About Now

Electric bassist Mark Egan has worked with an array of players, including Pat Metheny, Pat Martino, and Larry Coryell. (And those are just guitarists.) On *About Now*, he\'s joined by drummer and longtime pal Danny Gottlieb (from their band Elemental) and keyboardist Mitchel Foreman. This set of originals is firmly in the modern electric jazz spectrum. Sometimes this is of the funky variety (the slow-grooving “McKenzie Portage” and “Slinky”); sometimes it\'s more in line with smooth and poppy (the uptempo “Sailing”). Sometimes it’s a surging brand of fusion (“Tea in Tiananmen Square”). Going into New Age territory, “Little Pagoda” has a sustained ambient feel, with a gentle melody carried by Egan and Foreman. Perhaps the strongest composition here, “About Now,” is one of the briefer forays, but it covers a lot of emotional ground with fine solos from both Egan and Foreman. Happily, everyone seems to be on good behavior here, setting aside wankery for melody, texture, and nuance. That isn’t something you can always say about an electric jazz album.