Drummer and Composer Christian Finger Releases A Brilliant LP
What do you get when you have an established jazz drummer who is also a composer putting together a series of original pieces with a quintet?
The new album from Christian Finger is what you get. This is a series of pieces that range in dynamics, technical approach, freestyle attitude, and plenty of vivaciousness.
Christian is a drummer who performs with character, which is something that really shows throughout the course of this release.
Joined by Ralph Alessi just ripping on the trumpet, Ben Monder doing the same on guitar, Vadim Neselovski on the piano, and Adam Armstrong on the upright bass, Christian has created something that feels monstrous at times, but in a very good way.
There are a lot of surprises around the corners of the Zeit Zirkel album, and those come in the form of unexpected progression changes, arrangements, blistering segments, emotional backbone, and more.
Songs like "Hope and Hope" serve as an example of exactly what I mean in terms of showcasing both emotion and elements of wild energy.
This is one of my favorite pieces on the record, and it comes through with such a big sound.
First of all, Christian is really laying it in there, and his flow is completely seamless. As a performer, he owns the kit. He is someone who drums like it's second nature.
The dynamics of his performance are slightly awe-inspiring, as, again, it seems like it's something that's just natural for him. Like he can do it in his sleep.
Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that he has been a part of the New York music scene for over 25 years now.
Still, there's something more to the way he performs that really breathes life into the songs.
As I mentioned earlier, he's also the composer of these pieces, which really showcases someone who is fully dedicated and embedded in the craft.
He's obviously spent a lot of time in the scene, and through all those years, has adapted his own approach, written his own pieces, and now they are here.
It's like an actor who's been in a multitude of films for so many years, learned the ins and outs, and has decided to direct a film for himself.
The performance seems to always come first, but there is so much attention to the elements of the arrangement that the pieces have that life of their own.
The bigger picture is always there, but the performance is always what matters.
I think it's impressive for someone to be able to intertwine those two worlds the way that he did it.
Songs like this also showcase Ralph's more than impressive trumpet performances that really roll and feel freeing to listen to.
Ben's guitar work is stellar, and he gives that instrument a tone that has slightly rough edges, which allows his fingers to move faster and still have clarity for every single note that's played.
It's all of these things that really make the difference.
A lot of this stuff is almost like callback performances where one instrument will do its thing and then the next one will follow, almost like they're speaking back and forth to each other. This is not a new concept in jazz music whatsoever, but it's just done with such fluency here.
Showcasing more of that conceptual and compelling, melodically thriving approach to composition are songs like "Dawn Dream," which give you memorable hooks and sort of classic tones as they come across with a certain kind of smoothness.
Pieces like this one expand outward and branch off into slightly different aspects of songwriting as it gets a little bit experimental, and it's tracks like this that you can really kind of soak in Vadim's piano work in a different light.
The piano adds a certain kind of mood to the track and helps the progression changes work smoothly. All of this is the kind of stuff that's paid attention to when Christian is composing music.
Even if certain elements of it are slightly improvised, the layout is always there, and part of that is the energy fluctuation, levels, and mood changes that occur.
"Five Secrets" gives off a little bit more of a cinematic feel, with experimental output, really unique guitar work used to create nuance, and it comes through very atmospherically.
It's pieces like this that you sort of fall into and get lost with.
I like songs like this one because it's fun to actually lose yourself in a piece like this. You end up letting your mind go free, and anyone that listens to it is probably going to interpret it slightly differently each time.
That's part of the beauty of pieces like the ones Christian has composed here. Even the same listener might interpret the same piece of music a little bit differently every single time they listen to it.
It's also the kind of record that you listen to twice or more, simply because you're going to pick up on loads of things you missed the first time around.
I feel like this is kind of important as well. It's mostly because you start to realize how much actually goes into these pieces.
All the attention to detail, the planning, and how the balance between performances and tones from all the instruments come together and create something whole.
It's also about the way your mind flows with the moods of the song, the way they change, and how you feel that change.
This is kind of where some of the emotional push comes in as well.
You can hear a range of emotions throughout this record if you listen carefully.
This is absolutely gorgeous and provides so much lush and brilliant soundscape to soak in.
By the time you get halfway through the record, you even begin to slightly expect the unexpected. This also is because of all the different approaches that you hear. Those rises and falls of intensity. You're not sure if the next song is going to come in with a bang or if it's going to be a slow burn, but either way, you're going to be pulled into it.
I feel like this was a triumph, not just performance-wise but for Christian as a composer writing original pieces and making it work.
This is a nice one-hour record and spans about 13 tracks.
All of it is worth digging into.
Remember where you heard this first.
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