“The album ‘Keep The Blue’ is a brilliant celebration of timeless Jazz, tipping its hat to the various sounds and styles that have powered the genre to the place that we find it today. This is a collection of great songs delivered with poise and panache. It seduced me immediately.”
— CBC Radio
REVIEWS
NIGHT HEAT
September 6, 2024
TODAY'S TOMORROW
Justin Chart, alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader and his jazzmen are making music for all of the right reasons. Look inside “Today’s Tomorrow”. There are beautifully wrought pieces of jazz, adorned with space and brilliance. Justin Chart, and his ever changing cast of sidemen have created something new and compelling.
In a world of auto tuned AI, and copy and paste, Justin Chart shows us that he can write an incredible piece of music, yes, on the spot while he is playing it, and seamlessly and fluidly do what few can do.
Sure, many jazz artists improvise with ease, however that is within the construct of a pre-written song. Chart intuitively writes the melodies, rhythm, calls chord changes and pulls it off like he had played it a dozen times before. Chart is a force of nature as well as a master improvisational architect, both subtle and sophisticated. Piano man Saul somehow both cinematic and funky, chiming with sonorous rhythm embraces Chart’s pathway to shine with his spectral signature.
Each signature has its own emotional voice, and each emotion has its own unique outcome. When put in the right pair of hands, the bass can balance groove with grace. Peter Marshall lays the grooves for Chart to take wing so fluidly. Marshall gets a spectrum of sound that is balanced, dark, rich and gnawing, and he is able to combine and communicate these at will.
Justin Chart and crew play so tightly with imagination and forward-thinking, yes this falls in the category of jazz, but it’s so much more sonically. A man who says something without words, is remarkable.
Chart, Marshall, Saul and Lobato push their musical boundries with bravado. Their versatility and harmonic combinations converge so well. This album sounds like it was charted out and rehearsed. Their musical conversations with each other speak to me as well. Guitaritst Joe Diorio once told me as an artist you have to have something to say. As soon as I heard the first cut on Today’s Tomorrow, “Nocturnal Taste” I wanted to give ear to what his horn was saying.
There is shimmering futurism in the way Chart can wrap you in cloak of warm velvet when he wants to: I have never said this about an artist, many of his riffs give me the chills. “A Velvet Vortex,” is like a cool breeze on a hot summer night.
It rings of balladry, through chiming cascades of Charts fluid virtuosity. “My Point of True” is fast, graceful and grooves moving through ever-changing patterns as the musical ideas flow from Chart to Saul from Marshall to Lobato, these guys paint with style in their sound, it is truly remarkable. a shot of sound! I love that Justin Chart keeps on putting out fantastic live albums, great live jazz albums like this are far and few between. He writes his melodies in the moment.
“A New Set of Keys” is a sassy tune, upbeat, soulful, full of energy, slightly euphoric and driven by Marshalls bass, and Chart’s catchy riffs. It feels like the vast LA landscape I picture Justin Chart living in, vast and layered with depth and imagination. Hard Bop, I love the way Chart fires off riffs like a peregrine falcon flying through the canyons.
Fans of jazz, those looking for something truly new and different should also sign on just to hear the magic of how these four gentlemen are truly symbiotic sound giants.
Chart is an artist who has a greater purpose. No tricks or gimmicks. You can hear the substance and longevity in Charts melodies, just turn up “Happy For Sure”. A beautiful bittersweet refrain for sure! Feel the blunt punch of drummer Robert Lobato, he’s right on the money, with sophistication and solid grooves. “Mid Moment” is a sublime and soulful emotive drift reminding me the power of this album is a sound that could define the word jazz, Cha-Ching Messrs. Chart, Marshall, Saul and Lobato!
Third time listening to “Better Than Jazz” two words: Throbbing Frenzy! “We All Disappear” Chart’s Post Bop riffs set the vibe as Marshall and Lobato move into more energetic realms. Cool is not something you can work at, you either have it or you don’t. Chart may not be “The Birth of The Cool” but he is a man of the cool for sure. Easily and effortlessly. There’s a soulfulness to this album, it’s these four gentlemen playing with a controlled loss of control. You can feel Charts rage and passion woven together, both glorious and beguiling.
Today’s Tomorrow. A deep title indeed. Most people would obviously think today is tomorrow. If you ponder this sagacious title you realize it is the awareness and sensation of tomorrow, felt today.
I can’t help but wonder if that is what Chart is trying to convey. I listen to the masters, Stitt, Monk, Evans and Getz and many more. They would all welcome Chart in today, and Today’s Tomorrow.
Richard Wilson Jazz Aficionado May 29, 2024
ALL ABOUT JAZZ
Not all entirely improvised music necessarily embraces dissonance and atonality, however stimulating that may be. Saxophonist Justin Chart is famous for spontaneously creating entire sets, whether in the studio or in live settings, that are firmly rooted in mainstream sounds. His output is consistently cinematic and absorbing with a mysterious aura. His Keep the Blue is the quintessential soundtrack looking for a film, a classic film noir to be exact.
The twelve tracks recorded at the Mixx in Pasadena California range from the soulful to the blues drenched “A Tribe’s Vibe,” a tune that” starts with a darkly hued, swaggering cadence. Chart blows with muscular, reverberating phrases that coalesce into a complex and engaging melody. Multi-instrumentalist Alex Burke is featured on vibraphone. His incandescent, cascading notes add warmth to the already simmering ambiance. Chart’s fiery refrains that drummer Michael Rosen mirrors with his booming beats usher in the exciting closure.
The indigo-hued “Baritone Bravado” opens with bassist Bill Markus’ taut walking lines who then takes an erudite con arco solo that is as expressive as his band mates.’ Burke, switching to piano, takes center stage demonstrating a percussive style that is reminiscent of barrelhouse boogie. Chart crafts a wistful and eloquent soliloquy with elegant subtlety. Drummer Kyle Crane adds a vibrant shimmer to the backdrop with his reserved polyrhythmic flourishes.
The Impressionistic “The 6th is Just” is a mellifluous piece that Chart plays with yearning tenderness. The softly rolling rhythms and Chart’s intimate saxophone conjure up deserted city streets at twilight. In contrast, reserved exuberance marks “3:59 It’s About to Happen” as Chart weaves an intriguing and lyrical extemporization. Burke’s resonant and softer tones echo Crane’s and Markus’ refrains. The record’s conclusion is similar to the ending of a movie where the main storyline has reached a resolution yet leaves a lot to be.
WIth Keep the Blue Chart, once again, has delivered a captivating album in his unique style. In addition to a wealth of melodic ideas, the music here crackles with an electrifying mood and demonstrates seamless group synergy. Keep the Blue is a high point in Chart’s uniformly superb career.
Hrayr Attarian
March 8, 2024
CADENCE JAZZ WORLD
Justin Chart’s latest album PROSPER, is a beautiful connection of mood and melody, ranging from shivery melodious Jazz to hard-bop and swing. This is music of the night. The quintet plays beautifully and fills your ears with great grooves and hot riffs in this modern-day speakeasy. I can imagine the martini’s being stirred, men shooting their cuffs, and ladies dressed to the nines. There is a spine-tingling expectation in this scenario where the album Prosper is the soundtrack. All are in the moment, eloquently and elegantly as it evokes all the energy and attitude that the live shows are all about.
“Love on Lexington” cuts through like a lighthouse of emotional integrity.
“Pale Gold and Faded Green” is a powerful, impressionistic tune, the tension lying between Chart’s exotic patterns and the many angles that his saxophone phrases, casting off sparks with “A Groove I Approve”. There’s heart, nuanced tonality, and the interaction of an intuitive composition.
“Another Apple” is a combination of laid-back charm and pure burn. They would not allow cameras in the speakeasy, hence no video, this music lets your imagination run wild. Chart is a burning soloist, and seems alive to the possibilities of this freeing format, it is timeless, in that it can’t be pinned down to any era, it is evocative and mesmerizing combination of a place you may not know but where you’re always welcome.
Like a city at night, “Essence of Eminence” tells a long, lovely story with throaty spits and burly growls. Sauls comps and solos are clean and melodious, they set the stage for Chart to do what he does best. This set is passionate and their music has the ability to make you feel, be it a slow haunting introverted ballad or a 320-bpm frenzied super swing. I love the way that the listeners attention is constantly being enthralled by various degrees of spiraling solos that coat every performance with a glistening form of storytelling, it kept me dialed in all the way through.
Prosper is a vehicle for Chart, with its hidden depths as it reveals something new and rewarding each time you play it, from Charts virtuosic cadenzas to Robbins spacious Bass solos. Chart himself sounds voracious as he roars on “Use it Wisely” Lobato on Drums keeps it right and tight. Is this the reality of the fusion between soul and sound? Not to mention the courage required to even entertain such a format, and done so with a passion and soul wrenching honesty. If you get a chance to see any of Justin Charts ensembles live, you will see how immersed they are in the moment, they have to be, in each case, drawn from masterful understatement.
This album has me right there and makes me want to play it way to loud! PROSPER is a phenomenal live album, outstandingly powerful, in the style of a 1960’s Verve record, unique, imaginative, and sensuous with mesmerizing melodies, and powerful rhythmic interplay. It is an adventure into a land where the dynamics and freedom of improvisation can meet the power and intensity of Hard Bop.
FANFARE The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors
CHART Prosper Justin Chart Quintet- Universal Music Group
Live: Sid’s Speakeasy, Los Angeles Spotify, also available via Amazon, Deezer, iTunes and YouTube Music.
Previous encounters with the music of Justin Chart have been extremely positive: Intuition was reviewed in Fanfare 45:3, and The Midnight People in 46:3. The new offering, Prosper, if anything takes the standard up a notch or two. The first track, “Love on Lexington”, is an extraordinary explosion of energy with a trumpet and drum solo that defies all expectations. Chart in duet with his trumpeter is superb, two “voices” as one. The second track, “Prosper”, offers a nice contrast, the small ensemble nevertheless referencing big band gestures of collective musical statement presented in rhythmic unison before Chart’s sax goes off the rails in a flurry of what, if notated, would result in a musical page that would very much favor black over white.
The track “The Best is Yet to Come” offers another fine example of this. If Prosper signals Chart’s white-hot virtuosity, “A Slice of Entice” reveals his ability to sing via his instrument. The sax playing here veers towards the vocal not only in its cantabile, but also in the actual sounds made, the timbres encountered (something apparent again in the penultimate track, “A Groove I Approve”). A slice of calm comes with “Essence of Eminence”, the epitome, surely, of night-time jazz, equaled only by Chart’s haunting nocturne of “Pale Gold and Faded Green”.
That his album is completely improvised is remarkable. The technical excellence in itself is remarkable, from all five players. The backgrounds to Chart’s sax are almost as impressive as the soloist himself: take the players’ groundwork in “Another Apple”, before Chart’s line creates the perfect linking of cantabile and scurrying improvisation with lines as unpredictable as those of a curlew in flight. The sheer underlying energy of “Use it Wisely” is testament to the excitement Chart’s playing can create, not least in the sax squeal at his re-entrance after a percussion break. We hear Chart sing in “A Grove I Approve” (a scat break, brilliantly done) It is the rhythmic intricacies, the cross-currents, of the final track, “I See Lee”, that impresses so much (not to mention a break in octaves from Chart and a colleague that is preternaturally together)
So, another brilliant jazz offering of spectacularly high standards from Justin Chart and pals. The recording is perfectly judged, the perspective just right (present but not invasive). Ever-positive audience reactions are included. Unhesitatingly recommended on all fronts.
Colin Clarke
Fanfare Magazine
FANFARE The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors
Justin Chart
The Midnight People
(UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP)
There is a reason this album is multiply-submitted for a Grammy. I previously enjoyed Justin Chart’s album Intuition (Fanfare 45:3); auditioning both albums via Apple’s superb Lossless streaming on a pair of Airpods Max.
The whole is infused with a spirit of energy that is just compelling. Chart’s alto sax solos in the first track, A Blaze of Well Being, are overwhelmingly good (there is a shout of that great Americanism, “Awesome,” from an audience member. The piece is, indeed, ablaze with well- being). The combination of sax and trumpet in Welcome to the Midst works perfectly, (as it does in the absolutely vibrant Lickity Split) the perfect foil for A Blaze, where Chart’s pick-up after Stuart Elster’s superb solo is brilliantly managed. As the sax solos become more advanced and virtuoso, so the excitement mounts. The title of A Rose Tinted Realm certainly made me smile; this sax song animated by pizzicato walking bass includes the most brilliant solo from Chart, compelling in its rhythmic play and the perfect crown for the song.
Nothing can prepare one for Chart’s vocals in Lettin’ Go, though. They launch the track, unaccompanied, and are greeted by justified applause and a gutsy “thank you” before a high-hat cymbal animates the instrumental section. This is ingenious: Chart returns, solo again, and perhaps the final touch of genius is to have the band provide the final low note of his solo as a bridge. A soulful The Tale Was Told, Chart’s alto sax highly expressive in its upper registers (Bill Markus adding a superb bass solo).
As a showcase for Chart, this album can hardly be bettered. His sax sings again in The Tale Was Told, a track with something of a 1970’s vibe, The differentiation between tracks and the carefully considered order plays an important part, too: how well the more laid-back song without words of She Absorbed Him contrasts with Lickety Split. She Absorbed Him contains some of Chart’s finest work, a brilliant exposition of his genius, a jewel in this particular crown (despite the more overt virtuosity of the energizing With the Bunch).
Again, it is the polished interaction between band members that allows One Pure Star to shine (sorry about the pun), here Bil Markus’ double-bass against Chart’s vitally alive sax lines.
The titular track, and the longest on the album at 7:29, comes last, opening with Abe Bolano’s superb percussion solo (which I have to say sounds stunning in Apple Lossless and in this recording); Chart’s alto sax sounds simply amazing in his fast, remarkably agile solos. There seems to be real stamina at work here, too.
A further affirmation of Chart’s excellence, then. Wholeheartedly recommended; his solos animate this album into the highest stratum.
FIVE STARS
Colin Clarke, JAZZ JOURNALIST/HISTORIAN