Jim Robitaille Trio - Space Cycles (2020) Hi Res

American jazz guitarist Jim Robital, constantly collaborating with the Whaling City Sound label, is similar and not like himself when comparing his last year’s album A View From Within (the review of the disc is on the website) and the current Space Cycles. It looks like his composer's fantasy and soft, kind of cozy sound, which the authors of the press release to the new album compare with the legato tradition coming from Jim Hall, Abercrombie and Scofield, have not gone away. And it doesn’t look like it, because Space Cycles was recorded in a completely different format - a classic trio with a guitar and a rhythm group. As a matter of fact, the same trio also appeared in A View From Within, but with a significant addition: then there was a saxophonist on the front stage next to Robitail, and not just anyone, but Dave Liebman himself. The main plot of that album rested on the interaction of the guitar and saxophone. In Space Cycles, Jim Robital reigns supreme. Of course, the rhythm group (both musicians, bass player Bill Miele and drummer Chris Pudriere, I have never heard of before) also supports him firmly and qualitatively - the king, as you know, is made by the retinue, and in this sense, Jim’s partners are quite on the level.

Of the ten tracks included in the album, Robitail composed seven. Of the three covers of the program, I, as a person who grew up on Beatles music, were especially pleased with the jazz version of Lennon and McCartney's song Here, There and Everywhere. But it was even more interesting to listen to Robitail's own compositions. Jim played the title Space Cycles very temperamentally and with good drive, but, as it seems to me, in his soul he is still more a lyricist. And the starting Natural Selection, and elegance When We Passed, and strict Nocturne - here the beauty of the sound of the Robitail instrument in the leisurely pace of music reveals itself with particular strength. Jim in all plays, both his own and arranged, stylistically remains within the framework of the post-bop. Hand on heart, the modern mainstream is not always interesting to listen to. Alas, many young musicians, having perfectly mastered jazz technique in Berkeley and other modern schools, do not always know what, in fact, they want to say with its help. Jim Robital is well versed in the categories of “what,” “how,” and “why.” Perhaps that is why listening to his music is both interesting and pleasant.