Self-released
Release date: 09.03.2019
Production: Zlatko Kavčič
Album length: 44.07 min.
Genre: Jazz
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Anyone who’s ever been to the Goriška Brda hills knows where Nozno is, mostly thanks to the impressive Gothic church of Sts. Peter and Paul perched on a little hill above this sleepy village. But besides its squadrons of chickens, Nozno apparently also boasts a legendary rooster, whose cock-a-doodle-dooing on a grand scale can drive some people to despair while handing others a good dose of compositional inspiration. As of now, that second group includes Zlatko Kavčič. He’s that one-of-a-kind drumming and percussion jazz warrior of the Slovenian scene who, in his inexhaustible zeal, with his creative hunger never fading, puts out three albums a year, if not more, in all sorts of collaborations with jazz creators and musicians. At the same time, this brilliant musician has written the music for a new release of his Kombo project. And so his protégés from the third generation of young jazz musicians present themselves on the new Kombo record, writing their names into the books with Kombo C and the album »Petelin iz Noznega«.
Kombo C has a noticeably electrified edge. It has moments where a John McLaughlin from the Miles Davies era could easily have struck up a conversation with it on his guitar, and it smells of good old-school jazz-rock fusion. This time two electric guitars are woven into the framework of the tracks, and they can dominate much of the material, flooding the sonic space with adventures in sprawling improvisation. Of course that’s by no means a rule, but the opener Črni Bcko surprises in this regard. The next one, Toni žica Solkanca, rhythmically bolstered at the start by extra percussion, keeps up a similar stance, with a white-hot escapade of electric guitar domination. The influence of jazz-rock fusion is clear; the cherry on top would be a bit of Rhodes electric piano, but that’s already asking too much, since Kombo don’t even need it this time. The fourth track, Petkoff, full of distinctive and remarkable rhythmic structure and dynamic switch-ups, lets the trumpet step into the foreground, and from the sheer looseness of its playing, you can hear the odd shard of distant bebop here and there. In the title track, Kombo C touches on the impulses of world music. Spričevalo addresses you exactly the way the associations with the word “report card” would suggest. Memories of it fill you with dread rather than joy, since a report card, pretty or not so pretty, is after all a kind of forced legitimized brainwashing. A hugely fun moment on the album and its absolute outlier. It can come off almost serious, but it also carries a playful fixation on Arabic rhythmic structures. A mix of tragedy and comedy, all in one piece, with a children’s choir thrown in.
Kombo C is definitely a mini orchestra, and as a rule, in the vision of total freedom backed by the ever-insightful, inexhaustible mind of their protector Zlatko Kavčič, there’s always plenty of room for equal expression of the sonic elements coexisting within a given musical adventure and, consequently, the musical body. A dynamic, lively rhythm section builds an outstanding framework for the tracks, especially the supple, warm, charming, organic-sounding bass, which with a great feeling for crafting melody deftly fills the vast expanses opening up in the formations of a jazz musical landscape, carved out according to Zlatko Kavčič’s compositional recipe.
The contrasting of “opposites” is interesting. While the woodwinds hold down the motif structure, the improvisational core of the electric guitars bites into it, and with repeated outbursts of atonal defiance and a gravitational pull toward escapes into free jazz, they try to “shred” the space, yet all the while stay within the frame of a solid format held together by the rhythmic texture on one side and the woodwinds on the other. Of course the whole thing flips around when the woodwinds take over in the solo spots. In that respect the album’s key track is its title one. In it you get the gist of what the new Kombo C is all about. A harmonious balance of carefully crafted lead structures (melodies) and free-spirited breaks of purely provocative solo escapades, with as little restraint as possible, or none. Adapting, in the sense of a conciliatory blending of the solo escapades, is an important element that, with a concise approach, keeps the red thread of the compositional format running through the tracks even in moments when it’s, thanks to the free-spirited looseness, harder to follow. Norveške kalcete doesn’t skimp on hard-hitting adventurousness, trading between rock-style escapes and trumpet escalations, and even owes a few associations to Scandinavian jazz.
So Zlatko is clearly not short on drive, and the generation of promising jazz players united under Kombo C, under his baton, delivers a fresh, excellent musical treat of jazz provocation with a nice helping of everything, loose appeal included. What it brings to the scene is an album that’s far more interesting to listen to than the releases of established Slovenian jazz players, who, mileage notwithstanding, like to lounge in the comfort of safe conformism with predictable forms of modal jazz, boring the listener more than entertaining them.
So Kombo C has lived up to every expectation. Zlatko has once again done an excellent job. »Petelin iz Noznega« offers an incredible tangibility, just the right amount of loose provocation and motif structure, which is the biggest draw of releases like this. With less of the hard-hitting free jazz, which is there but dialed back, and almost no avant-garde excess, but that was never its main purpose anyway. All the more juicy, then, is how well the album fits in with the many things you do during the day. Whether you’re driving in the car or just sorting your “spilled toothpicks” at home. Let’s hope Kombo C shows up on the stages of at least the smaller Slovenian club venues, because »Petelin iz Noznega« absolutely has to crow “live” too. That’s when it’ll really grab you the way it should! With this much talent among young jazz musicians, as radiated by the third generation of Zlatko’s protégés on the album »Petelin iz Noznega«, there’s really no need to worry about the future of good jazz in Slovenia.
Track list:
1, Črni Bcko (06:05)
2. Toni žica Solkanca (05:57)
3. Tomimoti (04:59)
4. Petkoff (05:28)
5. Petelin iz Noznega (11:01)
6. Spričevalo (06:14)
7. Norveške kalcete (04:44)
Lineup:
Zlatko Kaučič – artistic director
Tomi Novak – drums
Robi Erzetič – drums
Tilen Kravos – guitar
Ajk Vremec – guitar
Anton Lorenzutti – guitar
Timi Vremec – bass guitar
Francesco Ivone- trumpet
GUESTS:
Jure Boršič – alto sax on track 7
Children’s choir of SCGV Emil Komel on track 6
