Music
fromPitchfork
1 week agoAaron Shaw: And So It Is
Aaron Shaw's debut album translates illness and confrontation with mortality into music blending desolation, joy, mysticism, and rhythmic, exploratory jazz.
Opener "Soul Journey" features Shaw's gentle bass clarinet, flute, and sax, all floating together in a velvety haze. When Niño's fair-trade organic rustles and Merci B's harp manifest, all the markers of neo-spiritual jazz have been hit. But at just about the halfway point, Lawrence Shaw's (Aaron's brother) bass kicks in and Niño plays a traditional drumbeat. The harp doesn't go away (and cello by Kiernan Wegler enters the picture),