Esse

Drummer and composer Gustavo Cortinas takes you on a musical journey through various philosophers and philosophies ranging from Descartes to Hegel and Aristotle. You don't have to be a master of dialecticism or existentialism to appreciate the songs, however, as there are no lyrics or lectures during the 11 pieces. Instead, Cortinas along with Justin Copelandt/tp, Roy McGrath-Artie Black/ts, Adam Thornburg/tb, Hans Luchs/g, Joaquin Garcia/p and Kitt Lyles/b take you on various post bop moods and melodies. The Mediterranean "Arete" includes a 5/4 Ionian pulse for Copeland's horn and the leader's drum solo, while "Cogio ergo Sum" has the horns and guitar soaring over Lyles' longing bass line. The grooves mix and match like a thesis and anti-thesis during the Latin pattern for Thornburg and Garcia on the straight-ahead "Dialectics of Freedom" while some free form blowing teams with interaction from drums and guitar for the order out of chaos laden title track. Warm harmonies from the horns mix with "The Man of Flesh and Bone" and the team gets its hard bopping-est for the leader to drive the master race forward on "Ubermensch." Wonderful and stimulating musically, but it would have been nice to have a Biblically based philosopher acknowledged in the process, from which all reason is born.