This past Monday at the Cellar Jazz Club, Jeff Younger’s Sandbox was featured.
The band is a wonderful and extremely musical group of musicians playing improvisations and pieces written by the band leader. The band has really developed and matured over the last year and a half that I’ve heard them play. They have a wonderful sense of playfulness, focus, kick-ass intent and determination that is a pleasure to witness. The band is a tremendous unit, but it is the individuals that make it so special.
First of all, you have to have a strong rhythm section, and in this group you a have Dave Chokroun on bass and Ben Wilson on drums. Dave is a remarkable player. His vocabulary and inventiveness in his arco playing is truly a delight. No other bass player that I’ve heard in Vancouver is playing arco with such a hunger to make interesting sounds…and is succeeding. I love his harmonic work. He also listens, plays with real commitment and displys a wonderful sense of humour.
The drummer Ben Wilson is a multi-instrumentalist that has decided to focus on one instrument, the drum kit. Ben has the composer’s wonderful sense of story telling. In his responses, and is a rapt listener.
Jeff Younger, the guitarist-sound-maker composer, noise freak, was in fine form on Monday. With his eyes closed he would lean into his lines, chords, sounds and conduct the band with authority and abandon. He never sounded better.
Kristian Naso plays a wonderful trumpet, plain and simple. I have always liked his sound, harmonic sense, beautiful dynamics and fearlessness in his choices of when and what to play.
Substituting for tenor saxophonist Darren Williams (who’s probably a dad by now – congratulations Darren), was Jonathan Wilcke. Jonathan, who is usually an alto player, was playing tenor on this night. Jonathan is a writer/poet as a well as a really creative musician. I really like that he brings a wonderful sense of imagination to his saxophonic vocabulary, including his bizarre flutter tongue technique and his vocalization through his horn (that keeps you guessing what’s coming next).
This night really was really quite a magical one. I look forward to the CD that they have coming out in the fall.
Jeff Younger blasting away
