An album release from Greg Chako delivers a whopping 17 tracks of outstanding performances with his Trio and everything comes through with this beautifully warm performance and presence with some surprises around the corners and a slew of tonalities that complement each other with every single track and when you listen to this record in full it whisks you away and takes you to different places so it serves as such a welcoming escape from daily life.
The Standard Roots album certainly delivers a soiree of jazz and improvisational lines that all feed into this endless energy and charisma that the whole record manages to put forth and through it all, you get more and more attached the deeper in you go.
The guitar work pulled off across this record is stellar and comes through with such a smooth tonality and a warm overcoat with classic lines and progressions, melodies, and just these freeing jazz jams that let you, a lot of the time, float away with the soundscape.
Now, the percussion is absolutely perfect throughout this whole thing as is the upright bass and always beautiful walking but what are the things that create this atmosphere is the arrangement of these songs and how they're performed so well that it feels like you're sitting there watching them play it live in front of your face.
This gives everything a very one-on-one and personal feeling and I think that this style of jazz calls for that and these guys obviously do it insanely well.
I love this kind of music because it does indeed pull you away from your surroundings and put you in different places for little chunks of time and those of the kinds of songs that are almost like reading chapters in a good book where you get this great layout for landscape and then your imagination sort of fills in the blanks.
With albums like this, the songs can either trigger memories or you can envision things, and paint pictures in your head vividly, but no matter what happens watch how your mind runs off while you listen to these Tunes.
Now, I mean this solely of course if you're not a musician yourself. If you are a guitarist for example you're just going to be picturing the neck and where the fingers are going. If you're a drummer you're going to be picturing the kit, if you are a bass player you're certainly going to be playing right along in your head but if you're not a musician, then these songs will let your mind go free to all these wonderful places and a lot of it will be positive and warm.
There are some great little surprises around the corners like some blues tracks and some different approaches in there which I really dig because it shows other sides to the trio and their songwriting, and influences as well.
This was such an atmosphere that felt good to listen to and as this form of jazz often does for me, it was comforting and felt almost like a warm hug from a loved one you haven't seen in a long time.
This kind of feeling is hard to explain but when I listen to jazz of this nature, especially a trio with guitar or piano, I get the warm and fuzzies in my body and that tingly feeling is something that I welcome.
Check this record out when you can and I do suggest that you listen to the whole thing through.
Yes, it's a good hour and almost 40 minutes but if you love this kind of stuff then this album is totally for you, or, if you are a musician again, you're not going to want to stop listening to this record.
Check this album out with headphones on so you can soak everything in and get into the grooves, the vibes, the tonalities, and the textures of everything that is happening on that release.
Remember where you heard it first.
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