Okay, they want something. This isn’t the first time Matthew Tavares and Leland Whitty have played together, having previously been band mates in the Canada-based fusion band BadBadNotGood, which Matthew Tavares left last year. »Visions«, their first album as a duo, has what it takes to be a big hit, a statement about jazz that doesn’t want to limit itself to a certain formula, is composed and improvised, but comes across as a unified whole. Played in one take, together with bassist Julian Anderson-Bowes and Matthew Chalmers on drums, pianist and guitarist Tavares and saxophonist Whitty combine the spiritually epic with the introverted pastoral, letting a little bit of freak out blow over as a bow towards John Coltrane, but all in all remain very collected and harmonious. The discreet choir and string interludes, which often rush through in the background, are probably more reminiscent on paper than when listening to Kamasi Washington’s broadly based jazz design. Matty, as both names purr together, is more interested in the quiet moments. And they simply create them very, very well. Only Matthew Chalmers sometimes wants to accommodate too many drumfills per track. Otherwise really moving.
Nels Cline
Consentrik Quartet
Blue Note