Written by Lex Celera
If you’re having a hankering of jazz, Hermano Jazz’s newest release can slake your hunger. Emanating from the dimly lit rooms of Tago Jazz Cafe, Sari Sari, and The Backdoor, Hermano Jazz, calls into mind the ever-present yet elusive jazz scene in Metro Manila. Producer, composer, and guitarist Joaquin Reyes knows this well, as a burgeoning musician who frequents these spaces. And it seems that this year, Reyes and his merry band of talented, rotating, cohorts are in full swing.
Reyes’ first album, ‘Show Me Your Kung Fu,’ featuring jazz legends and up-and-coming musicians alike, was just released last May. ‘Hermano Jazz, Vol. 1’ arrived a month after, featuring the same formula albeit with a different ensemble, resulting in a flavor of jazz that satiates those with the ear to recall influences, but also the posturing that could draw anyone curious to experience what the genre has to offer for the first time.
Each track from ‘Hermano Jazz, Vol. 1’ comes across as successful problem solving through music, where instruments pass the baton, come and go, and interject each other with restraint, until the rising tension is resolved. As composers, MJ Alvarado and Joaquin Reyes do well when knowing when a track is done, and when nothing is left unpolished.
“Sa Dilim ng Gabi” and “Stay Cool” feature vocals that, beyond texture, add dimension to the collective’s repertoire. But the real draw lies in the rest of the project’s tracks, where there are moments that truly stick with you when experiencing this album for the first time. The closing third of “Rain Song” pulls you in with its rising intensity shared between the instruments in play, especially with the guitar. “Our New Song” and its meandering flourishes arrests you in its warmth that swells. I would have loved to be in the room during the recordings of “In Walked Blud,” a hot flash of a Thelonious Monk track that Reyes and his hermanos have put their own spin to. In many ways, the cover track exemplifies Hermano Jazz’s latent tendencies to be urgent and overdriven with its shortened runtime.
‘Hermano Jazz, Vol. 1’ offers a buffet of jazz tunes that lean into the genre’s freewheeling nature, served in doses that are just enough. A morsel more would be too much. Perhaps another album. Perhaps more.
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