Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » George Kahn: DreamCatcher
George Kahn: DreamCatcher
ByThe group is the George Kahan Quartet. The album cover art/design looks a lot like that of The Complete Modern Jazz Quartet Prestige and Pablo Recordings (Prestige, 2006), with the MJQ initials switched out for GKQ. This is apt. The music of the The Modern Jazz Quartet was often referred to a "chamber jazz," and that is what George Kahn has created here with Dreamcatcher.
The Modern Jazz Quartet's blend of vibraphone and piano is, of course, much different from Kahn's blend of his piano and Pat Kelly's guitar. But the approachthe equality of instrumental input, the seamless collectivity of the sound, the classy and refined beautyis the same, beginning with the Leonard Bernstein / Stephen Sondheim jewel, "I Feel Pretty." It is an up-tempo take, crisp and lively, swinging. The familiar "Just One Of Those Things" takes things into smoother territorycool and laid-back, while another Great American Songbook tune, "You And the Night and the Music," moves into a flawless groove. Kahn goes solo on "Never Let Me Go"as lovely as can be in the pianist's handsexuding palpable yearning.
The Kahn-penned title tune sis a cool swinger, sounding like two drinks into the cocktail hour, and "Going Baroque" is the quartet's gorgeous, deep-in-the-pocket tribute to The Modern Jazz Quartet, while the set's closer, "Quaratuni Time"another Kahn-penned tunecloses the show with a bouncy, optimistic, "C-Jam Blues" nod to the tribulations of Covid-19 times.
Track Listing
I Feel Pretty; Just One of Those Things; You and the Night and the Music; Never Let Me Go; One Fine Thing; Dreamcatcher; Going Baroque; Stardust; Tonight; Eva; Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight; Quarantuni Time.
Personnel
Album information
Title: DreamCatcher | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: Playing Records