NEW RELEASE – THE DAM JAWN

The Dam Jawn manages to come up with something refreshing time and again, here in cooperation with ace American trumpeter Jeremy Pelt.

Trisaphic? Thrashfisch? Ah, what the hell. A killer record by The Dam Jawn, that’s for sure. An acute expansion of the tradition. After Master St. (2023) and Forward (2024), guitarist Joan Fort, alto saxophonist Martin Diaz, tenor saxophonist Frank Groenendijk, bassist Philip Lewin, drummer Nitin Paree, Amsterdam cats who’d bonded in Philadelphia for a while with the top-rate altoist Dick Oatts, meet with another American class act, Jeremy Pelt on trumpet.

Starting a band is no cinch, the challenge is to keep it in business and as you can see and hear, The Dam Jawn has met demands. Pelt, with his remarkable strong tone and fluent improvisations, is like a fish in the water of the neo-modernist bunch. Paree’s Sooryast, built on a hypnotic polyrhythm that one can easily imagine would’ve been nicked/re-shaped by J. Dilla or MF Doom, provided they’d still be alive, a tune that travels a misty path somewhere between Bitches Brew and Woody Shaw’s Blackstone Legacy, and Diaz’s title track, a stately melody with tinges of both military ceremony and elegy, provide Pelt with ample room to demonstrate his versatility, formerly his vibrant meanderings under a dark purple sky, latterly his canny less-is-more lyricism.

Chockfull of strong tunes, equally divided between band members, evidently Triphasic is a step forward for The Dam Jawn, alternating for instance between Fort’s Latin-ish Hotel 17, marked by beautifully off-beat but perfect movements that steal your heart away, and Paree’s Floatin’, which does justice to the title, a song that rocks like a little sailboat. They’re keeping it real with the neo-bop of Diaz’s Tongue Twister and Ellington’s ballad Don’t You Know I Care.

Here, Fort reminds of the René Thomas sound  –  could be worse. Other times, the guitarist uses pedal effects, at one time perhaps a bit overdone, but in general, his edgy sound contributes cannily to the album’s progressive attitude. The Dam Jawn’s got it made and its adaptation to American greats seems limitless.

Find Triphasic here: https://thedamjawn.bandcamp.com/album/triphasic

See them play Floatin’ on North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam below.