The Mattan Klein Quartet

“The Long Run”

(Ubuntu Music – UBU0092)

Mattan Klein – flutes, Toki Stern – Rhodes, Yoni Ben Ari – electric bass, Joca Perpignan – drums, percussion
with guest Nitzan Bar - guitar

“The Long Run” is the third album from the Israeli born flautist and composer Mattan Klein and his first for the London based record label Ubuntu Music. It follows the earlier releases “Sound Tracks” (2016) and the intriguingly titled “Wag The Mammoth In The China Store” (2019).

Klein was born in Jerusalem and studied at the Rubin Academy in his native city before moving to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, USA. Graduating with honours from Berklee he has since divided his time between the US and his native Israel.

A regular award winner in both countries he has appeared at a number of international jazz festivals and is also in demand as a composer and arranger with several commissions to his credit. In 2016 his arrangements were played when Klein guested with the United Kingdom Jazz Flute Big Band at that year’s EFG London Jazz Festival.

Klein has also received a number of scholarships as well as emerging as an acclaimed educator in his own right.

His latest album features a core quartet of long time collaborators comprised of keyboard player Toki Stern, here specialising on Rhodes, Yoni Ben Ari on electric bass and Joca Perpignan on drum kit plus a variety of percussion. Guitarist Nitzan Bar guests on the album’s title track.

“The musicians on the album are colleagues and friends”, explains Klein. “I’ve been searching for a certain sound for the band, which can only be achieved with the right combination of personalities and talents. Ironically I had the pleasure of meeting most of my favourite Israeli musician friends in the USA… Jerusalem and Tel Aviv were like two separate planets back then”.

Despite his Israeli heritage and his time spent in the US Klein has long harboured a fondness for Brazilian music and this is reflected in a programme that includes an arrangement of “O Farol Que Nos Guia” by the great Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal. Keyboard player Toki Stern adds his own composition, “Jokes”, which is inspired by Brazilian jazz, while Klein’s four original pieces include “Otem Reh(y)”, his own tribute to Pascoal.

Klein has explained that his love of Brazilian music was inspired by the presence of a Brazilian community in Israel. Listening to their music during his youth he found many shared traits between the music of Brazil and South America as a whole and that of Israel and the wider Middle East. The presence of the Brazilian percussionist Joca Perpignan in the ranks of the quartet emphasises the authenticity and organic nature of Klein’s blend of Israeli / Brazilian fusion.

Flute specialists are rare in jazz and Klein is part of a select group that includes the Americans Jeremy Steig and Jamie Baum, plus the UK’s own Gareth Lockrane. Klein has been playing the flute since the age of ten and very much regards the instrument as an extension of himself.

The album commences with a segue of the Klein compositions “Luck-Key” and “Kind Of”, sequenced as a medley, a form of presentation that obviously appeals to the flautist. The combination of flute, electric piano, electric bass and drums / percussion is sometimes reminiscent of the first edition of Chick Corea’s Return To Forever, but obviously minus Flora Purim’s vocals. Joe Farrell’s use of flute, alongside his more usual tenor and soprano sax, is a distinctive feature of the first two RTF albums (“Return to Forever” and “Light As A Feather”, both 1972) and this appears to be something that Klein has picked up on. Fans of these two Corea albums will find much to enjoy about the music here. There’s a relaxed, languid quality about the playing on this opening performance, which features the seemingly effortless fluency of the leader’s flute, the soft chime of Stern’s Rhodes,  the melodic electric bass playing of Ari and the subtle percussion shadings of Perpignan.

“Otem Reh(y)”, Klein’s tribute to Pascoal, captures something of the joyousness of its subject with the leader’s flute, sometimes sounding as if it may be multi-tracked, to the fore. Bass and percussion combine to provide a groove that is both exotic and subtly propulsive. Klein’s solo brings a vocal quality to his flute playing, with Roland Kirk and Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson representing obvious reference points.  Meanwhile Ari’s bass solo introduces a Stanley Clarke inspired element of funkiness to the proceedings.

There’s a similarly playful feel to Stern’s jaunty Brazilian Jazz composition “Jokes”, with its darting flute led melody lines and buoyant rhythms. The composer adopts more of an acoustic piano sound for his solo, dancing lithely above the percolations of Ari’s electric bass and the colourful rustle of Perpignan’s percussion.

Klein says of the title track;
“ ‘The Long Run’ reflects on how one must run long distances with heads held high. Only such a perspective can provide the energy and drive to sometimes overcome obstacles and challenges”.
This piece sees guitarist Nitzan Bar added to the group and contributing an engaging solo, his elegant fluency followed by Stern at the keyboard, here adopting a classic ‘Rhodes’ sound. Stern’s deployment of the Rhodes throughout the album is impressive, both as a soloist and as part of the overall ensemble. The leader solos on flute and also embarks on a series of spirited exchanges with Bar. 

Klein’s second medley is “Azymotiv / Hakaza”, which owes more to his Israeli heritage, while continuing to explore the musical links between South America and the Middle East. Dancing flute melodies combine with exotic rhythms, with Perpignan playing a particularly prominent role as he conjures up a rich panoply of percussive sounds. Stern undertakes an expansive solo on Rhodes, followed by an extended percussion feature from Perpignan.

The album concludes with Pascoal’s “O Farol Que Nos Guia”, a delightful duet between the leader’s flute and Stern’s keyboard that showcases Pascoal’s gift for melody.

“The Long Run” is a fascinating album that explores the musical links between the Middle East and South America, filtered through the prism of the USA. The writing, primarily the work of the leader, is rich in terms of melody and rhythm and the quartet is a well balanced unit with each individual member making a substantial contribution to the success of the music. Klein himself is a quiet virtuoso, an excellent technician and a fluent soloist whose playing is at the heart of the music, but without seeking to draw unwarranted attention to itself.

It’s possible that some listeners will find this music a little bloodless – it’s difficult to be guttural on the flute – and the use of electric keyboard and bass may not find favour with the purists. That said Rhodes and electric bass are an integral part of the quartet sound and definitely vital to Klein’s vision for the group. I’d certainly be interested in seeing the band live should Klein ever return to the UK.

The album is somewhat short by modern CD standards, but despite the reservations raised above there is still much to enjoy here.

 

 

blog comments powered by Disqus