Since moving to Britain from the US in 2005, bassist Michael Janisch has put much of his energy into collaborative projects involving musicians from the two countries. It's hardly a radical idea, but it's as good a shtick as any with which to carve a profile, and along with his prodigious instrumental talents, Janisch is an unusually media and marketing savvy artist, with an all singing, all dancing website and now, with Whirlwind Recordings, his own record label.
Shortly after arriving in London, Janisch formed The Transatlantic Collective with fellow Berklee alumnus, alto saxophonist
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data-original-title="" title="">Patrick Cornelius. TTC debuted on disc earlier in 2009 with the well-received Traveling Song (Woodville Records). Cornelius is also a member of the 10-piece band on Purpose Built, another US/British project and Janisch's debut album as leader. Featured British players include the fast rising young vibraphonist,
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data-original-title="" title="">Jim Hughart, and the outstanding guitarist, Phil Robson, who leads his own groups, notably including the string quartet, double-bass and guitar outfit Six Strings & A Beat, as well as co-leading the post-rock, post-jazz band, Partisans, with tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist
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data-original-title="" title="">Cecil Taylor's dictum that the piano can be thought of as "88 tuned drums." Unlike the iconoclastic Taylor, however, Janisch is a lyrical, if forceful, player and one who is comfortable working within the established, post-bop, American jazz tradition. Purpose Built isn't concerned with constructing a new edifice, much less tearing down an existing one; it's about creating sympathetic, structured platforms for virtuoso improvisation, and within that template it's very successful.
Most of the 12 tracks on the album are up-tempo Janisch originals, but there are four covers: Sammy Fain's "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing,"
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data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane's "Moment's Notice" (from the saxophonist's 1957 Blue Note album, Blue Train), a rapid-fire bass feature accompanied by drummer
Janisch's dense horn arrangements and relentlessly assertive playing style are both a little too monolithic for a disc lasting 73 minutes, but they're offset by the quality of the soloists. Cornelius shines, as do both tenor saxophonists,
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data-original-title="" title="">Aaron Goldberg, who is heard on just three tracks but makes a mighty impression. Janisch himself takes few formal solos, but is ever at the center of things.
A strong debut from a bandleader who will be even more effective once he's developed a better sense of contrasting light and shade dynamics.
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Chris May is a senior editor of All About Jazz. He was previously the editor of the pioneering magazine Black Music & Jazz Review, and more recently editor of the style / culture / history magazine Jocks & Nerds.
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.
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