Being that I’m not exactly the biggest jazz-head on the scene, I had some trepidation about giving a review of Boca Negra, the new Thrill Jockey album from the post-bop Chicago Underground Duo.  I know my basics when it comes to jazz – Coltrane, Miles, Bird – but I don’t venture their way that often anymore so I felt a little rusty going in.  Add “post-bop” to the mix and I had no idea what to expect.  Alas, what I found was much more “in there” than “out there” and an album that does a decent job of telling a story from beginning to end.

Now since this is post-bop, avant-garde, who am I to say what that story is? But somehow you feel its presence and know the artist intended it to be there. The album starts with a series of highly deconstructed, sporadic and sparse songs, finds some structure and melody midway and then breaks back down to basic elements to close it out.

Rob Mazuerk and Chad Taylor form the Chicago Underground Duo, which arose from the Chicago Underground – a collective of local jazz musicians founded by Mazuerk in 1996 that met at the Green Mill for improvisation based jazz.

Mazuerk’s cornet shifts from quick flurries of scales to obscure smatterings of notes weaving in and out of Taylor’s wide array of percussion and drums.  The pair blends well together seemingly thinking as a whole.  They share an interesting take on Ornette Colman’s “Broken Shadows,” the duo’s first recorded cover track, meticulously trading off on sections of the song while never really playing both at the same time.  Midway through they slip into more traditional bop on “Confliction,” but manage to stay ahead of the curve by effortless shifting from 17/8 to 4/4 time signatures.

A little bit of Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the tracks were recorded, makes its way into the album in some of Mazuerk’s tones. Taylor’s use of the vibraphone and the African mbira expand on the multiethnic feel on songs like “Laughing With The Sun” and “Hermeto.” By the time you get to the final notes on the album closing “Vergence” the pair has brought you back full circle, eliciting scant notes from their instruments, forcing a closer listen and bit more attention after starting out with one of the more rhythmic sections on the album.

Matt Lux, who plays bass in Iron and Wine, Isotope 217, Mandarin Movie and the Exploding Star Orchestra, produced the album and gave it a nice warm feel.  For 10 tracks there’s quite little meandering and a good amount of focused and tight playing.  It never feels indulgent which can so often turn people off of music of this nature and there’s enough packed into each song to command repeated attentive listens.

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Catch the Chicago Underground Duo for free Wednesday, February 3 at the Chicago Cultural Center
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Chicago Underground Duo – “Spy on the Floor” mp3