Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Dusan Jevtovic: Am I Walking Wrong?

Dusan Jevtovic: Am I Walking Wrong?

By Dave Wayne
May 29, 2014
View read count

As guitar-based fusion albums go, Am I Walking Wrong? is an auspicious and mature debut recording by the Barcelona-based, Serbian- born

Dusan Jevtovic

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Dusan Jevtovic. What's immediately apparent is that Jevtovic places soloing on equal footing with composing, while sound, ambiance, motivic development, and the very way in which an improvisation fits into a composition takes precedence over prodigious displays of guitar chops. Of course, there's plenty of the latter to be had on Am I Walking Wrong?. But it all fits together in a very original and individual fashion, making Jevtovic's voice immediately recognizable. His basic playing style is well off into the edgiest provinces of jazz-rock and progressive rock as purveyed by artists as diverse as

Terje Rypdal

guitar
b.1947

" data-original-title="" title="">Terje Rypdal,

Nels Cline

guitar, electric
b.1956

" data-original-title="" title="">Nels Cline, and

Raoul Bjorkenheim

guitar
b.1956

" data-original-title="" title="">Raoul Bjorkenheim. Jevtovic plays almost exclusively with a highly distorted tone. At its most extreme, as on "You Can't Sing, You Can't Dance," "Drummer's Dance," and towards the close of "In The Last Moment II," the distortion takes on a life of its own, cascading in granular, sparking washes over the tumbling polyrhythms of bassist Bernat Hernandez and drummer

Marko Djordjevic

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Marko Djordjevic. Both Hernandez and Djordjevic are young, up-and coming players with the chops and instincts to take Jevtovic's music to the next level.

Though the music here is more highly creative rock (to borrow a phrase from

Allan Holdsworth

guitar, electric
1948 - 2017

" data-original-title="" title="">Allan Holdsworth) than jazz, one gets a sense of Jevtovic's grounding in modern jazz during the album's more introspective tracks, such as "Third Life" and "Embracing Simplicity." But most of Am I Walking Right is non-introspective. "You Can't Sing, You Can't Dance" is a raging, dissonant slab of metallic jazz-rock with a strangely catchy melody. "One on One" is

Led Zeppelin

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Led Zeppelin-like stomp with a simple blues-based melody that gets taken way out into the farthest reaches of tonality and rhythm before returning to its starting place. The trio repeats the same trick to more humorous effect on "Bluesracho," wherein Jevtovic seems to deliberately play every "wrong" chord possible over a basic blues chord progression. Though there are references to 70s prog and fusion in Jevtovic's compositions, they come across more as the building blocks of Jevtovic's basic sound, not as an attempt to recreate old music. The brief "Tratatatata" is a chunky piece of prog-metal redolent of late 70's

King Crimson

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.1969

" data-original-title="" title="">King Crimson, while "In The Last Moment II" juxtaposes long legato lines over a

Mahavishnu

" data-original-title="" title="">Mahavishnu-like arpeggio in 11/4. There's an almost

Steve Reich

composer / conductor
b.1936

" data-original-title="" title="">Steve Reich-like quality to the piece that carries it well away from guitar fusion clich��s.

Jevtovic throws a few curveballs, as well, giving the album a fresh, diverse, almost experimental quality. "Embracing Simplicity" is a slow rocker based on a never-ending chord progression that spirals towards madness only to end where it started, sans guitar solos. "Third Life" recalls some of

Robert Fripp

guitar
b.1946

" data-original-title="" title="">Robert Fripp's looped and distorted Frippertronics forays, while "If You See Me Again" pairs friendly strummed acoustic guitars with an oddly harmonized melody, giving it a odd sense of foreboding.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

You Can��t Sing, You Can��t Dance; Am I Walking Wta-rong?; Drummer��s Dance; One On One; In The Last Moment II; Embracing Simplicity; Third Life; Tra-Ta-Ta-Ta-Ta; Bluesracho; If You See Me Again.

Personnel

Dusan Jevtovic

guitar

Dusan Jevtovic: guitar; Bernat Hernandez: fretless bass guitars; Marko Djordjevic: drums.

Album information

Title: Am I Walking Wrong? | Year Released: 2014 | Record Label: Moonjune Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Cars
< Previous

Festival International de Musique Ac...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.