Kicking off on a series of Ornette-ish flurries interspersed with passages of protracted svelte tones, even the most risk tolerant gambler wouldn’t want to predict where Assembly might head. This is especially relevant when you learn Jacob Garchik, the Brooklyn based trombonist and composer, who has previously worked with the Kronos Quartet and the Mary Halvorson Septet, has cut his jazz with gospel, big band themes, and metal. Unsurprisingly, the journey for this album has been no less experimental. After asking a quintet to record some blues and standards, Garchik went to work on splicing and reassembling the results before bringing the group back together to perform the newly formed originals. It paid off. The New Orleans funeral dirge of Homage, and the straight ahead jam of Fantasia, with the latter haunted by what sounds like a disembodied didgeridoo, are highly accomplished works.
This isn’t about cut ‘n’ paste coolness, in fact, Assembly could be Garchik’s most accessible album to date. There’s a depth and coherence which is testament to the passion for his art and a boundless adventurous spirit.
