Dream Suites Vol. 1 is the most ambitious album, or project, of Slovenian, Maribor-based guitarist-composer Samo Šalamon (aka Dr. Jazz) with legendary American drummer-percussionist Ra Kalam Bob Moses (with whom he recorded the trio album Pure and Simple with Norwegian double bass master Arild Andersen, Samo, 2022). Moses organized remote sessions of Šalamon in Maribor, and twenty six American musicians, including such great improvisers as trumpeter Dave Ballou, trombonist Steve Swell, reed players Vinny Golia, Ben Goldberg and Ned Rothenberg, double bass players Chris Lightcap and Eivind Opsvik and drummer Tim Daisy, plus one Dutch (cellist Ernst Reijseger), in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
The music was recorded in November 2023 by Moses (who also did the mixing with Šalamon). It is completely improvised and the immediate, deep rapport and conversational, layered interplay feels like it was played in the same space. The three extended improvisations ebb and flow in an organic. propulsive drive as each section of the Orchestra improvises on the simple themes and together, all form an impressive and surprisingly cohesive jazz suite.
The Thinkers documents a December 2023 meeting of Šalamon, fellow Slovenian and Šalamon’s long-time friend, tenor sax player Cene Resnik (who recorded before with Šalamon the trio album Timelessness and the quartet album Before It Rains, Samo, 2021 and 2022), and young Belgian drummer Samuel Ber (who plays in the Malaby/Dumoulin/Ber trio and Benoît Delbecq & The Multiplexers). This trio was founded for the local Jazz Cerkno festival, and in its performances in 2024 was augmented by American double bass player Michael Formanek. Šalamon and Resnik composed the twelve short pieces, based on brief and simple themes that lead to powerful and complex individual and collective improvisations that reference the 1970s acrobatic fusion, free jazz and more relaxed and soulful versions of jazz, stressing the tight dynamics and the deep affinity this trio has established.
For the Listener Who Listens documents Šalamon, on banjo and electric guitars, in a free improvised meeting with two acoustic bass guitarists – Polish Rafal Mazur (known for his work with such innovative improvisers like Barry Guy, Agustí Fernández and Mikołaj Trzaska) and Irish Ronan Guilfoyle (who studied with Dave Holland and is a noteworthy composer and the director of the jazz department at Newpark Music Centre in Dublin). The album was recorded in July 2022. Šalamon often finds himself as the middleman, negotiating playfully between the spontaneous improvisation strategies and the timbral explorations of Mazur and the more jazz-tinged forms of Guilfoyle. This trio keeps searching for spacious, gently rhythmic dynamics that would be generous for all, and never repeat itself.
Eyal Hareuveni
Dave Ballou (trumpet), Russ Johnson (trumpet), Tom Varner (french horn), Jeb Bishop (trombone, electronics), Curtis Hasselbring (trombone), Steve Swell (trombone), Chet Doxas (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Ben Goldberg (clarinet), Vinny Golia (soprano sxaopnone, alto saxophone, clarinet), Adam Kolker (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Andrew Rathbun (tenor saxophone), Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet), Dan Willis (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, alto flute, bass clarinet), Ernst Reijseger (cello), Rez Abbasi (electric guitar), Mike Baggetta (acoustic guitar), Jonathan Goldberger (electric guitar), Samo Šalamon (electric guitar, banjo), Jerome Harris (lap steel guitar), Michael Cain (piano), Steve Hunt (piano, synthesizers), Jimmy Haslip (electric bass), Chris Lightcap (double bass), Eivind Opsvik (double bass), Matt Pavolka (fretless electric nass, double bass), Tim Daisy (drums), Ra Kalam Bob Moses (drums, percussion), Cene Resnik (tenor saxophone), Samuel Ber (drums), Ronan Guilfoyle (acoustic bass), Rafal Mazur (acoustic bass)
