compositions that echoes the bygone era of melodic blues; The Blessing could be from Gershwin’s catalogue, a brooding and lithe lament. Things get a little weirder with Hooray For Fish,, with Kim Johannesen’s guitar distorting, cracking, splitting harmonics to Rose’s urgent wailing. There is a touch of the lyrical in the beautiful Oslo Solo, where Rose explores the lower range of his instrument with almost bewitching expertise. All of these pieces were recorded in Norway; having said that there is a wintry, European spareness to the sound of the record, and Rose’s rhythm section Adrian Myhr (double bass) and Alex Masso (drums) play as though intoxicated by cold. All these ingredients combine to make a sleepy, beguiling collection of works of genuinely intriguing jazz – there is not too much riffery and just enough verve; and a fantastic restraint to the whole thing that makes it worth several listens just to pick up the little details.

***1/2