The Next Door in Bloomington, MN

Though the
Julia Huelsmann Quartet
won a Deutscher Jazzpreis for 2019's
Not Far from Here
, it was only her second outing with that lineup. Most of her recording career has been spent leading a trio with drummer
Heinrich Koebberling
and bassist
Marc Muellbauer
. She discovered a more balanced musicality with greater potential for dialogic intimacy when gig partner and tenor saxophonist
Uli Kempendorff
joined the ensemble. The expanded configuration offered a textured airiness and more possibilities for group subtly, in addition to greater harmonic and rhythmic potential, and they worked together live as often as possible. Even during the pandemic, when most live activity was shut down, the quartet participated in alternative performance projects and played socially distanced live streaming concerts. They spent months vigorously rehearsing new material. The fruits of that period are readily evident on
The Next Door
.
Huelsmann
wrote five of the set's 12 tunes and spread the composition credits around. Each of her bandmates contributes. Also like
, she includes a cover, this one of
Prince
and
Wendy & Lisa
's "Sometimes It Snows in April." Opener "Empty Hands" commences with an optimistic 14-beat piano ostinato.
Muellbauer
Koebberling
follow, and
Kempendorff
's entrance begins an expansion of the melody. He and
exchange lines and then solos that co-exist somewhere between focused conversation and breathable drift. Her subsequent "Made of Wood" is a glorious exercise in post-bop swing with remarkably syncopated harmonics.
's "Polychrome" begins with an intricate lyric statement played in unison by bassist, pianist, and saxophonist.
contributes an elliptical solo, but
joins in, adding bluesy asides resulting in a multivalent dialogue; the rhythm section fills and accents while anchoring them. The drummer's "Lightcap" owes a great debt to the
Ornette Coleman Quartet
, despite the use of a piano. Following its nearly hummable head, his time-shifting style urges on his bandmates with an impressionistic backwards approach to the method trademarked by
Paul Motian
. The
cover is at once reverent and resonant.
carries the melody, framing it in sparse yet luscious chords as
paces along using brushes.
follows the pianist, delivering a sparse yet emotionally bright solo before
employs the changes in an airy solo that alternately touches on gospel and nursery rhymes.
's only contribution is "Open Up," a jaunty post-bop number with interlocking improvisations atop imaginative, syncopated breaks from
, and canny interaction between saxophonist and pianist. The drummer's elliptical "Post Post Post" displays a mysterious softness in tone even as it weaves in harmonic development through the pianist's intuitive comps and
's exceptional bass solo. He composed the set closer, "Valdemossa," a progressive, nearly avant take on bossa nova with slippery piano harmonics, a lush, haunted melody, and inventive, tempered soloing from
finds the
quartet intuitively and purposefully exploring music that moves forward some from
while retaining an intimately familiar sound and conversational approach. ~ Thom Jurek