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Hanah Jon Taylor Artet
Walk-In Angels
(Fish Eye Records)
Part telescope, part microscope and part kaleidoscope, the Hanah Jon Taylor Artet reaches out, dissects and reassembles our curious notions of avant garde jazz to include mournful soliloquies, space jams and fluttering melodies. In their new release, Walk-In Angels, the Artet produces a solid hour of cerebral music that goes for the gut, plucking at the heartstrings as much as rattling the brain. Possessing credentials that stretch from Chicago to Europe and back again, bandleader Hanah Jon Taylor hit the Madison scene over five years ago sponsoring a series of red-hot jam sessions around town before founding the House of Soundz on Willy Street. The recording seems overdue. Creeping on cat's paws before exploding with spin-outs and thunder, Hanah, along with drummer Nathan Greer and bassist Nicholas Moran, effortlessly slide from free jazz to bossa novas, to bebop scales in the blink of an eye, following each other's leads with immaculate intuition. A defiant saxophonist and a twisted, snake charming-flutist, Hanah pokes and probes, circling Nicholas' steadiness; spiraling and sputtering against Nathan's captive rhythms. While the nervous frenzy of sounds takes off like an octopus on amphetamines, sections of quiet sidesteps populate the disc, and songs flow between an abundance of collisions. Walk-In Angels brews a strong cup of coffee, stirring up a buzz that's hot, restless and bold.
John Noyd
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