JOSÉ GOBBO TRIO

CONFLUENCE

Calligram Records

José Gobbo, guitar; Max Beckman, bass; Jay Ferguson, drums.

José Gobbo returns with “Confluence” that becomes his second trio album release.  He has penned six original compositions for this project.  The trio opens with a tune called “Wait.” Gobbo was inspired to write this song while nervously waiting for his passport at the American Consulate in Berlin.  You can hear his anxiety in the dissonant guitar chords he strums throughout this composition.

Track #2 is called “If the Sun Could Stay a Little Longer.”  There is a Brazilian influence in this arrangement, built on Northeastern Brazil rhythms, including baião and ijexá.  The inspiration for this original composition was the surprise Gobbo felt when he realized that on the East Coast of America the sun could set at early as 5pm.  This was inconceivable for anyone from South of the Equator.

“April 31^st” is another original composition by Gobbo that moves from moderate tempo to a more Straight-ahead groove. I’m not always sure that Beckman, on bass, is reading the charts or if he is totally improvising his entire bass line.  He’s dissonant so much of the time, I’m puzzled.  It makes me wonder, is this modern jazz with an unexpected harmonic language implemented, or is the bass player simply making up notes as he goes along?  My questions continue on the tune “Static.” The melody was pretty repetitious, but the bass notes seemed to veer off into ethereal places, I didn’t recognize.

“Northeast” is another pretty song played at moderate tempo.  This is Gobbo’s seventh album as a band leader and the first time he has used identical personnel, so clearly José is happy with his musical comrades.  I enjoyed the way this tempo changed mid-tune on “Northeast” playing double time with Beckman attentive and effective on double bass walking briskly beneath Gobbo’s guitar excursion. Thanks to Ferguson’s there is a brisk drum groove.  This quickly becomes one of my favorites on their album.

They close with a reinterpretation of “My One and Only Love” that gives José Gobbo the entire spotlight, allowing him to explore his reinvention solo with much emotion.  When the others join him, they lock tightly together, feeding off each other spiritually and musically. Together these three musicians seem to act as a single, breathing organism playing spontaneously throughout, lost in their individual improvisational feelings.  Together, they create a climate of experimental jazz and celebrate musical freedom.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

 

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