Author: Chamber 3

The first review is out for Chamber 3’s new CD, Grassroots, and it is 4 1/2 stars from All About Jazz!

… Chamber 3, presenting the album Grassroots, is Jorgensen’s international small group, teaming the Seattle-based drummer with German saxophonist Steffen Weber and German guitarist Christian Eckert, with, this time out, the very welcome addition of bassist Phil Sparks to the mix. The sound is “chamber-like,” with a equality of input. Eckert, like all the “chording guys” Jorgensen works with, can play tight, tasteful lines and also take things into adventurous harmonic territory. Weber plays with restraint, subtlety and precision, riding the waves of the groove.

Looking for parallel sounds or musical visions, Chamber 3 can be compared to drummer Paul Motian‘s ECM Records outings with guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist Joe Lovano, an exceptional and groundbreaking group that perhaps could have benefited from the addition of a bassist. Chamber 3 adds Phil Sparks in that spot, his solid sound making the mix a bit less diaphanous, less spacious than Motian’s.

Every group Jorgensen is involved in has a modern tinge. Part of it is musician choices, part is the tune-smithing, and part of it is his drumming—intricate and full of nuanced surprises, and always such unusual, compelling and captivating grooves. Grassroots, a particularly fine and very modern-sounding recording, has all of this.

Click here to read the full review.