Verzahnt

I can’t help it. When I pick up a disc that has a drums-bass-sax line-up, I immediately think, “Another one?”. This Detz/Wagner/Stuart offering is anything but another Wednesday cocktail jazz band, however. The improv, recorded live at Dizzy’s in San Diego, is angular throughout and lets a lot of light in. The last track, a brief whiff of a conversation, capitalizes on the “what other sorts of sounds can we make with these instruments” technique of generating new creative dialogue. Plenty of intensity on exhibition here without threatening anyone’s earpans with displays of machismo. You can’t dance to it, but all the same, it kind of grooves.

—MS