In A Big City
Self-Released, 2020
8/10
A jazz artist, bassist and composer, the Russian born Igor Kogan has an impressive resume playing around the globe, and here he surrounds himself with Jeremy Lappitt, Joshua Aguiar, Marco Acipella and Matthew Baker on this debut jazz quintet effort.
Kogan starts the listen with 9 minutes of warm keys from Apicella and gentle trumpet from Aguiar, as Lappitt’s agile tenor sax enters the calming jazz climate, and the upbeat “Qwerty aka False Start” follows with a flurry of activity where each player contributes their esteemed talent on the frisky start and stop delivery.
In the middle, “ Emergency Call” displays sublime interplay between the brass and keys as Kogan’s bass and Baker’s drums anchor the elegance, while “Bass Introduction” is a quick blast of bass plucking acrobatics that’s as mesmerizing as it is fascinating.
Near the end, the only tune with vocals, “Vocalise”, features 9 time Grammy nominee Tierney Sutton contributing her soaring wordless singing on the dreamy album highlight, and “Big City” exits the listen unpredictably with changing meters and solos from all the players on the controlled chaos approach.
All the tracks here are originals, as Kogan illustrates much creativity in both serene and busy situations, and with this excellent debut I think it’s safe to say that top notch bandleader can now be added to Kogan’s long list of accomplishments.
Travels well with: Nicholas Brust- Frozen In Time; Matt DeMerritt- Fool’s Journey