Jazz is no place for children. Before I get excoriated, let me elucidate: sure, jazz education is paramount. But I have no patience for the next 12-year-old prodigy or 13-year-old country singer or 14-year-old rock'n'roller. I want some wisdom in my grooves, some hard-won lessons learned by life itself. In the words of the great WC Fields, "go away kid, you bother me." That said, Algorithmic Society (Tapestry), the debut of The Girshevich Trio, out of Colorado, is a pleasant surprise.
This trio features 12-year-old drummer Aleks Girshevich, a total oddity. He moves the music along like a pro and helped his dad, the classically-trained pianist Vlad Girshevich, write all 10 tunes. It also helps to have a certifiable bass legend like Eddie Gomez anchoring the bottom. Gomez has done likewise for Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Charles Mingus, McCoy Tyner, Gerry Mulligan and dozens of others.
There's some poly-rhythms inherent in the kid's drumming. His muse, besides his dad and bassist Gomez, is Cuban percussionist Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez with whom his father, originally from Uzbekistan, played with. (Vlad also has also played with Stanley Jordan and Ernie Watts.) Those poly-rhythms are most pronounced on opener "Healing The Chaos," the most impressive track herein, for it is here where Rony Barrak joins the fray to add some nifty beats on the darbouka (an ancient Arabic goblet drum). Plus, for extra added sumptuousness, a string sextet gussies up three tracks beautifully.
Yeah, I'm digging this. Still, though, I think master Aleks is the exception to my no-children rule which shall, indeed, stay in place. So all you stage moms out there, please don't send in tapes of your oh-so-talented precocious little child.
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