ALON NECHUSHTAN - VENTURE BOUND

• alon nechushtan: venture bound
      (2014, cd, ger, enja records enj-9603)

When I heard that Alon Nechushtan had a new album out, I was quite curious to hear it. I had been quite impressed by Alon's two previous album, "Words Beyond" (2011) and "Ritual Fire" (2013).

"Venture Bound" was indeed a nice surprise. Besides Alon Nechushtan (piano), the album features Donny McCaslin and John Ellis on tenor saxophones, Chris Lighcap on bass and Adam Cruz on drums. Special guests include Duane Eubanks on trumpet, Roggerio Boccato on percussion and Brahim Brigbane on oud.
There's a lot of variation in the instrumentation and in the compositions, yet  the sound is very coherent.

In the liner notes, Alon explains: "Venture Bound is without a doubt my most personal album to date, a culmination of my New York years, drawing from an eclectic pallet of sounds, people, places; a continuous journey through a New York night seeking adventure; seek and you will find dive bars with basement jams, old school uptown swing clubs, while crossing the bridge to Brooklyn's playground turns the trip into a joy ride."

An excellent album.

Out on the Enja Records label.

Alon Nechushtan's website :
http://musicalon.com/