Sassafras Album Review
Hi Everyone,
I’ve decided to do the occasional review of albums released by Australian Gypsy Jazz artists. I’m not a critic by any measure, nor do I ever intend to be. This is just a vehicle to share great new music with you and perhaps turn you on to some of the amazing musicians we have here in this country. I’ll start with with a release from the band Sassafras.
Within the gypsy jazz scene in Australia, it's safe to say the bands on the East Coast get most of the attention. Meanwhile, in Perth, Sassafras have been quietly crafting one of the most elegant and unique albums to come out of this country in recent years, the eponymously titled "Sassafras". Instead of producing just another Django tribute album, the band led by bassist Pete Jeavons offers a modern take on the style. They Lovingly draw inspiration from American jazz of the 1920s to 1950s, French jazz & chanson and guitar greats like Django and his modern Parisian guitar heirs.
While coming in at eight tracks and 40minutes, the album appears deceptively slim at face value. But packed within is a substantial work brimming with taut arrangements, playful interplay, turn a dime musical surprises, slick key changes their dynamic use of instrumental textures.
For instance, the opening track, Cole Porter's "Let's Do It", begins gently enough with the rhythm section elegantly accompanying vocalist Jessie Gordon. As the song progresses to the bridge, clarinetist Adrian Galante adds a sophisticated obbligato to proceedings before a deft pedalled transition, a sly quote of Django's "Festival 48" signalling a double-time shift into the second verse. The Festival 48 quote then makes a return setting up a slick half step key change into the solo section for Galante to exploit. He springboards into his solo with a quote from Vernon Duke's "Taking A Chance On Love" and dances through the chord changes and tempo fluctuations with a grace and swing that belies his young age. Guitarist Lachlan Gear follows him with a solo in the modern manouche style incorporating dollops of legato phrasing and contemporary melodicism in a style often heard in the Parisian gypsy jazz den, La Taverne De Cluny. He uses Django's "Belleville" to great effect as a device to ride through syncopated hits from the rhythm section before bringing his solo to a close. The solo section closes with a final reprise of the Festival 48 theme, another slick half step modulation that had me spitting my coffee onto my laptop. The ensemble then leads the listener into a short-lived rubato verse allowing Gordon to savour the subject matter with her lyrical phrasing before Jeavons restates the tempo with a four-bar break bringing the tune to its conclusion. And that's just the opening track. Breathtaking.
Another standout moment for me is the wafting beauty of Joseph Kosma's evergreen Les Feuilles Mortes. The arrangement nods to Cannonball Adderley's Somethin' Else album in the bass figure used by Jeavons to tie the sections together. The chordal accompaniment by Gear and fellow guitarist Aaron Deacon add to the smokey atmosphere allowing Gordon to render the French lyrics with a dream-like quality. The arrangement rises to its peak out of the solo section and the vocal reprise, breaking the listener's revelry with jarring surprise crescendo unison by Gordon and Galante.
While at times the album strays from the tradition of what some purists may deem to be gypsy jazz, it still maintains respect for it. And because of this, new musical colours are fostered, previously unexplored songs are traversed, and the capabilities within the sphere of an acoustic quintet are broadened, giving Sassafras a unique imprint on the genre.
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Album purchase enquires go to sassafrascontact@gmail.com