April 2008

Jentsch Group Large
Brooklyn Suite
Fleur de Son

By Forrest Dylan Bryant

With intimate solo guitar passages, swelling horn themes and sumptuous atmospheres, Chris Jentsch’s seven-part homage to his home borough is at once grandly orchestral and strikingly personal. Expanded from quartet pieces to suit a 16-piece ensemble and further enhanced by careful use of overdubs and editing, the suite presents a seamlessly introspective flow, rising and ebbing in tidal surges. The entire band seems to radiate from Jentsch’s pensive guitar pulse, blending jazz, classical and rock ideas into a multidimensional reflection of everyday life.