Jump
Julieta Eugenio; Matt Dwonszyk; Jonathan Barber
Greenleaf Music GRE-CD-1092 (julieta-eugenio.com)
Many musicians today put out what may be called mixed compilation programs on their debut discs. It’s almost as if they are testing the waters, so to speak; playing in a variety of styles and personas. However, it is a healthy sign when the program makes intrinsic musical sense from start to finish, revealing not simply a mature program, but a near-fully formed musical voice. This is exactly the case with Jump by tenor saxophonist Julieta Eugenio.
The smoky syntax of Eugenio’s music speaks to a rare kind of maturity that is rooted in a deeply reflective psyche. Her compositions seem made for a molten, meditative saxophone voice that tumbles out of the bell of her horn in parabolic glissandos forming profound melodic lines born of tender phrases ending with sensuously whispered vibrato.
Mostly original work by Eugenio fills this album – except for two standards – revealing a musician who mines her tenor for all the tonal purity that it can offer. Nothing is overly mannered; everything seems poised, balanced and intuitively right. For You, Another Bliss, Tres, and the exquisitely paced standard, Crazy He Calls Me are gleaming gems.
Finally, if trio music is an intimate conversation among friends, then Eugenio, bassist Matt Dwonszyk and drummer Jonathan Barber parlay with the familiarity of old friends. Yet their playing retains the gracious etiquette associated with musical noblesse oblige, which comes from being musicians of a thoroughbred sort.
