When Jason Berry’s previous band Vacuum Tree Head called it off, he went on with Nubdug Ensemble, trying his hand at a more jazz-infused sound. His first two records were already quite promising if rather on the short side, none of both having been longer than twenty minutes. Now Jason Berry and Nubdug Ensemble are back with Third, a concept album about Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Considering the band’s past, this may feel like some kind of practical joke, but after listening a couple of time to Third, I can confirm that the constraints of keeping to a given text allows the collective of seventeen musicians (!) to focus their energies on a more homogeneous sound. The album makes it to nearly forty minutes, which makes it a normal-length record. The songs alternate between instrumental pieces and vocal tracks, featuring the sublime Sami Stevens, whose soul jazz performance elevate the material to a whole new level.

Half a year ago, Jason Berry’s companion Amanda Chaudhary released her extraordinary album January Suborbital Denomination, and although Jason Berry wasn’t featured on it, both Third and January Suborbital Denomination share a lot of musicians, allowing for parallels between both albums. Especially the vocals of Sami Stevens stand out on both, but also the groovy drums of G Calvin Weston and Myles Boisen’s electric guitar contributions draw a bridge between those two truly great artistic efforts.

I do love the vocal tracks on Third. They remind me of the criminally underrated Kew. Rhone. project by Henry Cow’s John Greaves, Slapp Happy’s Peter Blegvad and Lisa Herman, later of Longhouse. The dramatic vocals recall also Dagmar Krause. The instrumental pieces, I am happy to say, also work incredibly fine, showing a more humorous side of Nubdug Ensemble, with a certain undeniable Frank Zappa flair and sometimes even a madcap funfair approach that could come straight out of Sesame Street, as the uplifting Midmarch proves by always putting a smile on my face.

You can’t really complain this time that the album is too short, as Third is nearly as long as the previous two albums taken together. This is so far Jason Berry at his best. By adding more focus and patience to his material, he managed, at least thirty years into his musical career, to come up with a perfect album that should appeal to a fanbase of progressive rock, jazz and avantgarde listeners.

11 songs

37:10 minutes

***** *****

Genre: prog rock / jazz / avantgarde

Label: CatSynth

Released: 5^th November 2024

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