3 out of 5

Label:

Produced by: Greg DiCosta

A gorgeous, and occasionally thrilling, set of jazz numbers that steps between casual slink and almost post-rock cadences, Bobby Previte’s (and team’s) Second Arrow is another brilliant showcase for how Previte senses when he should scale his drumming up or down to meet the moment, and when he can just let his bandmates shine.

Now, here’s the thing: my entry into jazz has always been from a rock angle. I gots me some progressive jazz types like Zu, and have occasionally toyed with crossover groups like Bad Plus, but I know my ears tend to favor things that have a bit of a rock backing or top-down structure. I feel I’ve been exposed to a fair amount of jazz from across the eras, but, like classical, my ears have not necessarily adapted to it. Artists like Previte, who tip-toe over – sometimes jumping in to – some of the mishmash genres I’m mentioning, are able to rope me in for listens like Second Arrow, which are undeniably jazz, no sub-sub-genre labeling needed. However, I’m clarifying that my bias, and thus the rating, is surely still leaning towards things that have a stronger backbeat, or weird time measures, or more aggressive aspects, and things that probably have a ton of nuance get kind of bucketed into “traditional” jazz to my ears.

A fair amount of Second Arrow qualifies for that bucket. The recording from Greg DiCosta and mix/master from Chris Castagno supports some heavier moments, though: the edges aren’t necessarily smoothed off the way I hear in a lot of jazz, or, alternately, tweaked to pick up the high-end tweets and toodles of wind instruments for more frantic moments – Arrow has a nice sharpness but with warmth; it feels live but also produced, which is not a bad thing: I like that it has a sense of cinematic presentation.

Which fits with its “narrative,” as the track names precede from a calm (and, yeah, traditional) ‘Roam’ to a more purposeful ‘Walk’ – one of my favorite cuts, leaning in to 90s / 00s-era Chicago jazzers who graduated from the indie rock scene; lots of strutting and angles propped up on a smoother beat – to a ‘Promenade’ ‘Stroll’ at sunset, with the latter track a kind of peak bit of (controlled) free jazz freakout, as Matt Bauder wails on sax with Angelica Sanchez and Jerome Harris keep things contoured with keys and bass, respectively, Bobby in the mix, flailing multi-limbed on his drums, leaving room for Wendy Eisenberg to come in and wail on guitar at key points. Lovely stuff that crosses the lines between, again, traditional jazz of some stripe and more experimental fare.

‘Circle’ feels appropriate: its the longest track here and describes a pretty contemplative journey, like coming to a revelation after these four tracks of roaming / walking / etc. ‘Range’ picks this up by forefronting volume, then peeling back to the most minimalist plunking of keys… which finally allows our narrator to just ‘Glide’ for the end, my second favorite track here and the most post-rocked in terms of posture: it’s fairly “light” in terms of instrumentation, but it’s moody as all get out, a forward-leaning guitar line suggestive of positive, confident – consistent momentum.

All of these are good things, and they are as colorful as I’ve (hopefully) described them. But I’m picking and choosing quite a bit: my favorite tracks that I’ve highlighted keep me very engaged throughout, whereas the rest of the disc, as beautiful and dense (and smart) as it can be, is also very polished, and you’ll note that the “story” is… mostly about walking around. At different times of day, maybe with different mindsets, but Second Arrow is a soundtrack for such a stroll. In which case it makes sense that it can be a bit background at points, happy to walk calmly at your side, and is very purposeful when it wants to stand up and be more directive with your attention.