Review of Alex Hamburger’s “What If?”

I looked at the cover of Alex Hamburger’s What If? and thought I’d hear ‘90s-style pop music along the lines of Madonna or Cyndi Lauper. On listening, the first thing I thought of was Miles Davis’ spooky 1975 slow jam album Pangaea.

Alex Hamburger has her own style with evocative compositions and ethereal flute playing. It’s improvisatory jazz, but it’s informed by trance music, fusion, and world music without ever dissolving into New Age noodling.

“Lion’s Den” has electric piano and vocals, suggesting the spacy introduction to Return to Forever’s “500 Miles High.” Hamburger reinforces the impression by sounding much like RTF’s Joe Farrell on flute. A representative track is “Surface Unknown,” which starts with hypnotic synth washes, moved forward by Tyrone Allen II’s interspersed bass lines, then shifts into a Latin groove with a Weather Report feel. The flute and synth are playing the same lines in similar tones, slightly out of sync, to keep things just this side of disoriented. Props to drummer Chase Elodia and percussionist Patrick Graney, who stay busy and create this unusual fusion feel.

A highlight is “Molinos De Viento: Meditation on the Wind,” which blends seamlessly into “Molinos de Viento: The Journey.” It’s not quite free jazz, but it’s informed by it. The piano plays a steady riff, then is overdubbed with a free improvisation that is not particularly attached to it. It settles into a steady rhythm, and Hamburger sings an Ornette Coleman-style melody. The unhurried and atmospheric flute solo suggests Sonny Fortune’s work on Pangaea. There are unaccompanied solos from the acoustic bass, piano, and drums as the instruments fall out and back in one by one. These tracks are full of imagination, showcasing the versatility of these musicians.

What If? Is cool, trippy, imaginative music from iconoclasts with vision and style.

(Originally published on the Arts Fuse, Sept. 4, 2023)
https://artsfuse.org/279148/september-short-fuses-materia-critica-3/