Customer Reviews

Like a Dream

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Bassist Darek Oles is a mainstay of the SoCal jazz scene, analogous, perhaps, to the great Kieran Overs's position in Canadian jazz. That this should be his first disc as leader is nothing short of remarkable. Here's a man whose playing sums up nearly the whole history of jazz bass, from Paul Chambers through Charlie Haden. Cryptogamophone deserves praise for having the foresight to sign him and release this wonderful disc.

That he's managed to snag Brad Mehldau for the piano chair for nearly half the total time on this disc proves he's not only got good taste, but a certain standing in the jazz community. And Mehldau delivers, big time. Almost always someone worth listening to for his tasty comping, bizarre sense of time, incessant solo ideas, and monster technique, he really digs deep here, especially on the standard, "You Don't Know What Love Is," and comes up with some of his finest playing on disc.

The rest of the recording is about equally divided between a quartet featuring Oles, Chuck Manning (saxes), Larry Koonse (guitar, a man with whom Oles has played extensively), and Mark Ferber (drums), and a trio comprising Oles, Adam Benjamin (piano), and Nate Wood (drums), with Bennie Maupin (tenor sax) sitting in for five-and-a-half minutes. One would think it difficult to maintain continuity between three different sets of players, but Oles's ability to do exactly that bespeaks his substantial bandleading abilities as well as his compositional, arranging, and playing capabilities.

Though nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary is going down here, this music always engages and often beguiles. What more do you want from jazz?

I recently heard of Darek on Pandora and was immediately intrigued. I looked him up on Amazon MP3 and found this album. After sampling several songs, I knew I would be purchasing this one. I have long been a fan of jazz bass, and Darek carries on in a long tradition (Ray Brown, Scott Lefaro, Charles Mingus). I would liken Darek's style to Lefaro's, but that is only my impression. I judge solely by how it sounds to me, and I like this one...give it a listen