The Santa Fe/Albuquerque-based quartet Love Unfold the Sun and the Boston-based band Club d’Elf share a number of characteristics. They both blend Middle Eastern/African and Western elements, and incorporate an exotic instrument. Texture plays an important role in the musical development of their material. Flow is prized over destination. Yet, even with these similarities, the two groups make music that is quite different.

Love Unfold the Sun
Live at Duel (Norumba Records)
A review
Oudist/guitarist Mustafa Stefan Dill ran across some recordings by the quartet Love Unfold the Sun, of which he was a founding member, that dated back to 2003 or 2004. He was so impressed with the quality of the work that he decided to resurrect the project, which had gone to ground. He got hold of original members Dan Pearlman (cornet) and Dave Wayne (drums) and inducted Ross Hamlin (bass), and the four of them convened at the now-defunct Duel Brewing in Santa Fe for two shows, beautifully recorded by Stephen Schmidt and released on Live at Duel. The resulting six original tracks, composed by Dill, offer a heady, jazz-based, Middle East–inflected cocktail that incorporates elements of psychedelia, funk, country, blues, and good ol’ rock ’n’ roll, with judicious use of pedal effects. While each tune offers a straightforward melody, which, in two cases, has chord changes under it, the tracks are largely open improvisations, but Dill emphasizes that the playing is not free, as elements of the melody underpin the solos and conversations. The music travels on the urgent, furiously kinetic drumming of Wayne and Hamlin’s solid bass. Dill brings the oud into a jazz setting very effectively on the first track, “Zapatos,” and elsewhere. Pearlman evokes a flamenco feel on “Saba,” and Hamlin’s tricky walking bass line anchors the playful “Walk.” The frantic “How the Nexus Affects Us” features a glorious back and forth between Dill’s stinging guitar and Pearlman’s cornet. On “It’s a Boy,” the oud and trumpet and bass interlock in a three-way telepathic conversation. The funky “Delirium” builds texture on top of texture and is the one tune on the album that returns to the point from which it started. The open improvisations reveal an acute sensitivity among the four musicians, who continually open doors for one another, ushering the quartet into one bracing and surprising exploration after another.

Club d’Elf
Night Sparkles (Face Pelt Records)
A review
Accurately self-described as a “Moroccan-dosed dub-jazz collective,” Club d’Elf is centered on a core that includes leader Mike Rivard (sintir, a three-string bass banjo used by the Gnawa people; bass) and Dean Johnston (acoustic and electronic drums). Surrounding this core is a diverse roster of collaborators and guest artists that ranges from John Medeski to Brahim Fribgane, Hassan Hakmoun to Duke Levine. As a result, no two performances are the same, and listeners can expect anything and everything. On Night Sparkles, recorded live at the band’s home base, the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, Mass., the core duo are joined by David Tronzo (slide guitar), Paul Schultheis (Rhodes, Moog, melodica), Vicente Lebron (congas, percussion), and Leo Blanco (melodica on one track). Master djembe drummer Moussa Traore, who had never heard the band, was in the audience, and he, too, was invited to join the group on two of the six tracks. On each track, Rivard and Johnston set up a rhythmic cell that repeats with subtle alterations in meter and groove, flowing like a river and inducing a trancelike state. Floating down this river are the collaborators, who take turns commenting on what they see on the riverbank in riveting solos and imaginative conversations. Night Sparkles especially features the various drummers, but everybody makes signal contributions over the deep grooves. Spacey, intense, highly textured, and mesmeric, Club d’Elf’s latest presents a cinematic excursion into parts previously unknown and never to be revisited. For a completely different Club d’Elf experience, check out Live at Club Helsinki, reviewed here. Also, for those of you at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, you can catch the band at Howlin’ Wolf on April 29, with John Medeski (keys), Skerik (sax), Van Martin (guitar), and the inimitable Mister Rourke (turntables) joining Rivard and Johnston.

© 2019 Mel Minter