Wisconsin jazz trumepter Jamie Breiwick takes his compositional and interpretive A-games to The Big Apple for The Jewel. The Dead Poet, the New York City club where he he’s captured with only drummer Matt Wilson and upright bassist John Tate for most of the set’s seven selections, roils with undercurrents of conversation.
The slight cacophony adds to the date’s intimate immediacy, but, tellingly, it seems to diminish the further along the trio, with a one-track assist from saxophonist Adam Larson, further into the date until the core trio concludes with a Thelonious Monk piece. Elsewhere the threesome imbue melodic adventure and romance to works by Sun Ra, Carla Bley, Orrette Coleman, Pharaoah Sanders and one-time Wisconsin resident Buddy Montgomery.
Breiwick’s contribution of the titular tune sounds like he’s both distilling the influences of the forebears whose work he reimagines here while also offering some fodder for the next generation of hip-hop heads wanting to incorporate explicit, compatible jazz influences into their work. The Jewel shimmers plenty but bodes even more glistening, and less crowd-jostled work from Breiwick as a bandleader.