Jazz Revitalized

Kneedelus comes out from the collaboration between the quintet, Kneebody – featuring Adam Benjamin on keyboard, Shane Endsley on trumpet, Ben Wendel on saxophone, Kaveh Rastegar on bass and drummer Nate Wood – and Daedelus. Together, they take Kneebody’s already fantastic jazz skills and push them further with the electronica influences from Daedelus.

There’s no need for build ups on the album, with its intro song “Loops” kicking right off with a drum solo. This abrupt start holds a lot of the original jazz value of the “traditional” instruments and sounds. Throughout, the drum solo carries with only the trumpet taking over in small portions, and never does the space-like electronica sound interpose on either solo portions.

“The Hole” is similar to “Loops” in many ways, mostly in the pattern of the drums, but features more of the trumpet’s skill and adds a layer of darkness to the sound. “Drum Battle,”  ironically, is less of a drum battle and more of a battle between the keyboard and the trumpet, both of which provide excellent solos. For the drums, this is more of a turning point where they begin to lay low for the next few songs. “They are We” emphasizes this shift in feeling, as it takes on a more mournful blues sound. The trumpet, again, really comes through on this song and has a strong support from the bass that has been hanging back up until now.  At this point in the album, Kneedelus begins to hold on to this mellow sound. The songs all start to hold a quality of that  soulful, blues sound with calmer, cleaner solos throughout.

Overall, Kneedelus holds onto a solid jazz sound throughout. The solos performed on the trumpet, tenor sax and piano are always clean and provide something for each song they were featured in. If there were places where there was anything lacking, it would be found within certain drum solos that, while starting off creative and embracing the essence of what a jazz drum solo needs, became somewhat repetitive. Even with this in mind, Kneedelus is still a well-done collaboration.