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A review of Jeff
Chan's "Winds Shifting" from
The San Francisco Weekly, January 14-20, 1998
(click on the cover to lister to and/or buy this album)
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The company Jeff Chan keeps
on Winds Shifting, his debut on the Asian Improv label, underscores his
status as one of the rising twentysomething tenor saxophonists on the
local jazz scene. Francis Wong, leading saxophonist of the Bay Area's
Asian American Creative Music community, guests on a couple of tracks,
and the album as a whole is bolstered by arguably the heaviest rhythm
section in contemporary improv - Trevor Dunn (bass) and Elliot Humberto
Kavee (drums/cello). The moment-to-moment surprises stirred up by the
Dunn-Kavee duo provide Chan with a limitless foundation upon which to
develop his meditative, deeply melodic statements. Unlike Coltrane disciples
who try to mimic the great saxophonist's phrasing and tone, Chan unpretentiously
affects the latter-day Trane duality of peaceful yet relentless searching.
There's zero anxiousness in Chan's playing, little upper-register skronk;
each extrapolation attempts to instill the music with a sense of forward
pitch and energized adventure. To this end, Chan employs a variety of
compositional approaches, from the Ornette Coleman-inspired ferment of
"Snap, Crackle, Pop"; to the groove vamp of "Infringement";
to the hypnotic textural soundscape of "Dreams/Silver Skies",
on which Kavee pairs his arco cello with Dunn's contrabass. Remarkably
mature for his years, Jeff Chan's performance stands out as a model of
mature musicianship.
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