Abstract Realism

Aptly titled, Abstract Realism plies the interesting waters that lie between conventional Jazz and the Avant-garde. This is the sort of progressive Jazz I find interesting: Jazz that employs both tonality and atonality; where written material serves to propel the performers into improvised flights of fancy and where the music is replete with dynamic contrast. Just a quick com parison of two tracks, "Simple" and "Center" for instance, cover quite a lot of ground. "Simple" utilizes a glacially paced theme that calls forth some thoughtful playing from both sax players whereas "Center" employs some high-energy playing from all, driven to a higher energy state by a simple yet effective riff which periodically appears to marshal the assembled forces. It's difficult to single out any performer for particular praise given the high level of musician ship displayed by all, but obviously Epstein deserves major props for putting it altogether. Given that this is a debut disc, I certainly hope to hear more from this fine group. Recommended.