It's a bit like getting two jazz albums for the price of one with Sonic River by saxophonist Tobias Meinhart. This is not so much due to the playing time of almost an hour, but rather to the block of songs with Portuguese vocals, which are interspersed amongst the tasteful jazz tracks like a small island of fado.

Meinhart originally comes from a small town near Regensburg, but has been living in New York for over 15 years. His time in the world capital of jazz is clearly evident on his tenth album Sonic River. The music is fluid, lively, dynamic and predominantly American.

‘Meinhart and his high-calibre fellow musicians glide like casual surfers on the waves of the melodically finely meandering pieces’, explains the promo insert and continues: ’Under the leadership of their Bavarian bandleader, Eden Ladin on piano, Charles Altura on guitar, Matt Penman on bass and Obed Calvaire on drums with his Israeli, New Zealand and Haitian roots embody the melting pot character of New York in an exemplary manner. You can hear that these five also get on well beyond the studio and stage.’

That reads as exaggerated as usual, but hits the nail on the head surprisingly well. The band acts as an extremely finely meshed unit that has obviously been familiar with each other for a long time. This clearly benefits the fine dynamics of the performance and makes the listening experience even more refined.

The acoustic bliss is also supported by the excellent recording. The spatiality corresponds in its expanse to a spacious living room and turns the listening room into an intimate experience capsule. The clear structure and placement of the musicians does the rest and does everything it can to make the album convincing.

No question: Sonic River is excellent American jazz in flow and definitely worth a listen. (Thomas Semmler, HighResMac)

Tobias Meinhart, saxophone
Eden Ladin, piano
Charles Altura, guitar
Matt Penman, bass
Obed Calvaire, drums