WALKING DISTANCE — Neighborhood (review)

WALKING DISTANCE — Neighborhood album cover Album · 2015 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
js
Walking Distance’s “Neighborhood” was released back in January and seemed to slip under the radar as it has not received near the attention it deserves. In this era of cool and somber reserved jazz, its nice to hear something this ‘hot’, and “Neighborhood” is one of the hottest jazz albums to come out in a while. Walking Distance is an acoustic four piece that consists of two saxophones, bass and drums. The lack of a rhythm section gives them a distinctly open sound in which you can hear every note. Although the horn section consists of two saxes, their unison lines and interactions often recall classic trumpet-sax pairings such as Diz and Bird, Ornette and Don Cherry, and Dolphy and Booker Little. Although Walking Distance can evoke classic past artists like the aforementioned, this is not a even close to a retro act, instead, Distance has that modern nervous ‘punky’ energy and quick-change sensibility that informs much of today’s downtown NY scene. Still, if you appreciate the manic energy of early be-bop, Walking Distance is one of the few modern bands I’ve heard that can play with that kind of emotional dedication and fire.

Although Walking Distance’s music is definitely on the avant-garde side of the jazz world, there is not much on here in the way of old school free jazz, instead, many of Distance’s tunes seem to work with vague harmonic structures that give soloists some sort of framework to deal with, but nothing is laid out in a too obvious fashion. Walking Distance also gives us some interesting variety, with “Cartoon Element” and “Neighborhood” providing high speed frenetic energy, while “April 10th” and “Singing in Circles” are abstract and more relaxed. There is a lot of free wheeling humor to this band, and that comes out on album closer “Willoughby Greene”, on which the band builds into one of those repeating “Hey Jude” style chord sequences to close the album in a manner which mocks a classic 70s art rock album.

“Neighborhood” is walking Distance’s first album, and at this point it seems like the future potential for this band is very high. It will be interesting to see what this band’s next album will be like, as there is a restless creativity to this group that will probably avoid anything too predictable.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Sonic Creed Volume II : Life Signs World Fusion
STEFON HARRIS
Buy this album from MMA partners
My Ship Hard Bop
WILLIE JONES III
Buy this album from MMA partners
Ice Breaking Post-Fusion Contemporary
DAG ARNESEN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lee Ritenour & Dave Grusin : Brasil Latin Jazz
LEE RITENOUR
Buy this album from MMA partners
From The North - Gogo Penguin Live In Manchester Nu Jazz
GOGO PENGUIN
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

GoGo Penguin - From the North - GoGo Penguin Live in Manchester
GOGO PENGUIN
js· 5 hours ago
03 Willie Jones III My Ship #NightIsAlive
WILLIE JONES III
snobb· 1 day ago
Fall
SUNNY KIM
js· 1 day ago
Twilight
RANDY SCOTT
js· 2 days ago
Trifecta - Beck and Call - official video (taken from The New Normal)
TRIFECTA
js· 3 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed