Reviews (NYOP Edition): Isaac Darche “Boom Bap!tism” & Søren Dahl Jeppesen “Route One”

NYOP Edition:  Reviews of Isaac Darche Boom Bap!tism and Søren Dahl Jeppesen Quartet Route One.

The NYOP Review Series highlights albums set to Name Your Own Price by the artists, with the goal of making price no obstacle to discovering their music.

*****

 

Isaac Darche – Boom-Bap!tism

Now here’s an album for the morning time, when the cold weather has dub in its heels and made it obvious that it’s closing time for Autumn and Winter is about to take the stage.  Guitarist Isaac Darche has a nice modern sound, yet the music on this album is vividly reminiscent of when Big John Patton and Grant Green teamed up on the Blue Note label, maybe throw in some Lou Donaldson soul jazz for good measure.

Mostly up-tempo pieces, just the one ballad “You Are Too Beautiful.”  The trio really shines when it achieves the atmospheric drift on tracks like “The People Above Us” and “East Gardens.”  Tracks like those two, even as they float, possess a grounded soulfulness.  Complementary forces that are contradictory at heart.

Solid interplay between the trio members.  I just get the sense that they’re all really listening to what one another is doing.  This is not a unique trait, especially in Jazz, but some albums have a seamless quality that speaks to group interplay, and this is one of them.  Just good stuff.

Your album personnel: Isaac Darche (guitar), Sean Wayland (Hammond B3), and Mark Ferber (drums).

Released in 2011 on the Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records label.

Jazz from NYC.

You can stream the entire album on the artist’s bandcamp page.  It’s also where you can purchase it in a number of different file formats.

It was one of my eMusic Jazz Picks back in July 2012, when the album became available on their site.

If you prefer purchasing the album from one of the more traditional routes…

Available at eMusic.  Available at Amazon: CD | MP3

 

 

Søren Dahl Jeppesen Quartet – Route One

Guitarist Søren Dahl Jeppesen‘s debut album is steeped with the finest traits of the Nordic Jazz sound.  It’s dreamy and atmospheric and notes drift like clouds from the speakers, but the folkloric traits of the music keep it within view of the earth, so that it never gets so light as to become insubstantial.  The melodies are pronounced, but could dissipate at any moment.

Gudjónsson’s sax has a flickering quality to it.  The duo guitar of Jeppesen and Bro bend and warp notes without letting them get muddied and indistinguishable.  Christensen’s bass has a light step but capable of heavy footfalls.  Hover’s drums create airborne rhythms.

This music is a soundtrack for the sun to rise to.  It’s music that is halfway through a first cup of coffee, still drowsy but coming to life.  And appropriately, as the album proceeds, it also gets more lively, like the caffeine finally kicking in or the sun shining ever more brightly.  A beautiful album.

Your album personnel:  Søren Dahl Jeppesen (guitar), Óskar Gudjónsson (sax), Jakob Bro (guitar), Anders Christensen (bass), Jakob Høyer (drums), and guest: Klaus Nørgaard (bass).

Released in 2010, the album is Self-Produced.

Jazz from the Copenhagen, Denmark scene.

You can stream the entire album on the artist’s bandcamp page.  It’s also where you can purchase it in a number of different file formats.

The album is actually selling for $1 (or more), and not technically an NYOP album.  However, I’m giving it a pass for this series, because, one, there are some costs associated with free downloads on Bandcamp, so making the entire album available for just a buck circumvents that, and two, it’s such a beautiful album that paying a dollar shouldn’t be an obstacle to anyone purchasing this music.

If you prefer purchasing the album from one of the more traditional routes…

Available at Amazon: CD