Erik Jekabson's second full-length album of 2018, the aptly titled
Erik Jekabson Sextet, follows on the heels of
The Falling Dream, his second album with his
Electric Squeezebox Orchestra big band. Shifting away from that group's kinetic, densely arranged sound,
Jekabson returns to his small group, heard previously on 2017's
Erik Jekabson Quintet. Joining the trumpeter once again are longtime associates guitarist Dave MacNab, saxophonist Dave Ellis, bassist
John Wiitala, drummer
Hamir Atwal, and percussionist
John Santos. Helping grow the quintet to a sextet here is pianist Matt Clark, who brings a rich electric piano harmony to
Jekabson's atmospheric compositions. As with his 2017 quintet album, the sextet date finds
Jekabson exploring a sophisticated, tonally nuanced palette that evokes the expansive modal post-bop of the 1970s and albums by heavyweights like
Pat Metheny,
Woody Shaw, and
David Liebman. The opening "San Pablo Avenue" has a dusky, early-evening pulse, rife with electric guitar and keyboard interplay, all of which evokes a vibrant city coming alive at night. Similarly evocative is the sad-eyed "The Hills of Santa Cruz," in which
Jekabson lays down a mournfully romantic theme, framed by MacNab's sparkling guitar tones and a chirping desert of percussion sounds. Elsewhere, cuts like the hushed groover "Chrysalis" and the slinky "Hive Wide," with their roiling Latin percussion-accented rhythms and probing solos, bring to mind
Freddie Hubbard's funky CTI period. What's particularly compelling about
Jekabson's work here, as on most of his albums, is his generous sense for crafting a group sound. While he is certainly the focal point of his sextet, he lets his bandmates stretch out and add their own distinctive sound to the proceedings. The result is an album that feels personally connected to
Jekabson, his band, and the vibrant cultural landscape of the Bay Area that he so perfectly captures here. ~ Matt Collar