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Lena Bloch Quartet - Feathery

by Lena Bloch, Dave Miller, Cameron Brown, Billy Mintz

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes as a 6-panel digipack featuring liner notes by Roberta Piket and an amazing artwork by Chris Drukker (Sunnyside, Fresh Sound). Additional poetic liner notes will appear when you put the CD into your computer, by Michael Steinman (JazzLives).

    Includes unlimited streaming of Lena Bloch Quartet - Feathery via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about

Tenor saxophonist Lena Bloch is a likely "heir" to the throne of that still-thriving captain of cool, Lee Konitz.
Not that she sounds just like him - not at all. But Bloch has absorbed the approach of Konitz and fellow traveler Ted Brown and the man that helmed likely the first totally 'free' session iconic pianist Lennie Tristano. Bloch has the cool, lithe, vibrato-less mode of Konitz down, but it's what she does with it that counts.
Feathery is not any sort of throwback to the oft-maligned West Coast Sound of the 50's. If anything, Bloch has another 50's icon providing inspiration: Ornette Coleman. Like him, the feeling of the blues is infused in her playing along with a sense of dry angularity - her solos don't 'go' as some of the jaded of us might expect yet they are impeccably logical and always have that sense of forward impetus.
The band of guitarist Dave Miller, bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Billy Mintz is perfect for her. They give her compositions plenty of room - concise and free of clutter or extraneous notes, that's the ticket - and play well as a unit. Brown is spare and soulful, Mintz is crisp and Miller's guitar has a peculiar crackle to it, a spare way of playing that lets the strings truly resonate, almost making a listener feel inches from the guitar. He doesn't so much accompany Bloch as is a voice alongside hers.
While most of this platter is somewhat pensive and ruminative in mood, "Featherbed" is a welcome break, providing (for those needing it) that Bloch can roar straight-up bebop with the best of them, the band whipping up a merry storm behind her. While it is a cliche to end reviews this way, it fits: Bloch is a talent to watch, building upon the innovations of Konitz, Brown and Tristano in a singular manner. ------
Mark Keresman, New York City Jazz Record

credits

released April 26, 2014

Lena Bloch - tenor saxophone
Dave Miller - guitar
Cameron Brown - bass
Billy Mintz - drums
Tom Tedesco - engineering
Matt Balitsaris - mixing
Gene Paul - mastering
Chris Drukker - cover art
Roberta Piket - executive producer, liner notes
Maichael Steinman - liner notes

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about

Lena Bloch New York, New York

Russian-born Lena Bloch traveled through Israel and Europe, performed in Holland, Italy, Germany, Slovenia with Embryo, Steve Reid, Keith Copeland, John Marshall, Alvin Queen. After her Master's in composition Lena moved to NYC in 2008, working with Connie Crothers, Sumi Tonooka, Vishnu Wood, Mala Waldron, Roberta Piket, her own quartet Feathery, with Russ Lossing, Cameron Brown and Billy Mintz. ... more

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