Dogwood: Hecate's Hounds
nusica.org

Issued on the Italian label nusica.org, the excellently titled Hecate's Hounds is the debut album by Dogwood, a Brooklyn-based duo project featuring guitarist Nico Soffiato and double bassist Zachary Swanson. The two bring years of experience to the forty-minute set: having begun double bass study at the age of six, Swanson has grown comfortable playing in any number of contexts; Berklee graduate Soffiato is as versatile, with stints in groups such as Paradigm Refrain and the OST Quartet listed among his performance credits.

In featuring two instruments only, the ten-track recording exudes a rather intimate and oft-introspective character. Improvisation plays a significant part, but there's compositional structure too, which makes for both a satisfying balance and listen. Another plus is the timbral contrast between the instruments, which allows their individual voices to resonate with clarity. Soffiato eschews distortion and high-decibel playing for a quieter, lyrical style that feels better suited to the guitar-and-double bass combination; it also makes for more balanced presentation when Swanson isn't dominated by his partner's presence. The two advance through the pieces methodically but never so ponderously the performances begin to feel like academic exercises or turn sluggish, and with only two players involved, the oscillations in tempo that arise within “Bassifondi” and “Gumtree Canoe” become, or so one would presume, easier to administer.

While most of these concise three- to six-minute performances hew to jazz tradition, a few stray into other areas. During “It Must Have Been the Wind,” for example, a subtle hint of twang enters into Soffiato's playing that in turn lends the material a peaceful, folk-tinged quality. The two also mix things up in their playing styles, with Swanson alternating between plucking and bowing and Soffiato bringing a spikier attack to “Crevasse.” A faint trace or two of “Lush Life” shadows parts of “What Conclusions Am I Left to Draw,” or so at least it seems to these ears. The album-closing “Lonely Proposition” is buoyed so appealingly by its swinging rhythm, it suggests Dogwood might be wise to consider including a greater share of similarly animated material on its next outing.

In the time-honoured spirit of jazz improvisation, much of the album plays like conversations unfolding in real time, with each player attending closely to the other and responding in kind. It's the kind of recording where the tiny missteps that naturally occur during live playing haven't been airbrushed away, the implicit conviction being that an authentic record of what transpired is always preferable to a blemishes-free one doctored after the fact.

March 2018