Chad Lefkowitz-Brown - Imagery Manifesto (2013)

Here’s an impressive debut by a NY-based tenorist who I hope comes to the Best Coast sometime soon. Chad Lefkowitz-Brown (from now on referred to as “L-B”)graduated from the Brubeck Fellowship Program, winning 15 Downbeat awards and has started paying his dues as a sideman for Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. Here, he writes everything and leads an impressive team cons isting of Adam O’Farrill/tp, Travis Reuter/g, Sam Harris/p, Linda Oh/b and Kenneth Salters/dr. Tone is medium thick, modern and metallic, while his compositions such as “Still Here” show a clever juxtaposition between long toned melodies and kinetically active percussion rumblings underneath. A militaristic beat underpins the intriguing “Manic Panic” while crisply clipped notes create and intriguing theme on the mysterious “ Where the Wild Things Are.” A hint of Coltrane’s “Naima” permeates the lovely “Easter Flower.” The sidemen deliver impressive work, with Reuter’s spacey guitar on “A Turbulent Drift,” Oh’s intro to “Tooth and Fang” and Harris’ soft hands on “Time and Space” standouts, and O’Farrill’s front line work as reliable as a Pentax camera. Good post bop material, and impressive writing!