Tapestry of grotesque megalomania satirised among the topically relevant ideas
Very good at harnessing tension and keeping your attention as a listener the modernistic and progressive tough love advocates German-Danish quartet Field have already released such albums as Enja 2021 release Someone Talked and the WhyPlayJazz issued Heal the Rich (2016). ‘The Bronze Buckaroo’ on this new album appeared in an earlier version on that latter release. Field relies on vibes as the main harmonic foil, an instrument very good at conveying a sense of mystery and expansive airiness. In the driving seat on vibes is German jazzer Christopher Dell who, when a student at Berklee, studied under Gary Burton whose influence is there somewhere on this album too albeit elliptically.
To UK audiences the Danish drummer Peter Bruun is probably best known of all these players because of his popular work with Django Bates in his Belovèd and appears on the high watermark of their work together which was 2017’s The Study of Touch.
Field is completed by bassist Jonas Westergaard whose discography includes Free Fall (Ilk, 2008) on which he appeared with US stars Sam Yahel and Jeff Ballard on a recording led by fellow Dane, saxist Jesper Løvdal.
The leader Kempendorff is on pianist Julia Hülsmann’s magnificent Under the Surface released at the end of January.
The opener here is a requiem for Carla Bley and is reprised at the end. Who Are You Sending This Time also contains a beautifully reimagined version of the allegro from the Argentine-German composer Mauricio Kagel’s 1970s era 10 Marches To Miss The Victory work for brass orchestra that incorporated phrases by political speakers to weave a tapestry of grotesque megalomania where Dell plays an important part in shifting the centre of gravity in the piece rhythmically. He’s very Joe Locke at this specific point of the album on a certain level although there’s not a shred of Lockian romanticism inherent in a ballads and bebop derived approach anywhere really evident on the album.
