Miguel Fernández Quartet – Transplanet Species

(This short review was originally published in Jazz Journal in 2010.)

Miguel Fernández (tenor saxophone)
Dani Pérez (electric guitar)
Leo Genovese (piano, electric piano)
Marko Lohikari (bass)
Gonzalo del Val (drums) – tracks #2, #4,#9
David Xirgu (drums) – tracks #1, #3, #5, #6, #7, #8

hide them!
el amor después del mediodía
no muerdas
you too
a call for arms
JIA-Pin
Klein ex6
70’s
hide us!
(40.58)

Barcelona, December 22 & 24 2009
Fresh Sound New Talent FSNT 372

Some of this is recognisably jazz (even to non-fans) such as the fast-paced el amor después del mediodía with its hard bop sound and improvisation. Then there are the more sculptured, modal pieces in which the saxophone lingers over each note and the Rhodes and guitar loom large, offering  contemporary sprinklings and producing something that sounds in places more Scandinavian than Spanish. A mature experimental and coherent whole summed up perhaps by the phrase, ‘assured delicacy’.