SERIOUSLY DEEP

New York City based multi-instrumentalist BELEDO has published a new album in 2021 that has plenty to offer. Of course, above all, he's a prolific jazz fusion guitarist. Though the acoustic piano contributions are from the finest stage too. And then actually there's nothing to say about the involved Tony Levin furthermore. He's one of the busiest musicans all around the progressive rock realm, I'm aware of. Finally drummer Kenny Grohowski completes the core trio, bestknown from collaborations with Brand X, John Zorn, John Medeski. Over the course of more than 60 minutes playing time there is a really prolific entity underway here, by all means. And this also includes the songwriting as such. Deliberated or not, some references to other musicians are present too.

Hence now the obvious, the title track Seriously Deep turns out to be a re-arrangement of a composition that originally was released in 1977 by Eberhard Weber. Who is a bassist of course. And so it's not really surprising that this evolves into a new Tony Levin masterpiece in the consequence. Kicking off with a space/ambient intro my album favourite would be the touching Knocking Waves though. Simply wonderful, and totally improvised I assume. In between BELEDO presents diverse fusionesque guitar styles, sometimes it's really 'holdsworthy'. Vocals are playing a minor role on this album, concerning two songs this sees either a male (Boris Savoldelli) and a female singer (Kearoma Rantao) guesting. Plus some vibraphone contributions which are enriching the whole thing. A superb album! That means 4.5 stars on the stairway to heaven.

Moonjune Records is one of the very few labels in the world where I know that every release is going to be substantial and special, and the same is true of the sight of Tony Levin as when one of the most in-demand bassists sits in for a whole album then one knows it is going to be special. Here we have Uruguayan multi-instrumentalist Beledo working with Levin and drummer Kenny Grohowski (Brand X, John Zorn, John Medeski etc), as well as Jorge Camiruaga (vibraphone) on two tracks and singer Kearoma Rantao providing vocals on one track and Boris Savoldelli on another.

Somewhat unusually for a multi-instrumentalist, Beledo is truly at home on two very different instruments so each track features both his wonderfully fluid piano and dynamic guitar, with Levin and Grohowski slotting into the groove. Apparently, they recorded this facing each other (vocals added later) and I am guessing Beledo played piano first on some, guitar on others, although it is hard to tell as this really does sound like a quartet bouncing ideas off each other. Each musician learned the arrangements first, and then when recording they were all given the opportunity to improvise around that, so everyone knew where the piece was headed and the rough idea of how to get there but they could take different paths. This means we have an incredibly relaxed album which contains both spontaneity and structure, almost as if they are in concert playing something they have already recorded. There are times when they come across like classic Hatfield and the North, and it is obviously the fusion of the Canterbury scene has had a huge impact on them. The centrepiece of the album is Beledo's arrangement of Eberhard Weber's composition, "Seriously Deep". Originally appearing on the ECM album, 'Silent Feet', the album and that track in particular had a huge impact on Beledo and his friend Jorge Camiruaga when it was released in 1978, and here it is turned into a 14-minute vehicle for everyone to show their wares, especially Levin.

There are times when it drifts somewhat into straight jazz, especially on the delightful "Mama D" which has wonderful female vocals, but for the most part this is fusion of the highest order from three incredibly musicians and truly worthy of investigation by anyone who enjoys the genre.