Album Review: Conceptions from Geoffrey Dean Quartet

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Album:  Conceptions
Artist:  Geoffrey Dean Quartet
Label:  Cellar Music
Website:  www.geoffreydeanmusic.com

Conceptions is the second album from the Geoffrey Dean Quartet featuring leader-pianist Geoffrey Dean, bassist Harish Raghavan, Dr. Eric Binder on drums, and Justin Copeland on trumpet.  The recording is an array of original music using the framework of straight-ahead jazz with each track written individually by Dean, Binder and Copeland.  The group’s multi-dimensional writing styles showcase a diversity of expressions and interplay using jazz principles.
 
The heavenly furls of Copeland's trumpet swirling leisurely across "Amidst a Dream" recede as Dean's lightly prancing keys take centerstage, held steady by the trotting beats of Binder's drums and Raghavan's bass.   The bold strokes of Copeland's trumpet flares open "Conflagration" into a blossoming meadow of sonic ripples that retract as Dean's nimbly choreographed keys widen the breadth of the piece.  Applying the principles of jazz collaborations where each musician contributes voices to form a multi-textured panoply, "Prism" is its manifestation, a mutable prism of shapes, colors and movements.
 
Recorded at Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, New York, the quartet's offering shapes modern harmonic forms rooted in jazz traditions.  The compositions feel familiar while seeming new, intersecting various phases of jazz development, culminating into a cohesive and spontaneous collective.
 
Musicians:
Geoffrey Dean - piano
Harish Raghavan - bass
Eric Binder - drums
Justin Copeland - trumpet

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