"Fresh Sound's New Talent marque has managed on occasion to spring real surprises,
and does so here again. The first impression is of the George Russell Sextet of
1960, and not just because Avi Cohen's rather small-toned but agile trumpet work
sounds just like Alan Kiger. It's as much in the measured attitude, the often
polyphonic development of and reference back behind the soloists to the material,
the sense of a small band rather than simply a combo. Rhythmically too, what the
notes refer to as 'shapeshifting' (often) recalls the way Russell's group could
slide out of metre and jump back again. This doesn't imply as a corollary that
Sroka is merely a clone of Dave Baker: he doesn't play anywhere near as many
notes as Baker often did, but he's got that round, unstrident sound and reminds
also of Jimmy Knepper, particularly perhaps on the final "Beloved", where it's
just him and Harland.
Harland gets "Tabula Rasa" pretty much to himself, a long workout enclosed by
ensemble writing, overall beginning to recall both "The Opening" and "Death Rolls".
The opening "Hearsay", an Ellington line I'm not familiar with, has the band
opening strongly around Sroka, but starts to drift and begins to run out of
steam well before its near-14 minutes is up. The other outside composition,
Charlie Shavers' "Undecided", works extremely well, and maybe because it starts
from such a familiar point makes very clear how Sroka's backto- the-future
conceptualisation has been made to function.
There's a lot less thoughtful records than this one around, and it will be
interesting to see how Sroka, should he get further chances, can develop an
already clear view of what he wants to do."
- Jack Cooke, Jazz Review (UK), February 2003