By Don Phipps
Rob Mazurek’s solo album Nestor’s Nest is a creative sonic
adventure that runs from Native American drum chants to imagined
extraterrestrial settings. Known for his trumpet playing and composing
skills, Mazurek jettisons bandmates on this go round, choosing instead to
create his own soundscapes using Modular Synths, a Moog Sub 37, a
PolyEvolver (another type of synthesizer), bells, flutes, and his own
vocals.
The first cut, “Star Fruit,” serves as a kind of short celestial
introduction to the explosive, propelling rhythm of “Banana Fruit,” a piece
which features syncopated beats beneath an ethereal vibraphone-like voicing.
The vibraphonish sounds float above rhythm and what might be described as a
bit of DJ scratching. Burbles and baubles bubble up from the deep like an
ocean geyser. Late in the number, Mazurek uses striking trumpet injections
– his lines slicing through the rhythmic polyphonic intensity like a
samurai sword through bamboo. As the music concludes, he brings what sounds
like Native American chants to the maelstrom.
The short “Under the Papaya Tree” offers up a bird call flute before
breaking into the funky safari of “Mango Fruit.” The music here is an
elephant ride along a jungle coast, the white sand stretching outward
interspersed with palm trees. The electronic legato mix hangs atop
syncopated beats before progressing to a cubic light show generated by a
whirling, sound-spinning decahedron.
“Papaya Fruit” is perhaps the most surprising of all the cuts. It begins
like a 1950s space movie soundtrack – is this Mazurek replicating the hum
of the universe? The piece migrates into an African-inspired funk. Mazurek
enters on trumpet, fluttering, trilling, and roller-coasting up and down –
his fantastic technique never wavers as it twists and turns. Voice and
bells enter – the number radiating a galloping heat, the thunder of hooves
on dry clay. As it winds down, one hears percussion instruments Art
Ensemble of Chicago-style.
The music of Nestor’s Nest is clever, flamboyant, challenging. It
retains a sense of immediacy – the action non-stop, the atmospheres created
diverse. Mazurek pushes his listeners to confront a variety of musical
environments. The strange and surreal mind travels generated here will keep
most on edge. Fun stuff. Enjoy!