Over the last decade, trumpeter
Erik Jekabson has established himself as one of the leading lights of post-bop jazz in the San Francisco area. A native of Berkeley, California,
Jekabson studied jazz and classical composition, first at the Oberlin Conservatory, and later at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As a professional, he divides his time between performing and teaching in the Bay Area, including at the California Jazz Conservatory. While acoustic modern jazz is
Jekabson's forte, his albums are anything but stylistically homogeneous, with forays into Latin rhythms, electric funk, and chamber string music. On his sophisticated 2016 effort,
A Brand New Take,
Jekabson takes a more streamlined (to borrow one of his song titles) approach to his robustly delivered, imaginatively arranged straight-ahead jazz. Joining
Jekabson are his longtime associates saxophonist
Kasey Knudsen, pianist
Matt Clark, bassist
John Wiitala, and drummer
Hamir Atwal. Also featured are saxophonist
Dave Ellis and trombonist
John Gove. Together, they play a style of jazz that falls somewhere in between the expansive late-'60s work of trumpeter
Kenny Dorham and the romantic '50s West Coast approach of
Chet Baker. In fact,
Jekabson tackles
Baker's most closely associated standard, "My Funny Valentine." However, rather than playing the ballad like
Baker did, he instead frames the yearning melody with a '70s-style electric piano and a funky, tango-sounding rhythmic figure. Later,
Jekabson draws the connection more explicitly with the inclusion of his ruminative composition "Chettie." More
ECM in tone than
Pacific Jazz, the track is a perfect blend of
Jekabson's influences, his lyrical trumpet lines set against a circular,
Steve Reich-ian harmonic bed. Elsewhere, he takes a similarly unexpected approach, transforming
Michael Jackson's classic "Thriller" into a propulsive, '70s-style jazz-funk number that's equal parts
Herbie Hancock and
Maynard Ferguson.
Jekabson's other original tunes are equally engaging, with tracks like the buoyant opener "Streamlined," the noir-ish "Morning, Sunshine," and the jaunty title track showcasing his knack for inventive, warm acoustic jazz. There are even two classically tinged group improvisations in which
Jekabson credits his bandmates as co-writers, a choice that backs up the notion that they were indeed improvised freely in the studio. Ultimately, this kind of creative largesse, backed up by
Jekabson's holistic approach to the jazz tradition, helps makes
A Brand New Take feel both comfortably familiar and utterly fresh. ~ Matt Collar
