Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Ravbar, Lovro
Label: Self-released
Release: 2017
Runtime: 48:34
Rating: 4.5/5
Slovenia’s wind-instrument scene without Lovro Ravbar would be poorer for a good few spicy sonic flourishes, even if they’d get lost in the wind. The ever-cheerful, good-hearted guy from Brežice, known for working with the Slovenian pop attraction Leeloojamais, came back last October with his second studio album, featuring a whole bunch of aces from the Slovenian jazz scene alongside Lovro. With an ace like Lovro, it simply can’t go any other way, because otherwise you can’t match him or keep up with him. His 2012 studio debut »Rush Hour« already proved that.
So. When we talk about the album »Get On Board«, this is not your typical jazz record, where you’d conservatively expect a double bass next to the sax, comfortably “laid-back” brushwork on the drums in the background, and an almost obligatory piano accompaniment. Nope. This is a “potent jazz drive” played with a big run-up and plenty of fire. It delivers a string of compact pop, jazz, soul, funk and art (even rock) earworms, purely instrumental, where the sax takes the central spot and with it the role of the vocals as well.
»Get On Board« (“Spravi se gor” or “Vkrcaj se” in Slovenian) is Lovro’s new jazz adventure, on which this brilliant virtuoso keeps reinforcing his wildly accessible, instantly gripping musical approach, deftly walking the line between the challenge of jazz improvisation and the pursuit of high musicality and tight, compact arrangements. The jazz component is strong, it’s the core, but Lovro uses it to speak to the listener in just the right teasing way, so the album is accessible even to less demanding listeners, or those who want to taste the essence of the music’s substance right away. Lovro brings so much finesse and “feeling” to his playing that he could easily play sax in art rock bands like Toto or Level 42. That’s how sparkling his skill and flexible reactivity are when he’s holding all sorts of saxophones in his hands. The compositions, too, are extremely musical and instantly infectious. They’re backed throughout by a solid rhythmic “groove” framework and lead rhythms, further beefed up by varied percussion work. The excellent production takes care of a perfect mix of all the building blocks of the overall sound, putting all the musicians in a state of true symbiosis within the expressive musical substance. Lovro brings tremendous variety to the album, using practically every kind of saxophone, as you’d expect often “garnishing” the lead motifs with sparkling soloing. Yet the sax doesn’t dominate the compositions absolutely: the guy also uses the arrangements to tap the top-tier talents of the guest musicians, whose solo spots add further movement and contrast to the development of the compositions. The album also carries a faint contour of bombastic infectiousness, which the excellent opener Night Ride already hints at.
“Cosmic jazz” coming from another galaxy? What hints at such a coinage, which this time is tied to the musical substance of this album? The album cover, Lovro’s accompanying crew doing their duties in the studio, whom Lovro named The Astronauts, and of course the greeting on the back of the booklet: “We come in peace to all of humanity”. And of course the very nature of the music on the record, which with its compact, penetrating musicality and funky rhythms can take you to a state where you completely switch off, let the album carry you and send your brain out to pasture.
A brilliantly polished album from head to toe, which with its meaningful title alone invites you on an intergalactic adventure. Lovro Ravbar is a major perfectionist, and that shows in the finish of the compositions themselves, the wide range of top jazz-seasoned musicians on this album, and Lovro’s skillful use and mixing of all the chess pieces at his disposal in the pursuit of tight arrangements and, as a result, highly infectious musicality, mood variety and funky groove hunger. »Get On Board« is an album by Lovro Ravbar that enchants and seduces with its roguish charisma, optimistic charge and fiery compositional punch. An album that will make jazz lovers out of even those music fans who normally run far, far away from the word jazz. An album that, with its perfection, can hold its own against its musical contemporaries on the international scene. Both stylistically and in terms of sound production.
Lineup
Lovro Ravbar – saxophones
Matija Dedič – piano, electric piano
Rok Lopatič – keyboards, electric piano
Tomaž Gajšt – trumpet
ZvonimirBajevič – trumpet
Antonio Geček – trumpet
Jure Urek – trombone
Miron Hauser – trombone
Jernej “Jerry” Trobentar – guitar
Miha Koretič – guitar
Igor Leonardi – guitar
Alen Svetopetrič – bass guitar
Tadej Kampl – bass guitar
David Morgan – drums, percussion
Janez Gabrič – drums
Nino Mureškič – percussion, vocals
Lazaro Ahmed Hierrezuelo – percussion
Peter Ugrin – strings
Franklin Arrindell – “steel drum”
Lana Janjanin – vocals
Production
Rok Lopatič
Track list
1. Night Ride
2. Meet Point
3. Up in Flames
4. Rule Bender
5. Been There
6. Who’s That Knockin?
7. Cycles
8. Back to the Future Planet
