Unchained Melodies: Improvised Music in New Orleans :: offBeat :: Louisiana and New Orleans Online Music Resource:

“People tend to have a certain character in mind when they think of the avant-garde musician: the conceited eccentric, blowing silly noises out of his horn in an ostentatious attempt to distance himself—it’s a predominantly male community—from the mainstream musical world that shuns him. Whatever the picture, it certainly doesn’t look much like trombonist Jeff Albert.

The music of Albert’s own quartet lives between the worlds of the composed and free-improvised. But he can often be found playing a variety of more straight-ahead styles, with groups like George Porter, Jr.’s Runnin’ Pardners or the John Mahoney Big Band. He thinks of the idioms not as opposed to one another, but rather as different points in a continuum. ‘In my conceptualization, it’s not that it’s all that different,’ he says. ‘It’s just that in my band, it’s my version of how I organize this music.’”

Jeff Albert Quintet at Open Ears Music Series. Photo by Caitlyn Ridenour.

The files are 128k mp3s. Stream them each here individually, or download the zip file that has all ten tracks.

Musicians: Jeff Albert (trombone & compositions), Ray Moore (alto sax), Jesse Morrow (bass), Dave Cappello ( drums)

Rooskie Cyclist

Erica’s Black Sandals

Thaddeus

Chalk & Chocolate/Bag Full of Poboys

Subtle Flower

9th Ward Trotsky

I Was Just Looking for my Pants

(Could Have Been a) Napkin

Similar in the Opposite Way/504 No More…?

Neon Monkey

Click here to download a zip file that contains all of the mp3s. (80.6MB)

Jeff Albert Quartet – Live at Snug Harbor by Jeff Albert is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at jeffalbert.com.

Image by Paul Fayard.

New Orleans-based trombonist Jeff Albert is one of that city’s creative music scene’s leading lights, a feat for a locale that seems a far cry from improv hotbeds found elsewhere. Though he has worked with some of the region’s legends, as well as a host of various collaborators and stylistic orbits, his interests appear to lie squarely within the improvisational Jazz domain. To wit, Albert has a particularly strong connection to Chicago, with Albert’s excellent Nolo/Chi town project, the Lucky 7s, with fellow bone player, Jeb Bishop, speaking to such impressions of the “New Orleans/Chicago continuum.” This inside/outside fence-straddling also inspires Albert’s quartet on Similar in the Opposite Way, his second release from this ensemble.

The ten cuts heard here, played marvelously by Albert in the company of his front-line foil (alto saxophonist Ray Moore) along-side the rhythm pairing of bassist Tommy Sciple and drummer Dave Cappello, provide a glimpse into Albert’s compositional mindset, one that mixes jazz snappers, improv sparks, funky grooves, all with an undercurrent of Blues. As for the record’s most approachable numbers, a speedy swing vamp of the title track eases the program in, while the jagged march of “9th Ward Trotsky” offers a glimpse into the simpatico relationship between Albert and Moore, and “Bag Full of Poboys” presents the album’s most jovial moments due to its earthy strut. Speaking of pulse, the Sciple-Cappello team is charismatic throughout, with a propulsive wing locked down on “Folk Song” and the resilient beat on the closer, “Rooskie Cyclist.”

The band also exudes enthusiasm when taking improvisatory leaps. A restless sentiment inspires “I Was Just Looking For My Pants” that trapezes between jagged jaunts to airy whispers, with all members adding their individualist charms, while rhythmic complexity marks the scrappy “Chalk and Chocolate” and the joyously jittery “Morph My Cheese.” With Albert’s capacious compositional foundation drawing upon multiple influences, an intriguing front line interplay and stalwart rhythmic crunch, Similar in the Opposite Way presents superlative creative music.