Album of the Day: Jonathan Finlayson – “3 Times Round”

 

Artist:  Jonathan Finlayson

Album:  3 Times Round

Label:  Pi Recordings

Style:  Post-bop, New directions

Favorite Track:  “A Stone, A Pond, A Thought”

Music from:  New York City

What I like about it:  It won’t be breaking news for me to report that the magic is in the motion on Jonathan Finlayson’s newest release.  It’s a subject broached previously on his 2016 release Moving Still.  And deservedly so.  The action unleashed by each piece triggered individual narratives like a conjuring trick becoming a new reality.  I like that the trumpeter’s 2018 release begins much the same way, opening with the aptly titled “Feints” and how patterns hinted at in the framework of a piece are revealed as quickly as they’re replaced by a new emergent pattern.  I like how that motion can be particularly thrilling at times, but that is also comes off as methodical in its way, as if a high-speed stratagem devised on the fly.  But what I really like about 3 Times Round are those dramatic moments when the motivation becomes one of melody, rising up over a piece like the sun enveloping a dark landscape in bright, warm light.

Your album personnel:  Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Steve Lehman (alto sax), Brian Settles (tenor sax, flute), Matthew Mitchell (piano), John Hebert (bass) and Craig Weinrib (drums).

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon

Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Be sure to check out the artist’s site.