Hickey-Shanafelt 9ollective presents mid-size band excellence across a fresh spectrum in 'The Kaleidoscope Suite'

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Visual and musical arts collaborate seldom in a "live" setting, yet the Hickey-Shanafelt 9ollective's "The Kaleidoscope Suite" made a compelling case for exploring artistic sharing across genre boundaries at the Jazz Kitchen a year-and-a-half ago.

With fund-raising completed and recording sessions in Bloomington representing the band at its best level, the disc by that name, which also includes four independent pieces, is publicly available now (9ollective.com). 

Hickey-Shanafelt 9ollective in action at the Jazz Kitchen
Arrangements are the work of the two bandleaders, trumpeter Kent Hickey and conductor-pianist Alex Shanafelt. The four-part title piece, tracing significant signposts along the color spectrum, is introduced by a selection of works indicative of the band's range and the way it substantiates different aspects of nine-piece jazz-band aesthetics. 

"Hindsight" gets into its gently nostalgic theme with a brief guitar introduction that's typical of how smoothly and almost inevitably each tune gets under way. And then there are the solos. In the case of "Hindsight," they are fully necessary supplements to the ensemble, not mere byproducts, and say what they have to say concisely. In "Hindsight," credit goes to Sean Imboden, tenor saxophone, and Sam Butler, flugelhorn, but similar examples by several players can be found throughout. Without the piano on most tracks (as Shanafelt conducts), the harmonic support rests capably upon Eric Garcia's guitar.

Sometimes, a solo is allowed to characterize a piece more than the ensemble, though the band is always well-integrated. This is the case with Trevor Mather's assertive baritone saxophone in the spirited, slightly menacing "Inquisitor."

When "The Kaleidoscope Suite" takes over, the listener might feel almost a sensory overload, but the variation of texture, tempo and that unfailing appropriateness of solos is under fine control. Of the four movements, I was especially impressed by "Ardent Passage," a tone poem of admirable expanse yet inevitable focus. 

There are some durable characteristics of the ensemble writing that, when longer notes are set against shorter notes simultaneously, the effect is not so much of counterpoint as a dialogue of contrasting textures. 

The savvy with which this is done in '"The Kaleidoscope Suite" reminds me of the perennial success of the ultimate nonet achievement in jazz history, Miles Davis' "Birth of the Cool," where ensemble colors illuminate the rhythmic variety woven into the compositions. In that classic,  Gerry Mulligan's "Jeru" and other pieces offered new definitions of that elusive element of swing. For the 21st century, "The Kaleidoscope Suite" carries insights into its idiom that are of the same high order. 

 


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