Jazz and shawarma have a lot in common. To get good shwarma it is often advised that one travel to a larger centre than what the east coast offers where the nuances of the garlic sauce and perfectly pickled beats get put in equilibrium with shaved meats that are spiced to perfection.
With Halifax growing at seemingly alarming rates post-pandemic, we might be able to judge its growth into a big city based on the quality of its shawarma and its jazz. Morgan Zwicker Jazz Project’s new album Phase Shift is one of the many recent east coast jazz albums to impress me.
Zwicker’s tone and feel are rooted in contemporary jazz drummers. Phase Shift’s neurotransmitter-themed tunes are chock-full of feels that sit in the quantum-swing zone, oscillating between straight 8ths and swung feels and playing with their relationships.
His drumming reminds me a bit of Jochen Rueckert or Tony Williams. His magic is found in a straight-faced delivery. We aren’t meant to mine his playing for little musical jokes or interplay with the soloist; these grooves are tone setters. This unembellished style sets a wonderful foundation for these compositions. “Late Nights, Early Mornings” is a stand-out composition on an album of contenders.
Morgan’s compositions are fantastically conceived. Their language, with few exceptions, is in the Wayne Shorter style of non-functional, flexible harmony. This is a style of composing which one should not expect to come away humming any earworms, instead you are meant to concentrate on the shifting harmony and colours that the composer chose. With this measure in mind, Zwicker is a resounding success. The compositions are beautiful and make great platforms for improvisation.
The standout performance in the band comes from the achingly amazing playing Geordie Haley puts forth here. He conjures Kurt Rosenwinkel and Gilad Hekselman effortlessly as if the language of masterful jazz guitarists wasn’t completely beguiling to most.
If Morgan Zwicker Jazz Project’s Phase Shift is the barometer by which we measure the developing jazz scene in Halifax, and even the development in general, expect to be eating world-class shawarma here in the next five years.