Artist: Mauricio Morales
Album: Luna
Label: Outside in Music
Release Date: 2.26.21
Caught between a youthful fascination with the moon, the verdant wonders of nature and the residual effects of helplessly watching from afar as a 2017 earthquake devastated his hometown of Mexico City, jazz bassist/composer Mauricio Morales created the tumultuous and cinematic Luna. An audacious, awe-inspiring debut album from a visionary new artist, the transcendental Luna expands on the free-flowing spiritual jazz of greats like Pharoah Sanders and injects it with fluid modern fusion, which is a neat trick to pull off.
For all its lush, mesmerizing complexity and epic ambition, Luna is approachable, its restless dynamics and wordless poetry speaking volumes about healing, salvation, mortality and grief, life-affirming joy, and calm acceptance. Assisted by Aiden Lombard and his warm, shiny trumpet, harmonica player Roni Eytan and the glorious piano flourishes of Aga Derlak, plus industrious drummers and a swirling string quartet, Morales goes for broke on Luna, which reaches catharsis in the mushrooming closer “Garden of Hope,” where guest Al Joseph unleashes a mind-blowing electric guitar supernova amid crashing chaos.
Until arriving at its ultimate destination, Luna thrives on exhilarating drama and underlying tension, as the transformative “Colibri” turns from quiet reflection to crazed panic, experiencing a wild alto sax episode in the process. Meanwhile, the tempestuous “Terremoto” relives the Mexico City catastrophe with periods of diverging dissonance and converging resolution, as it quietly triumphs over tragedy. Languid and cool, the blooming title track opens wide with Morales’ active, bubbling bass solo and sighs to chromatic harmonica reminiscent of Steve Wonder’s wistfulness, while “The Forest” spirals and cascades beautifully. Morales’ first step, Luna, is a giant leap.
—Peter Lindblad
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