Recommended: Underground Mafia – “Vol. V”


underground-mafia-vol-5Whether the quartet sighs out a melody or rolls out some thick lengths of harmony, it’s the way those sounds tumble through the unrelenting rhythmic action that carries this excellent post-bop session from the quartet Underground Mafia.  There are times on Vol. V when the quartet allows the tempo to go unchecked, and watching the song’s form quickly disperse is pretty damn thrilling on its own, but when you boil it all down, it’s when the tempo is focused and driven that things really take off.  “Ecuador Blues” achieves this with a modern jazz-rock form of expression whereas “Otro Día Igual a Mañana” runs with a classic post-bop sound.  And then there’s a track like “Sr. Anderson” that rings with a sound that echoes a straight-ahead of the bop era.  Adding some changes to tempo and tone are tracks like “Lava Plástica” and “”Chiquitita,” which shrug from its shoulders the concept of form and structure.

A nice example of how the new straight-ahead can keep on sounding brand spankin’ new… and also a nice glimpse into the the Buenos Aires jazz scene.

Your album personnel:  Francisco Salgado (trombone), Hernán Samá (tenor sax), Ivan Viaggio (bass) and Sebastián Groshaus (drums).

Released on Kuai Music.

Listen to more of the album at the label’s Bandcamp page.

Jazz from the Bueno Aires scene.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon