Personnel:
Roger Mas (p), Raynald Colom (tp), Santi de la Rubia (ts), Deejay Foster (b), Jo Krause (d)
Reference: FSNT-449
Bar code: 8427328424493
"I dont unreservedly recommend Mass liner notes which talk about transversality and relate the title-track story of a whale that picks up a seashell but hes right about one thing. A recording session does represent a stop in a busy playing schedule, and there is an air here of a musician taking time out to examine his surroundings and assess his current state of consciousness. Jafre À La Espera is the turn in wait of a call, a group calling-card that underlines both the individual strengths of these regionally known but not widely celebrated players and also their ability to work as a group, just like it says on the marquee.
The best thing is almost the first thing. My Deepest Ocean plumbs just about everything that is definitive of good jazz: a subtle, shifting time-feel, rich harmonics, and a cracklingly good rhythm section. Everything seems to fall easily under Mass fingers, but hes recruited a fantastic bassist in Foster, and one who seems to go his own way in the music, musingly apart at some moments, right on top of it when needed. Krause is terrific, too, particularly on that first track and on the more skittish Vegetarian Barbecue, which highlights the rhythm guys. Which isnt to say that the two horns just needed to show up to sound good, but rather that theyre free to play as they feel. Playground sums it up perfectly: a tune that does the rounds without any particular sense of direction or urgency, but covers immensities in doing so. Very Iberian, and very jazz, too."
-Brian Morton (Jazz Journal, October 2015)
http://www.jazzjournal.co.uk
