DAN ADLER TRIO=?ISO-8859-1?B?oA==?=at The=?ISO-8859-1?B?oA==?= Bar=?ISO-8859-1?B?oA==?=Next=?ISO-8859-1?B?oA==?=Door Sunday, August 22, two sets @ 8 & 10pm

All Things Familiar is a hard-swinging modern bop album led by guitarist Dan Adler. Adler has surrounded himself with a strong ensemble cast for the record, including pianist Richard Samuels, bassist Dmitri Kolesnik, drummer Philip Stewart and saxophonist Grant Stewart. The album rests firmly in the jazz tradition without sounding like a carbon copy of an historical recording. The group comes together to lay down tracks that are full of bop vocabulary, deep-pocket swing and highly-creative improvisations.

The tunes on the album are a mix of originals written by Adler and arrangements of classic jazz standards. Each arrangement is fresh and not simply a retelling of these often-recorded tunes. A great example of this is Adler’s arrangement of "Star Eyes". While all the elements of the original tune are present in Adler’s version, he adds a series of dissonant piano voicings under the intro and A sections of the melody that immediately makes the tune his own. Before going too far with the dissonance, Adler brings the tune back into a swing feel with more standard voicings for the bridge, essentially cleansing the sonic palette before returning to the dissonant harmony for the final A section. It is moments like these that prevent the album from becoming a blowing session, as each of the standard tunes is approached from a new and unique angle.

Adler’s playing is consistently solid on every tune. Firmly steeped in the bebop tradition, rarely does a line go by that doesn’t exude a deep understanding of the genre’s vocabulary. Not that Adler is simply "running lines" in his solos, his playing goes much further than that. While many players will run long lines and phrases taken directly from classic bebop solos, Adler’s playing has evolved to the point where he is creating his own new and unique melodic ideas that use elements of bebop vocabulary, but are far from the realm of pure imitation. His solo on "Blues for Keren" is a great example of how Adler takes traditional vocabulary and makes it his own. The solo is full of short bebop motifs that Adler then warps and spins into new phrases that lift his playing to a level where it stands alongside some of the best modern bebop recordings of recent years.

All Things Familiar is filled with hard-swinging grooves, twisting and turning bebop based runs and smart and creative melodic interpretations. The rhythm section is tight and they constantly react to cues from the soloists, while throwing some back as well. All of which combine to lay down an album that is as easy to get into musically as it is intellectually engaging.

-Matthew Warnock, AllAboutJazz.com, July 2009

CD discovery of the week. By now it’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Grant Stewart’s. The tenor saxophonist has a big, granite sound that features shades of his own reed heroes, including Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt and Stan Getz. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear Grant featured prominently on Dan Adler’s new CD, All Things Familiar.

Adler is an Israeli guitarist who has played on the New York scene for the past 20 years, including dates with saxophonist Bob Berg and Steve Grossman and pianist Tardo Hammer. On All Things Familiar, Adler’s first CD that he also produced, the song choices are both smart and familiar. In addition to six engaging originals, Adler and Stewart have fine workouts on four standards.

The album’s standouts for me include Adler’s “Sivan’s Samba” and “Bird’s Idea” as well as a warm “Star Eyes” and an extra-tender version of Johnny Mandel’s “Emily”. The interactions between Adler’s guitar and Grant’s tenor sax throughout are close and well defined. The pair weaves in and out of each other’s lines perfectly while teasing out the melodies that make these songs evergreen vehicles for jazz expression. The two musicians sound great together.

Also notable here are Richard Samuels on piano, Dmitri Kolesnik on bass and Grant’s brother Philip Stewart on drums.

What I like most about All Things Familiar is the sensitivity of the playing and respect for the standards chosen. Adler has an old-school ear and touch that harkens back to Chuck Wayne and Mundell Lowe. He’s more concerned with note choices and lyrical lines than exhibiting speed or riffs, which is a rare and welcome relief these days. You simply must hear Adler and Grant’s version of Emily. Johnny Mandel would love it.

-Marc Myers, JazzWax.com, March 8, 2009