DiCosimo / Pagán – Con Moto
When bassist Jimmy Haslip produces an album, you know what’s going to come out: a jazz fusion album. The initiators of the same are organist Bill DiCosimo and bassist Edgar Pagán, who have been working together for more than twenty years. The album, which will be released in January 2021, is called Con Moto, which means “with movement”.
Contributors to the album are, who would be surprised, Jeff Lorber, Gary Novak, Jeff Richman, Jose Varona, Paulie Cerra and more. People know each other. For example, Edgar has already worked on Jeff Lorber’s joint album Eleven with Mike Stern or Jeff and Jimmy have played on Edgar’s album What A Feeling.
The album starts with the aptly titled So It Begins. A piece that flows along with a continuous rhythm like mercury. The piece is structured comparable a mathematical challenge and bass, rhythm guitar and keyboard complement each other seamlessly like a laying puzzle.
Composer and keyboardist Michael Schmidt longs for the golden era of fusion jazz, dominated by such groups as Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever and Weather Report. Famous names like Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Joe Zawinul, Jimmy Haslip or Jeff Lorber have inspired this musician. Although he does not reach the level of popularity of these music titans, he has made a name in the field of fusion jazz through a variety of high-quality record releases.
What happens when you do a lot of things well but don’t want to focus on just one or two? One possible result is a sample of each, mixed, matched, melded and blended with various combinations of the others. In other words, Fractured Pop (2017) by the Jentsch Group Quartet.
Bass player Kenny Wright is one of the underestimated icons of the contemporary jazz genre. Performing with legends such as Stevie Wonder, The Whispers, Michael White, The Temptation’s Review, The Supremes, Bobbi Humphrey and others should be award enough.
German flutist Lenny Mac Dowell cannot be reduced to a style or genre. His musical roots go back to the time of progressive rock. In the 70’s he was playing in groups like Hölderlin and Birth Control under his real name Friedemann Leinert. His solo career started with Flute Power (1978), followed by Flexible (1979), Airplay (1980), Bird Watching (1982), Magic Flute (1983), Balance of Power and Live Tapes in 1984, Autumn Break (1986), Radioactive (1988). Later preceded by The Farthest Shore (1989), Flying Torso (1995), Launch Control (2003), Echnaton’s Return with Krell (2006), Get Ready (2009), Retrospective (2011), Meditation Following the Inspiration (2012) and this year Locomotive Breath. 
