When an album opens with a drum solo, you can bet the band leaders is sitting behind the kit, a wide grin covering his face. Russia’s Sasha Mashin leads an international cast of jazz musicians on his second album. Pianist Benito Gonzale pounds the keys with nimble intensity as the trumpeter, alto and tenor saxophonists—and the rhythm section of Mashin and bassist Makar Novikov—lead the way and keep abreast. Happy Synapse echoes one of Mashin’s primary influences—not drummer Elvin Jones but saxophonist John Coltrane, whose boundary-stretching sheets of sound ‘60s LPs serve as this project’s touchstone.
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