They say everything’s bigger in Texas. Or is it, everything gets bigger? That’s kind of what happened to fringe-jazz warrior and guitarist Jon Lundbom when he moved from NYC down to Austin and suddenly, his big Five Chord band grew to seven with the addition of an alto sax player (Justin Wood) and trombonist (Sam Kulik) to his core quintet with Jon Irabagon (soprano sax), Bryan Murray (tenor/balto! saxes), Moppa Elliott (bass) and Dan Monaghan (drums).
For Lundbom’s fifth studio long-player Jeremiah (on sale February 10, 2015 via Hot Cup Records) expanded his ever-growing artistic palette by expanding the players with guest musicians Wood and Kulik, and had had them arrange a couple of songs for good measure. That doesn’t make the new album an abrupt departure from the strict, five-man format (keyboardist Matt Kanelos sat in for part of last year’s live document Liverevil, after all), but it’s plenty significant enough to keep the band from running in place.
Jon Lundbom has no problem finding space for the supplementary talent on a band already bursting at the seams with talent. The four-man horn team is used to perform stately, Ellingtonian charts courtesy of Wood’s arrangement on the traditional tune “First Harvest,” and the extra sax from Wood and the ‘bone from Kulik noticeably deepens the harmonic complexity on “Frog Eye.” Here, as Irabagon uncorks what builds up to a squeaky, manic soprano sax solo, the three other horn players can be heard stating a variation on the theme in bridging the agitated side with the composed side. Wood and Kulik’s presence makes it possible to witness dueling alto/tenor saxes on “Scratch Ankle,” followed by Kulik jousting puckishly with Irabagon. Half of “Lick Skillet” features Kulik blowing non-note tonalities into his trombone (at one point sounding like a human beat box) and ending with Wood taking a turn on flute.
Jon Lundbom continues to engage in a unique experiment of adapting Wiccan prayer songs to jazz, first appearing on Liverevil. This time, he handed off to Kulik the task of arranging these hymns in a medley, a series of abstract motifs that culminates in Elliot’s rumbling bass deliberations, transitioning into a syncopated figure among the four horns that seems to look way back and way forward at once.
The leader subjugates his own guitar for much of the album in enabling all those saxes and the trombone to thrive, but some snazzy guitar work can be heard on the twisting, bop-influenced lines during “Screamer,” “Frog Eye” and also on the previously-discussed opening track “The Bottle.”
Perhaps as a result of more jazz instruments, Jon Lundbom’s Jeremiah is the ‘jazziest’ Big Five Chord album yet but none of the Big Five Chord edge gets diminished in the process. The adventures continue with the same vigor and ingenuity as before.
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