Milwaukee’s Opus is more than 40 years old yet this music sounds like the first breeze of spring. Definition redefines jazz-fusion as grownup music. There’s plenty of youthful élan but it tastes like a vintage chardonnay. Hell, in good jazz you can mix metaphors because the swing and imagination usually move too fast to pin them down. And this “fusion” reaches deeper into crossover history than the ’70s glut of testosterone-fueled guitar virtuosos. Several tunes, like “Ultra Blue,” ride the soulful magic carpet of Jim Sodke’s B-3 organ rather than early-tech synth. Organ trio, the first modern fusion, thrived in funky urban bars. Have another drink as guitarist Steve Lewandowski conjures Montgomery, Martino and Metheny, the best.
Some moments fairly blister your speakers; others seduce them, like “Pastel,” a pensive interlude with real musical meat in its rhythmic stop times and deftly folded changes. “Seattle” evokes swaying gospel choirs, sweaty and transcendent. Fusion may be history, but Definition is forever.
