Joel Jeschke – Time & Place

Joel Jeschke is an Edmonton-based drummer with a long and varied career to his credit. He has played, and still plays, with numerous bands and soloists on the Alberta jazz and rock scene (Whale and the Wolf, Royal Tusk, Stephanie Urquhart Quartet), but Time & Place is his first opus as leader and composer. And it’s an excellent debut!

Jeschke constructs an edifice of nine assembled pieces in which contrasts are brilliantly balanced. Most of the pieces are propelled by a driving pulse, over which often complex asymmetrical rhythms swarm. There is also a lot of harmonic complexity, free jazz tinged, or even modern classical art music level, but always with an endearing discourse that never lets the listener become lost. 

Accustomed to the more ostentatious interventions of his rock and even metal collaborations, Jeschke imposes a more forceful sonic and directive presence than in a usual jazz quintet (at least for what casual listeners are usually able to decipher). That said, there’s nothing inappropriate or vulgar about this assertive personality, Jeschke letting his colleagues use all the space they need to express themselves, and taking care himself to colour his scores in a very refined and sophisticated way thanks to his virtuoso and confident playing. The compositions presented here are modern, energising jazz tinged with rock and electricity of all kinds. The omnipresent pulse and interwoven rhythms mentioned above are quickly followed by muscular rock bursts and chromatic harmonies that sometimes veer into atonality. Jeschke creates a musical framework of the highest order, and allows it to blossom with undoubted intuitive genius.

Here’s a regular sideman who’s not afraid or shy about putting his own stamp on the music he composes. Of course, none of this would be possible without the clearly inspired, technically scintillating contributions of his accomplices: Holly Sangster on saxophone, Brett Hansen on guitar, Brendan McGrath on piano and Aretha Tillotson on bass. 

A very high level contemporary jazz album