Detailed Reviews [Xavi Reija - 2017 - "Reflections"]

Prolusion. Spanish composer and musician Xavi Reija has released solo albums for more than 15 years in various constellations and exploring various subsets of jazz and jazzrock along the way. This in addition to being a sought after drummer for other people's musical excursions: The list of all the artists he has worked with in some capacity or other would probably be longer than this review. As a solo artist / band leader he has at least nine albums to his name at this point. "Reflections" dates back to 2017, and was self released by Reija.

Analysis. While Xavi Reija has made a name for himself also in progressive rock circles, which is why this album is reviewed here, on this album he has chosen to venture outside of the progressive music universe. For this album, jazz is the style of choice throughout. This is a style of music where I generally lack the knowledge to give the best descriptions, both in terms of traditions and descriptions revolving around styles and orientations. But one objective fact that I can state straight away is that this is an acoustic album. The instrumentation here consists of drums, what sounds like an acoustic piano and what has to be an acoustic, old school bass. The piano comes across as the clear lead instrument throughout here, dominating throughout all the compositions with wandering and flowing melody lines. Sometimes exploring what sounds like cyclical patterns, in other cases with a more free wandering role, and with varying degrees of expressive and controlled function and execution. In some cases with a more clear melodic pattern being the central point, on other occasions with impact moments and more expressive and challenging surges in between the more melody oriented sections. There is a light and elegant touch to the piano throughout though, and while I don't know all that much about the proper or traditional use of this instrument in this setting I was left suitably impressed in this case. The bass has a bit more of a supportive role on this production, but we do get a few distinct bass solo runs on this production, and several of the compositions gives the bass more of a free role that see the instrument provide more freely moving and expressive secondary melody lines that doesn't always directly support the lead motif provided by the piano. This duality is never explored in a manner that leads the compositions into abrasive territories though, although we do get a few compositions where the pace and intensity in some surges starts to approach the more abrasive landscapes, but where they stop short of ultimately reaching them. The melodies and harmonies appear to be the matters of main importance here, even if there is space and room also for more challenging and expressive sections. Reija as a drummer balances constraint with an expressive attitude throughout, and he tends to stick to a delivery where logical patterns and a groove is established as a dominant aspect of the performance from what I can hear. Not that this is an album that lacks an expressive performance in this department, but rather a case of the expressive details being delivered with a care to not cause any disruptive moments to appear in the landscapes explored. While I don't know anything about drums on a theoretical level, for me at least the manner in which the drums and the percussion elements support the other two instruments throughout here is one of the key reasons for why I found this album to be quite the intriguing experience. This as spoken by someone without any specific relation to jazz as a genre or a style. I will also add that the mix and production aspects of this album strikes me as being excellent. All the details of all three instrumentalists appears to have been captured, the sound is crisp, clear and well balanced too: All of the instruments have the space and room needed, and the performances comes across as what I'd describe as spacious: The album has not been mixed in a such a way that the instruments fills up the soundscapes, but instead there is a sounds that gives you impression that there is an ample amount of space and room in between the different instruments.

Conclusion. While I don't know all that much about jazz as a style, genre or tradition, I do appreciate coming across high quality music when it comes my way. And in my book, this is a very good example of what one might describe as instrumental piano driven acoustic jazz, featuring three skilled musicians that all manage to balance the line between delivering accessible and pleasant music on one hand and expressive excursions with plenty of technical and presumably challenging details on the other. FRom what I can hear, this is an album that should satisfy listeners of this type of jazz with an affection for either of those approaches.

Progmessor: April 2023
The Rating Room