Album Review: One Jazz Great Joins With Another As Jim Snidero & Kurt Rosenwinkel Team Up On FAR FAR AWAY

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby's CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week's album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from the world of THE JAZZ, and none other than one of the genre's great interpreters, alto saxophonist Jim Snidero, on his new album FAR FAR AWAY. Snidero has been top of his particular game for years now and is commonly acknowledged as a star by fans and critics alike. Joining forces with his LIVE AT DEARHEAD INN collaborators Orrin Evans (piano), Peter Washington (bass), and Joe Farnsworth (drums), Snidero makes this, his 25th recording, a special one by inviting guitar great Kurt Rosenwinkel to join the jam. FAR FAR AWAY is made up of almost entirely new music composed by Snidero, with one exception - an oldie but a goodie as they say. On IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING, Rosenwinkel's improv opener gently slides us into Snidero's sax, which gives it all a modern feel of smoky expressionism. Brighter than a "noir film" sax, his playing is a little hopeful sounding, especially since he is not running the original tune through a jazz meat grinder. Staying mostly true to the melody all the way through, both players' skillful improvs take the song's foundation and build out from it in their own unique directions. Within each riff are echoes of Richard Rogers and no matter the pattern they cut, they're both always taking us back to the beginning.

The album opens with its title song FAR FAR AWAY, a beautiful forest fire of sound that is poetic in its movements between the instruments. Snidero plays and then hands the action over to a brilliant guitar solo by Rosenwinkel, who, then, slides the music back into Snidero's solo, which is the centerpiece of this cut. It's all dizzyingly fast, though, whizzing up and down bluesy minor chords like a roller coaster. Cut seven, SEARCH FOR PEACE, is a standout. This time JS's horn IS a foggy film noir sax at its best, and, then, bassist Washington takes us to 1950s beatnik coffee shops, where art is created by those who don't give a $&!t what you think. It is the song OBSESSION, though, that has this rainbow writer obsessed with this music. On this cut, it is not the two frontmen that put the music over, in Bobby's humble O, but piano man Orrin Evans, with a solo that is a call back to earlier sounds, like a Vince Guaraldi. Bouncy in moments but never to be taken "lightly". Evans' enhancement to Snidero's music makes him the object of the sax and the guitar's obsession, the bright light that attracts their darker longings.

Finally, though, it is the innovative sonic combination of the frontline soloist that makes this album one for jazz aficionados. FAR FAR AWAY is another star in the Bobby firmament that begs to be heard with intention - to be sat with and absorbed. No mean idle background music is FAR FAR AWAY for, if any of you rainbow children were to put it in your "party playlist," you might well find your guests stopping their socializing to listen to some fine, FINE jazz. And so...

This one gets 5 Out Of 5 Rainbows - Put this one in your collection/stream today.

Pick It Up For Your Spotifies Queue: HERE

You Can See And Hear Everything About Jim Snidero On His Webbysite: HERE

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