Music
Daniel Toledo Quartet - Fletch (2020)
Track List:
1. Fletch 04:03
2. Blue Star 06:50
3. Meek 05:53
4. Reflections 05:32
5. Key Stone 07:41
6. Spiral Pin 09:24
7. Alerting 04:40
Personnel:
Kuba Więcek - saxophone
Piotr Orzechowski - piano
Daniel Toledo - bass/compositions
Michał Miśkiewicz - drums
Liner Notes:
The word fletch means “to provide (an arrow) with feathers for flight.” It also describes the process of Ecuadorian bassist and composer Daniel Toledo and his all-Polish band. With saxophonist Kuba Więcek, pianist Piotr Orzechowski, and drummer Michał Miśkiewicz, he documents the sudden changes of wind current, arc, and velocity to which this arrow—both real and metaphorical—is exposed. From the tangle of notes that opens Toledo’s first quartet album (following two trios), one finds equal measures of classical and postmodern tendencies. This ability to straddle not only spatial but also temporal distances may just be the band’s greatest asset. Said distances are further delineated along cerebral lines in Blue Star. In it we hear fibers of optic talent, woven with the resilience of a keen eye, yet also an openness between everything that isn’t played.
The changes of Meek are anything but, moving with confidence through the changes and held together by the robust tendon of Toledo’s bass. Reflections seems to refer less to ponderances than mirrors in which revelry flickers like a passion. This is a dance in aural form, a soldering together of universal circuitry. Where Key Stone digs into funkier daylight, Spiral Pin sips from a tall glass of midnight. Alerting likewise clothes itself with darkness, seeking a new horizon in full knowledge that dawn will be waiting. Ultimately, then, the arrow so resolutely shot at the first sounding demonstrates a way to transcend all borders, as if they never existed in the first place.
Tyran Grillo
Credits:
Released February 24, 2020
Recorded August 8-8, 2018 at Monochrom Studio. Gniewoszów, Poland.
Recording: Ignacy Gruszecki
Mix & Master: Michał Kupicz
Design: Aleksandra Zbrzeska
Photos and video: Sisi Cecylia
Executive producer: Marcin Mizerek
Reviews:
English:
Adam Baruch - The Soundtrack of My Life
Polski:
Piotr Kopka - Literatura sautée
Arek Lerch - Violence Magazine
Jakub Krukowski - JazzPRESS (Pg. 52-53)
Pусский:
