Hofbauer / Rosenthal Quartet - Human Resources (feat. Eric Hofbauer, Dan Rosenthal, Aaron Darrell, and Austin McMahon) (2018)

THE HOFBAUER/ROSENTHAL QUARTET (HRq), co-led by guitarist Eric Hofbauer and trumpeter Dan Rosenthal, unites four imaginative improvisors from Boston’s eclectic jazz scene. There’s a non-hierarchal notion of the ensemble in this project, an ideal of equality built into every aspect, from the repertoire (which features each member as composer), to how the quartet challenges notions of soloing and accompaniment. Completed by bassist Aaron Darrell and drummer Austin McMahon, the Hofbauer Rosenthal Quartet has all the elements in place, and a selfless determination to wield them for the greater creative whole.

Human Resources, their debut release, is an album entirely of original tunes, unabashedly swinging, with an intimate and uncommonly vivid acoustic aesthetic. “I’m drawn to folks who have big ears, no limits, welcoming beliefs, and willingness for sonic adventures,” says Hofbauer of his bandmates. “With Dan, Aaron and Austin we have that connection and interest in exploring the intersections, the gray overlapping spots where styles, lexicon, vocabulary, concepts of time and technique are not confined by scene, clique or academic rules about what jazz is or isn’t.”

Rosenthal’s dynamically sensitive horn and Hofbauer’s warm, Guild guitar (played with fingers, no pick) combine for some of the most absorbingly precise and inventive “heads” to be heard in current jazz. For example, “Nice Weather,” a Rosenthal composition, boasts a unison line that, like many of the themes on Human Resources, isn’t exactly a unison line. Hofbauer’s parts are mini-orchestrations, with counter-lines splitting off from the trumpet, or close-voiced chordal or intervallic stabs that flesh out the harmonic and rhythmic logic of the sequence at hand.

The rigor of the concept, and the effortless feel that Rosenthal and Hofbauer bring to their melody work, harks back to the legacy of Bird and Dizzy or more so Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry — an area where the clarity and control of bop and the brash freedom and dissonance of the avant-garde meet.

Given its improvisational and interpretive mastery, the Hofbauer/Rosenthal Quartet is well equipped to shine new light on the meaning of “human resources.” Here are four musical explorers, committed to risk-taking and the cultivation of total trust; each a consummate professional, versatile in his own ingenious way, looking to the whole of music for inspiration. And, again and again, finding it.