Ernesto Cervini is a prominent drummer on the Toronto jazz scene. He led his own quartet for about twenty years before reviving the machine with a new engine this year, saying he wanted to explore what the local younger generation has in store. So he surrounded himself with promising youngsters: Kae Murphy on trumpet, Andrew Marzotto on guitar, Mark Godfrey on bass. A program of six tracks, divided equally between original compositions and covers (Monk, Glenn Miller, The Smile). In terms of composition, Cervini’s creations are impressive in their structural contemporaneity, sophisticated harmonies, yet bathed in a communicative and catchy groove. Today’s jazz at a very high level, both intuitive and thoughtful, where the rhythm section draws undulating arabesques with the attentive melodic phrases of the trumpet. In A Resonant Space, Murphy replaces his brass with a virtual cousin: the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument), which is played with trumpet fingerings but produces synthetic sounds that seem to come from a cosmic and floating trip. The piece itself takes us somewhere in low orbit, where microgravity does not prevent us from feeling the pull of the Earth. The arrangements, for their part, are not to be outdone. A Moonlight Serenade (Miller) that evokes a vaporous and somewhat abstract bossa, a very pleasant classic bop Monk (Evidence), allowing each member of the quartet to showcase their impressive technical chops, and then a contemplative version of Free in the Knowledge by The Smile, a three-part English band led by two Radiohead members (Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood) plus Tom Skinner (Sons of Kemet). Murphy, once again, delivers the adamant (vocal) melodic line of the original version with conviction.
Despite a rather casual title, Water Pistols at Dawn offers superior, thoughtful, and completely cordial jazz.
Water Pistols at Dawn will be available on October 30
