Recommended: Brenton Foster – “The Nature of Light”

There’s so much to like about the newest from Brenton Foster.  Each song launches forward with a Big Sound, as if it could fill up the entire sky with its presence.  Remarkably, this quality is coupled with an exquisitely delicate touch, its effect not unlike a whisper capable of moving the tides.  This is as much a result of the pianist’s ability to craft spellbinding melodies as it is his sextet’s talent for creating giant swells of harmony that spread out like sunlight across wide open fields.  The grand statements of “MX” and “The Audacity of Tropes (Redwash)“ also come in hand with introspective soloing and little conversational asides, adding texture and contrast at will.  “First Day” and “Midnight Suite Pt.III: Flinders St“ are nice examples of that equation flipped on its head, where the opening declarations of melody are a melodic sigh that is sent aloft by lively solos and even livelier conclusions.  And then there’s a song like “Juniper” that threads the needle between the extremes of both approaches simultaneously.

The Nature of Light has been a fixture of my listening queue for the better part of 2017, and I continue to discover new sources of amazement and delight.

Your album personnel:  Brenton Foster (piano), Tom Jovanovic (trumpet, flugelhorn), Gideon Brazil (saxophone, alto flute), Nick Pietsch (trombone), Marty Holoubek (double bass) and Aaron McCoullough (drums).

Released on Bold Future Records.

Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.

Music from Melbourne, Australia.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon