Best of 2019 #68: Dan Weiss Trio Plus 1 – “Utica Box”

Precise like origami, swift as a knife fight, and cryptic as midnight: These are the qualities that Dan Weiss unites on his excellent 2019 recording Utica Box.  Melodies are unleashed in a vortex, where sometimes they spend the entire duration of a piece in an endless cycle, and other times they break free, shards spraying in all directions.  There’s a gravity to this music, a seriousness, the sense of eyes fixed to a spot on the horizon, and that singular focus is a form of momentum that carries this album briskly along no matter how fragmented it may become, keeping everything cohesive, and inducing fluid motion where conditions might otherwise become rudderless.  Utica Box also serves as a reminder that the compelling nature of his music isn’t just tied to his outstanding large ensemble projects.

Your album personnel:  Dan Weiss (drums), Jacob Sacks (piano), Thomas Morgan (bass), and Eivind Opsvik (bass).

Released on Sunnyside Records.

Music from New York City.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Amazon – Bandcamp