Mark Guiliana Jazz Quartet - Jersey

The Guardian 60

(Motema)

You hear a lot of 20th-century jazz history in New Jersey drummer Mark Guiliana – often tweaked by plenty of 21st-century electronics and dance grooves. Guiliana (who played on David Bowie’s Blackstar) can sound as metronomic as a drum machine, but can also readily soar on the turbulent crosscurrents of Coltrane legend Elvin Jones, or Miles Davis star Tony Williams. Jersey is the impressive second release by Guiliana’s all-acoustic Jazz Quartet. The opener turns cryptic tenor sax fragments from the fluent Jason Rigby into muscular feints and weaves, chased by excellent pianist Fabian Almazan’s impetuous runs. The title track is a smoky mood piece that eases towards slow-funk soulfulness and back, while The Mayor of Rotterdam is a stormy anthem for Almazan, and Bowie’s closing Where Are We Now? is a deep, dark, sax meditation over tolling piano chords. Jersey is a jazz album, and quite a respectfully lyrical one by Guiliana’s standards – although with him on the drum stool it’s never going to be a straight clone of anybody’s methods.