Four for one

Album review

German jazz drummer/composer Terzic proves to be quite an able modern mainstream performer and writer on this CD. He truly knows what it means to be a trap player-- his rudiments are precise, his style powerful but not flashy. The music he has written for this quartet, with American saxophonist George Garzone and fellow Europeans Roberto DiGioia (piano) and Dietmar Fuhr (bass), has a neo-bop flavor, much lyricism courtesy of established melodicists Garzone and DiGioia, plus energy to burn.
Terzic wrote half of the eight selections. "Childish Things" starts with a drum solo where you hear his distinct trapping technique leading to a hip New Orleans shuffle in seven. Garzone is ever-fresh and funky on tenor sax. "Big Argument" and "Loose Ends" are personal statements that work together. The former starts with a fervent drums/tenor workout, then to a neo-bop line replete with snippets of different melodic devices, from pedal point to stop-start staccato and counterpointed phrases, all strung together in just a few remarkable measures before a straight bop bridge lets Garzone have his head. The latter is a simple, resolute tick-tock piece, Garzone on languid-sounding soprano sax seeming to say he's sorry. The title track is loaded with Garzone's written lines based on start-stop-start antics, with Terzic's drums right alongside on what is essentially a 12-bar bop/blues framework. There are two pieces plucked from the repertoires of Geri Allen and Maria Schneider, respectively. Eli Fountain's "Night Shadow" sports several deft melodic phrases that come and go from Garzone's tenor, and great solos by he and DiGioia. Schneider's adaptation of the love theme from Spartacus has Garzone's heartstring-pulling soprano switching quickly to tenor and back, as if a sweetheart's passionate discourse. Two standards end the show; "My Romance" is the most typical easy swinger, while "On Green Dolphin Street" (minus the pianist) has proper Afro-Cuban to swing changes, but not-so-predictable tenor inflections from the always reliable and original underappreciated master Garzone.
Those who are not familiar with Terzic and friends should not shrink from purchasing this one. It's quite a promising and enjoyable date which we recommend, while looking foward to the next one.

© Michael G. Nastos /TiVo