“Mr. Bennett’s Thoughts” from The Daniel Bennett Group – IndiePulse Music Journal

Within the appropriately titled “Speak to Your Panda,” one of many eight songs accessible to us on the brand new album Mr. Bennett’s Thoughts from jazz collaborators The Daniel Bennett Group, melodies come slipping out of the darkness like shadows beneath the town lights, luring listeners right into a haze of scattered harmonies which are dreamlike and luxurious (to place it fairly mildly).

As tends to be the case with all the tracks right here, The Daniel Bennett Group put the tone of their instrumental prowess earlier than any egomaniacal showboating, thus permitting their viewers to benefit from the fruits of a sophisticated labor in jazz experimentation with out our having to sift via any annoying filler.

There’s an exquisite battle that develops between the sax components and the piano in “The County Clerk” that immediately turns up the stress within the tune earlier than turning us over to a jittery ebbtide of percussion seemingly designed to increase the unsettling tone of the music with out exploiting the discordant concord any additional. Whereas wholly cerebral and a bit extra advanced than it wanted to be (at the least in my opinion), this type of method is maybe what makes the music of Mr. Bennett’s Thoughts as provocative as it’s; even with out lyrics, The Daniel Bennett Group are discovering a channel of communication in each observe right here.

The drums may have been only a bit louder within the combine than they in the end are in “Variations on a Floating Theme,” however on the identical time, I can perceive what the band was attempting to display in holding them within the background for this tune. Not like “Bending Bobby Brick” and “Jupiter,” “Variations on a Floating Theme” – and, to a lesser extent, “Three Research on Emotion” – rely on melodic faceting to emphasise the swing of the rhythm virtually solely, and have the percussive components been given any extra oomph, I suppose I can see the place The Daniel Bennett Group may need run the chance of constructing the music really feel slightly too weighty within the grander scheme of issues.

I’d have began the tracklist off with “Financial institution Robbers” and “Speak to Your Panda” over “Flip Clockwise and Push,” however solely to make the circulate right here only a bit extra inflexible than it’s on this occasion. Having a progressive fluidity makes it tougher to place down Mr. Bennett’s Thoughts as soon as it’s been picked up for the primary time, however as a lifelong jazz fan, I may respect the grandeur {that a} barely jagged association of fabric would have created for this LP.

It’s admittedly slightly rougher across the edges in some spots than different impartial jazz releases at the moment making headlines stateside are, however all in all, followers of the style ought to be greater than happy with what The Daniel Bennett Group is submitting on this brand-new album. Mr. Bennett’s Thoughts doesn’t ask a complete lot out of us in change for a wealth of harmonic gems that aren’t all that generally discovered on the Billboard charts anymore, and if you happen to’re within the temper for some jubilant jazz play, its eight distinctive songs ought to present you greater than sufficient intrigue to final the summer time season.

Mindy McCall