Jeff Walton
Pack Animals
Straightahead jazz - the type that stays faithful to a tune's chord changes and remains pretty rooted in tempo - can come off feeling a little tepid or at least unadventurous if it merely maintains a decades-old status quo. Rather than dare to push it forward, too many artists are content to merely celebrate the past and leave things at that. Not that the past is bad. And some musicians find new things to say with old warhorses. Yet a lot of times it feels rote.
But every so often someone shows up who starts with a tried-and-true setting, like horn plus rhythm section, and brings a certain je nais se quois to it that elicits a "woah" reaction. (Julieta Eugenio springs to mind.) Tenor saxophonist Jeff Walton comes across that way on his debut album. The Massachusetts native, who now lives in Los Angeles, spent several years in Brooklyn, teaching, and playing jazz as well as getting involved with choral music. The latter experience manifests itself in his current quartet, a tightly knit group that gives everyone an active role, with a big payoff.
The forward momentum begins with album opener "NQT." Walton plays with a relaxed tone, thoughtful and a little smoky, spinning a line that begins with a short, descending hook but keeps on moving. The rhythm section (pianist Santiago Leibson, bassist Eli Heath, drummer Chase Elodia) move urgently behind him at first, sliding into a more relaxed pace as they go. It might be a stretch to compare the group to the Second Miles Davis Quintet (aside from their four-piece lineup), but their ability to bend and flex together inspires that similar attribute. This is confirmed greatly by the time Elodia takes his impressionistic solo.
Pack Animals features a three-track suite, composed intially with just rhythm parts for each instrument, bringing pitches in later. The title piece sounds through-composed, with Leibson's syncopated chords out front, Heath's bass and the leader's tenor eventually joining him. "Orange Away" feels almost like a ballad, with a rich tenor melody. Elodia's part keeps things spare initially with just a few hi-hat taps, before bringing in brushes. "Celings" utilizes counterpoint between tenor and piano, who meet up at the end of phrases. All three passages are relatively brief (two last less than three minutes each) but a lot happens in that space.
The interplay of the quartet becomes the element that keeps the sparks going throughout the album, from the suspenseful set-up of "Blues for George" (George who, Jeff?) to the closing "Crunch" where Leibson's upper register clusters add a fun, slightly dissonant edge that adds to the mood.
Pack Animals might be the sleeper album of 2025, so consider this a wake-up call.
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