Self-released
Release date: November 26, 2022
Production: Dejan Berden & džeZZva
Album length: 62.21 min
Genre: Jazz/Jazz Rock Fusion
Rating: 10/10
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Four years is a bit of a gap in the studio-album biorhythm of džeZZva, Slovenia’s champions of jazz and jazz rock fusion, who dropped their third studio album “Clearness” at the end of last November. The album was actually recorded back in mid-June of that same year. Since 2010, and through the albums “džeZZva” (2014, RockLine review) and “Sintur” (2018, RockLine review), džeZZva have slowly dug themselves into the Slovenian jazz landscape as a one-of-a-kind musical story, developing their own homegrown, authentic sound that has become instantly recognizable, all while diligently nurturing a creative approach that’s entirely theirs.
In its latest era the band also went through a lineup shuffle on bass guitar. The new member is Tadej Kampl, who replaced his predecessor Mojmir Wolf in džeZZva. He’s a musician with serious experience on the international jazz scene, who also put out a solo studio album, “Life Is Good”, in 2015. The opening Barber Bluzz (as the name hints, a jazz-loosened blues number à la džeZZva), with which džeZZva very aptly and with a springy dose of playfulness lay the runway for the takeoff of the substance of “Clearness”, already tells you that a new energy current has entered the quartet, a new vibration that has changed the chemistry between the building blocks. With Kampl in the lineup, the constantly active bass guitar dynamics and expressive breadth are the definitive catalyst, one that lets džeZZva not only reach for new creative spheres of their own artistry, but, in terms of expressive range, carry it to a new level of perpetual evolution on the new album “Clearness”. What Kampl is made of, he shows early on the album in Next Day Song, where he treats himself to a very vivid chunk of improvising in the middle of the track. So “Clearness” delivers a new, different, thoroughly adventurous, exploratory, challenging experience of vivid improvisational ‘pranks’. “Clearness” opened up spheres of creative work to džeZZva that are often new and untested for the band.
džeZZva are a band that plants a clearly perceptible motif-driven format in the listener’s space, which means that no matter how many solo acrobatics are woven into individual pieces, džeZZva very carefully maintain a constant momentum of appealing listenability, one that will keep the more demanding music gourmets busy for a long time, and also everyone else who proverbially ‘runs away from jazz’. It will manage to hold them and somehow get them interested enough to spare a minute or so more for “Clearness”.
RockLine’s past reviews of this band have handed out plenty of superlatives about the band’s character and work. Rightfully so. With “Clearness”, džeZZva stay exactly where a jazz fan wants them most. Where we quietly expected them, and in a way even demanded them. In 100% free-spirited maneuvering, with a vibe of huge enjoyment shining through at high intensity, surrendering to momentary feelings and instincts that carry the creator into fields of vivid transformation, turning the moment of inspiration into a unique language of musical information. That’s it. džeZZva! And given that most of the forces originally revolve around the exceptional keyboardist Dejan Berden, as far as the basic form of the compositions goes, džeZZva keep a one-of-a-kind originality in this department, which is again and again deepened and intensified by the refined softness of Iztok Rodež’s sensitive, note-accenting guitar playing. This pairing remains integral and is an essential element in creating the artistic peaks of the expression on offer, which we also experienced on the band’s previous two studio albums.
The band simply pulls you into its own world of Prekmurje plains vibes, and in the process structures are born that bring to life the mystique of the region džeZZva come from. Authentic and captivating! At the same time, this trait gives the band one of the main attributes of its own musical ID card, its expressive thrills, which now weigh on “Clearness” too. In this respect it appeals with especially bubbling magnetism and charm in the closing eighteen minutes of its musical substance, represented by the tracks Drops and Y Not. The first of those intensified moments, Drops, has the gorgeous calm and sensitivity of an opening atmospheric buildup, bringing the album’s most ambitious point into focus. Drops thrills with the collision of that magical mystique džeZZva know how to conjure (with the veil of melancholic melos of the Prekmurje plains) and clearly perceptible forms, capturing all the vividness of the quartet’s harmonious dialogue, with expressive forces spread evenly across all four building blocks of the sound. Honestly, a moment like that (and we’re talking jazz) carries you off, enchants you, since it works to the point of being almost ‘cerebral’ and puts you in a state of ‘rapture’ while you listen. The interweaving is exceptionally tender and feeling, as the band very delicately and concisely lays piece after piece into a rich puzzle. So Drops is the most ambitious and exciting composition on the new album, while in the closing Y Not all these feelings are magnified even more. Perhaps thanks to a sense of a bit more ‘looseness’ within the motifs.
So džeZZva aren’t letting up. A bundle of eight new compositions, lavishly loaded with a unique and refined tightrope walk in search of the right balance between motif-driven structure and improvisational loosening, delivers a new, extremely appealing and pleasant listening experience that will reward even the most demanding music gourmets. Simple as that. This is a quartet of four extremely ‘razor-sharp musical talents’ who sense each other perfectly, which doesn’t stop impressing on the new album “Clearness” either.
“Clearness” doesn’t just offer a glimpse of the quartet’s exceptional creative focus, it also confirms a total lack of inhibition in surrendering to inspiration and instinct. Combined with the exceptional technical polish of the quartet’s individual members, that’s the key to achieving all the artistic distinctiveness that comes with the nature of džeZZva’s music. On this front too, “Clearness” is the band’s most mature achievement to date. It’s a special cumulus of the band’s creative moment, along the lines of ‘receive – reshape – transmit’. Now! It doesn’t get more authentic than this, and with “Clearness” džeZZva remain one of the hottest spots on the contemporary Slovenian jazz scene and, in that regard, an ever more shining star taking on the integral role of a focal force on today’s jazz and jazz-rock fusion scene.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Barber Bluzz
2. Next Day Song
3. Landing
4. Corner
5. So Easy
6. Gummy
7. Drops
8. Y Not
Lineup:
Dejan Berden – piano, keyboards
Iztok Rodež – guitar
Tadej Kampl – bass guitar, double bass
Miran Celec – drums, percussion
