American Award winning guitarist Gene Ess has a multicultural background. He comes from Tokyo, where he grew up on an army base in Okinawa. There he received piano lessons with mainly classical input, while also listening to pop and jazz music. Musicians and teachers thought he was a child prodigy, and at the age of fourteen he was already performing locally. He then went on to study classical music and orchestral composition at George Mason University. In 1983, Down Beat Magazine awarded him an Outstanding Performance Award, and a scholarship to attend the prestigious Berklee College of Music. In this way jazz took on a greater meaning for him and especially John Coltrane. Gene graduated in 1990 and moved to New York the following year. After that he toured with drummer Rashied Ali, but also played with the likes of Carlos Santana, Ravi Coltrane, Matt Garrison, Lonnie Plaxico, Archie Shepp, and Reggie Workman. Shortly afterwards, he chose his own career as a bandleader, which resulted in 8 albums. Besides the band Fractal Attraction, Gene also plays with a trio. Now he has recorded a new album with that trio, which originated during the Corona pandemic. “Trio with bass and drums, to me, is a huge challenge musically as the guitar is completely naked in the sonic landscape. It's harder for me than solo or duets. Just the nature of the guitar makes it very difficult. So, I was pushed by the challenge and also, having a chord less accompaniment to my solos was fresh. All the songs were composed in Tokyo last year as I waited until I could return to NY” he said. In addition to himself on guitar, Scott Colley plays bass and Clarence Penn plays drums. Gene composed all 8 tracks himself, and they form a song cycle. The title opens with hard bop, followed by a hard bop waltz. 'Yuki' is a woman's name and means snow in Japanese, and sounds a bit introverted. On the other hand, 'Array' moves towards progressive rock, after which 'Dark Blues' is a blues with jazzy improvisations. 'Crossing' is a solo piece, before 'Trance' leads us towards introspection. The ‘Ending Credits’ leaves an open ending… This album is less my taste.
		Website Gene Ess Tracks: 1. Ah-Bop 4:41 2. Waltz 6:15 3. Yuki 8:00 4. Array 10:04 5. Dark Blues 8:03 6. Crossing 3:13 7. Trance 6:06 8. Ending Credits 9:10