Label: Self-released
Production: Dejan Berden
Album length: 53:23
Rating: 9.0 / 10
džeZZva are an experimental instrumental quartet from Prekmurje, and their arrival is a hell of a boost for the Slovenian music scene. Four top-notch musicians, all devoted to the freedom offered by that ever-popular phenomenon, musical experimentation, or the unbridled tunes you get from free-spinning forms of improvisation.
This quartet of highly distinctive and much-respected musicians doesn’t just work in a special way, it’s also seriously attractive and thrilling at every single moment of the album. And that’s not only thanks to their great jazz improv chops and the layered musical sensibility of each member, but to how well they bridge the genre spheres that end up in the band’s melting pot. In the realization of the band’s original artistry, that comes out unique and homegrown, as well as eclectic.
The word “džeZZva” instantly brings to mind brewing Turkish coffee, hence the telling choice of album cover. The quartet wins a poker hand of aces in musical uncommonness, mostly by mixing genres into a musical stew and through their remarkable tolerance for one another. Comparisons to Pat Metheny Group are totally on the mark. Still, the “musicographic” perception of the Pomurje “microlocation” of the old continent is the load-bearing element of džeZZva’s sonic quirks. Iztok Rodež must have found inspiration in Pat Metheny. That’s confirmed not only by the occasional style of his guitar playing, but by the sound itself, a distant yet still kindred Slovenian imprint of the guitar wizard mentioned above. The arrangement of the lead melodic phrases also draws on Pat Metheny Group principles, since the interplay of piano and guitar between Berden and Rodež occasionally comes close to the hallmarks of the inimitable Metheny-Mays duo. Iztok conjures up Metheny right from the opening of East, then again in the jazzy variations inside Spring, as well as in the first “entrance” of guitar improvisation in the rework of the Slovenian traditional song Če bi ges bijla fčelica.
džeZZva have a keen sensitivity for dishing out the ideas that come to them in just the right measure. The musical jigsaw they build is remarkably listenable, even though we’re constantly hit with sudden experimental “twists”, with all four building blocks of the band’s sound trading solos and one motif switch after another. The element of surprise in their playing spoils the listener with moments of spontaneous excitement. It’s bold, and that’s exactly one of the biggest draws of this musical document, which is definitely densely complex and therefore demands more attention. In return, it’ll reward you richly, growing on you irreversibly after a few spins in your CD player.
Even in the spots where the band allows itself the most experimental freedom, like the excellent IndinA, “driven” by pronounced arabesques in the lead melody, the band never (carelessly) “falls apart” through the sequences of motifs. IndinA has a particular atmospheric grip, since a murky curtain of synthesized sound (or is it a “processed” guitar sound?) is added in the background of the sonic picture, seasoning the mood with a hearty pinch of mysticism. Given its jazz-rock outlook, steeped of course in ethnic arabesque forms, you’d only have to add an electric guitar and a wild xylophone and the whole thing would come dangerously close to the musical philosophy the great and unforgettable Frank Zappa developed and put into practice in moments like these. A Little Game has a lovely crossing of traditional ethnic figures of the “Pannonian sun” with jazz improvisation; the track radiates a huge dose of cheeky playfulness, and at the speed they work up inside it, the band members also show exceptional control over every note they strike, which proves they’ve played and practiced a ton over their careers. In this track, Miran Celec’s excellent drum solo grabs particular attention, while across the album Mojmir Wolf is the real Slovenian answer to the charm of double bass playing by the master Charlie Haden. What also fascinates in A Little Game is that Iztok Rodež, in his improvisations, uses sequences of differently shaped grips (chords) rather than forcing every track into standard single-string jazz “noodling” and “tightrope-walking”. It’s a trick that has always lit things up and that, say, Alex Lifeson (Rush) masters brilliantly. It adds a wonderful tastefulness to the lively heart of the album’s remarkable musical mosaic.
džeZZva also like to flirt with neoclassicism. You get that in the opening part of the awakening, optimistic, “earthy” Spring, and especially in Berden’s solemn keyboard intro to the closing Panonnian fantazen Nr. 1. That closing track is a fascinating mini epic suite, a beautiful and sensual weave of classical and jazz premises, with a breeze of Pannonian melody blowing through it, full of playful jazz variations.
The album “džeZZva” is a one-of-a-kind, endlessly fascinating piece of work where everything clicks in a beautiful symbiotic relationship of big musical tolerance, fueled by the layered (you could even say complex) musical sensibility, breadth and vision of all four players. Let’s hope this debut gets a follow-up or two in the years to come. For now, it’s time to put “džeZZva” on another spin.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. East
2. Če bi ges bijla fčelica
3. IndinA
4. Doli v kraju sama zase
5. A Little Game
6. Spring
7. Pannonian fantazen Nr. 1
Line-up:
Dejan Berden – piano, synthesizer
Iztok Rodež – guitar
Mojmir Wolf – bass guitar
Miran Celec – drums, percussion
