The Art of Dying

Bassist equates the art of dying in a way that celebrates involvement, participation, diversity, communion and love. He is also fond of his boyhood days playing sports, baseball in particular, and thus the name of his band on this CD, "Smokeless Heat," refers to a sneaky fast pitcher who can get hitters out by subterfuge and deception rather than the high hard one. The core group of , tenor saxophonist , and drummer base this music in a mainstream jazz foundation with free improvisation as a key condiment. Trumpeter , a relatively fresh sounding player, adds more modern jazz into the mix when the group expands past a trio. himself, a well rounded and young but experienced improviser, has taken stylistic cues from such Windy City bass icons as , and . His thematic ideas and mysteriously hued bass tones resonate apart from the unconventional, and at its innermost, his "art of dying" precept is rarely macabre or grief stricken. There's actually a palpable hope that is heard, strained through the depths of despair. The legitimate jazz ballad leads out with 's rustic trumpet for a song that could have easily been plucked from the '50s, while goes for broke on the hard bopper For hardcore fans of these might seem out of character, but not really. More on the mystery train, puts 's guitar and the rumbling marimba of up front, while is closer to the free approach normally heard from , replete with 's splattery tenor and the scattershot drumming of . There's the sad waltz, and the free floater for contrast. is in a hard bop mode similar to a live at the , or the trio sans piano. There's a juggernaut in the darkly hued with as the bullet clip, and the parsed sectionals from buoyed by the whole rhythm section on signify the sad trumped by the celebratory. The final piece is a 24-minute tenor sax/bass/drums free improv performance using varied shades, moods, dynamics, and tempos performed live on radio station in Milwaukee, WI. For many, the art of dying is a vague and sycophantic concept, but has offered a different view while also producing a quite viable musical concept,and an excellent listening experience for those of us fortunate to be alive. ~ Michael G. Nastos