Artist: Fusion Point
Label: MALS Ltd.
Release: 2012
Duration: 45:38
Rating: 3/5
For any serious music lover, music is certainly something personal. Something you can not only identify with, but use to build your own identity, until it ends up partly defining who you are. Intimacy is therefore a kind of essential point in the relationship between people and music. Maybe that’s exactly why live music is at its most complete when it’s delivered in a way that lets the listener get as close as possible to it, and to the band. That’s certainly harder to pull off in huge stadiums and similar venues, which is why various smaller, chamber-style outfits are practically made for creating an intimate atmosphere. And when a band is good enough, that sense of intimacy comes through not only live, but on studio recordings too. One such band is the Russian jazz fusion trio Fusion Point.
Fusion Point started out as a project of pianist Kirill Sokirko. The whole point of the project, as he saw it, was this private intimacy between people and music, so he formed a small chamber lineup – a trio of piano, bass and drums. Sokirko doesn’t hide his influences; most of his inspiration comes from the likes of Esbjorn Svensson Trio, Hiromi Uehara, Michel Petrucciani, Niacin, Marcus Miller and so on. It’s clear from this list that we’re dealing with a bunch of above-average genre-fusion acts. It spans everything from bands that swear by ambience and a calm, restrained approach to playing, like Esbjorn Svensson Trio, to Niacin on the other side, a wild, technically flawless trio featuring Billy Sheehan, Dennis Chambers and John Novello. With Sokirko wearing his influences so openly, it’s obvious that expectations for Fusion Point’s music run high.
The band’s debut Morning Rain has settled in fairly well on the jazz scene, not just in Russia but worldwide. On it, the band swears by forms full of groove, rhythmic dynamics and bouncy tunes, only rarely wading into the waters of traditional jazz. The songs really do feel like a middle path between the music of Esbjorn Svensson Trio and that of Niacin. But quite unlike EST, where the musicians put a lot of work into building a track, Fusion Point fall into their musical theme from the very first second and don’t let go until the end. The only exception might be the title track, which doesn’t build either, but is a calmer, slower-developing piece – though it’s still nowhere near the kind of buildup to a climax that EST typically deliver. In this manner Fusion Point are much more like Niacin, where a song hits you right from the start and you basically don’t need to pay as much attention as you might with EST.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9koAvbsoCM
Fusion Point thus go for directness, punch and only rarely a subtle note. Interestingly, though, the most memorable parts of the album are exactly the somewhat subtle, calmer ones, which mostly show up in the intros, outros and various transitions. Where Fusion Point fall short is precisely in the songwriting. I’m talking about uniqueness – whether in sound, melody, combination of instruments… in that sense Morning Rain often comes across as muzak, as »elevator music«, as they’d call it across the pond. Music for those slightly more upscale joints that might still have a live band playing. Don’t get me wrong – the music is good, it’s full of groove, but it goes in one ear and out the other. And that, sadly, makes it feel uninspired, with no distinctive identity to set the band apart from millions of other similar bands.
Fusion Point is therefore a band that works best live, where the musicians can show off their chops through improvisation. Since their music is at least partly built on punch, intimacy is exactly what they need. The band radiates energy through its studio recordings, so their live shows have to be their forté. Morning Rain is a good album, but sadly it has nothing new to offer, nothing memorable and nothing that stands out. Which doesn’t mean that won’t change.
Line-up
Kirill Sokirko – keys
Dmitry Malygin – bass guitar
Roman Smirnov – drums
Production
Viktor Prochorov
Tracklist
01. Mania – 05:28,
02. Waltz’n’blues – 07:09,
03. A Very Though Day… – 05:19,
04. Morning Rain – 06:05,
05. Japanese Girl – 04:07,
06. 9,11 & 7 – 06:54,
07. I Say Yes – 05:12,
08. The Brillant Way – 05:24
