The Glass Frog
The lines between smooth fusion, spiritual jazz, and New Age have become easier to cross than ever, a tendency that’s well displayed in this two-day session led by London-based keyboardist/composer/bandleader Greg Foat. As glossy and poised as the material on The Glass Frog often sounds, its resemblance to a strain of jazz that brings up associations with library music or adult-contemporary or “fuzak” — or any other commercial-friendly trends purists found disreputable in the latter decades of the 20th Century — actually works to its advantage. Because for all its air of frictionless, high-fidelity polish, there’s an affecting emotional tinge to these performances that unsettles simple placidity. The first two pieces make quick work of any lowered expectations. The gliding synthscape that “Sea of Tranquility” wafts in on is given a sense of melancholic gravitas by sax and trumpet solos that add a sense of tense yearning to an otherwise relaxed feel. And the title cut — a slow-boil overture to fluid Afro-Latin rhythm that nods to township jazz and Mwandishi-sextet Herbie Hancock — is first and foremost a dance track, a supple framework of a groove led by drummer Ayo Salawu and bassist Daniel Casimir that the horn players bob and weave through vibrantly. Trumpeter Trevor Walker and sax players Art Themen, Binker Golding, and Idris Rahman are all in top form here, whether it’s their shapeshifting roles exchanging lively riffs and solos on “The Glass Frog” and the rollicking-yet-elegant “Novilunium,” piercing through Foat’s hazy keys on the sentimental downtempo “My Love Has Green Eyes,” or bolstering the neo-soul-jazz reflections of “Foals of Epona.”