SLAMCD522 Leonid Vintskevich, Nick Vintskevich, Joel Taylor & Kip Reed – Singularity

The seeds were sown for this meeting between top US and Russian jazz musicians in 2003, when drummer Joel Taylor played in Moscow; a couple of years later bassist Kip Reed played the Jazz Province Festival in Russia, with Russian pianist/composer Leonid Vintskevich and his son Nick Vintskevich, a saxophonist and composer. This matured into the quartet and this studio recording in 2008.

Leonid Vintskevich: Fender Rhodes piano
Nick Vintskevich: saxophones
Kip Reed: bass guitar
Joel Taylor: drums

“There is a constant funk element due to the presence of a Fender Rhodes piano, but the overall sound is more flowing and ambient. The most impressive piece is the title track which starts semi-abstractly before rolling into a furious uptempo stomp notable for some testifying alto by Nick Vintsekvich and Joel Taylor’s busy, chatterfunk drum­ming. Vintsekvich’s hot Latin alto on “Dominicana,” the creeping Funk groove of “Penguins,” and soprano sax dancing over lively piano on “Sad Sunday” are also highlights.” – Jerome Wilson, Cadence

“Composing duties are equally shared between the father and son, and the resultant material is mostly slow-building and insistent, relying for its effect as much on subtle variations of texture and timbre as on outright propulsiveness. Fusion aficionados might be reminded of a cruelly under sung band of 20-odd years ago, the Jimmy Giuffre 4, which produced some superb albums for Soul Note that are more ethereal than ‘Singularity’, but share many of its musical values: fluent interaction, sinuous grace and supple power.” – Chris Parker, The Vortex

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