4 out of 5

Label: RareNoise Records

Produced by: Bobby Previte

Something pretty different.  If I were a big boy, this would be a hands-down perfect record.

Drummer Bobby Previte is all over different splinters of the jazz world: doing straight up jams with Jamie Saft and crew; rocking out with Iggy Pop; committing overwhelming concept solo albums – which are somewhere between rock and prog and jazz – like Mass.  Rhapsody is less of a concept than a theme album, although there is a definite journey told from song titles, starting with Casting Off and ending with I Arrive, and it’s also an odd ‘solo’ album, as Previte very often gives full control to his compatriots here, with Nels Cline on guitar, Zeena Parkins on harp, Jen Shyu singing, Fabian Rucker’s horns, and John Medeski’s piano.  So it’s another free wheeling, inventive contribution to Previte’s massive catalogue.

It’s also an amazing album.

The effect of Shyu’s unique trill against the lush harp and keys, the mercurial guitarwork, and Previte’s paced and then suddenly aggressive drumming, is intense, drawing you in to the ‘life is change’ contemplations of the travelogue-themed lyrics.  This combination is so incredibly rewarding, and ranging – delicate; pounding – that it’s a bit harder to find pace with the open-ended, vocal-less tracks.  Before the midway point, we have the appropriately named The Lost, which is a minimalist wandering of instrument pitter-pat, leading in to When I Land, which logically solidifies these sounds, but functions more as a lead-in to the marching rock The Timekeeper.

Something similar happens at the end of many tracks, where something huge and impactful – the opener is a giant sweep of seemingly atonal but beautiful meshes of all the various instruments – concludes, and then gets a coda of open-ended doodling.  My mature, adult listener self accepts all of these downbeats as further commentary on this story Previte is telling, but then I flip-flop to wanting satisfaction now, dammit: when so much of this record is so good, and so involving, I wish for every second to have that same crispness and immediacy.

Rhapsody is nearly a masterpiece; a bit of ‘crossover’ jazz that doesn’t sacrifice one bit of genre for that tag, subjugating the focus of its lead drummer to fully invest in the richness his bandmates bring to the table, all for the betterment of our listening pleasure and for the reach of this narrative.  And perhaps assessed strictly from a ‘story’ perspective, it is a masterpiece.  But, eh, those moments I’m away from harp and singing and strumming playing together, I just want more…