Sometimes listening to contemporary jazz is bit like taking prescription medicine. It’s probably good for you but it doesn’t get you that buzz. Evan Arntzen’s third album is an entirely different matter. The reed player leads a small combo through arrangements of foundational 1920s jazz—Dixieland the early stirrings of Louis Armstrong and all that razzmatazz. Countermelody doesn’t put any new spin on the genre (aside from several original compositions) but that doesn’t matter here. The pure exuberance calls up the music’s Black roots of group improvisation within a syncopated melodic frame. It’s not an excuse for anyone to show off but a chance to collaborate. The players on Countermelody are having fun —and so will the listeners.
