By: Ross Edwards
Rating: 7/11

In the realm of modern jazz it’s impossible to identify one prominent style — there are musicians stretching their minds and abilities on every frontier, from psychedelic-ambient-jazz to surfer-metal-jazz, from Indian-influenced polyrhythmic exploration to strange reprisals of Dixieland. The language of improvisation creates its own rules, the only important dictate being creation of a group sound that works. Alper Yilmaz’s debut CD “Clash” falls somewhere in the funk-laden approach, creating its likeable melodies from brief, lopsided motifs over the crackling disco of bouncing drums and electric bass. So why does this album end up feeling like a minor disappointment compared to the excitement of some jazz out there?

It’s not the musicianship, Yilmaz equips himself with very capable young sidemen — Michael McGinnis and Nick Kadajski (of 5 Point Perspective) on saxes, Matthias Bublath on Rhodes, Volkan Oktem on drums, and a few tracks featuring the great David Binney. And not only that, but some songs are quite effective in themselves — the tender “Spring Breeze” is pleasantly bright, and features some great exploration by soloist Kadajski, yet it never seems to break into the intensity the song craves. Somehow the flatness of the sound never allows much dynamic change or dedication to improvisation. A pervading tenseness turns the character of the simple song into a very straightahead (for this album) interpretation. Likewise, each song possesses similar qualities to “Spring Breeze” — predictable forms, solos packed to the brim with notes, and a consistently full sound. The result is overwhelming and underwhelming.

Perhaps the most compelling moment on this album, to these ears, features a chorus of horns surging and falling together in improvised harmonies on the end of “Oddity.” This moment gives some respite from the chops-fest of the album, and finally a sound is created which hinges on the players working and reacting together as the textural juxtaposition between horns and rhythm section does its magic. Also, the nice, electronic-sounding “Landscapes” seems like a fine addition, as Yilmaz doodles on his repeated chord landscape. Actually, this track gives us a good viewpoint for the entire album: compositions which are based on simple tonalities, with well-written melodies and virtuosic playing that occasionally superficially expands with too much talking. There is not enough listening and reacting for the album to sound much more than formulaic.