Gypsy Schaeffer is the moniker used by the jazz quartet fronted by trombone player Joel Yennior. The group’s latest release New Album is a wild jam session that takes the quartet from the frenzied ramblings of "New Egypt" to the smooth liquefied passages of "Live A Little." The bite marks of Yennior’s trombone imprints swiggly patterns along the cool rhythmic clasps of bassist Jef Charland and drummer Chris Punis with saxophonist Andy Voelker snaking lively through the melodic progressions. Voelker’s notes hold steady and relinquish its grip with a mind of its own along "Black Friday." The quartet makes good use of progressive jazz idioms and brings it to an avant garde level in "Standard Candles" with rattling shakers seeping through the slow rolling grooves showing a sharp perception for creating depth in the melodic layers.
Instruments show an animated persona in the patches of grazing saxophones cuts and sprinkles of bumpy bass beats along "Grape Soda And Pretzels." Lines move side by side and diverge momentarily before coming back together. The movements are symbolic of human behavioral patterns, which display a more erratic design in "The Greater Good" as the trombone and saxophone cuts entangle and cause disarray and dissonance along the progressions. The horns roll with a woozy gait along "Welcome Edison" with the trombone and saxophone leaning on each other’s shoulders, which segues into the drunken stupor that comes over the horns in "Double Quartet." The upbeat drumming and gusty puffs of the horns running along "Shark Tank" are energizing and slip into a whipping jumble through "Exuberant Irrationalism." The members are sensitive to one another allowing each player to shine momentarily in every track. The twisting lines of the horns through "Call To Arms" are innovative, and the roaming phrases riffling through "Identity Crisis" have a modern jazz edge.
Gypsy Schaeffer show the vast potential that progressive jazz has in mimicking human behavioral patterns. The quartet’s third CD, New Album reinforces the group’s status as architects who improvise music by interacting with one another in an animated fashion. The compositions are totally organic and settle into different rhythmic patterns that reflect the way these musicians walk through life.
