Zack Lober: So We Could Live
Lober, bass; Jasper Blom, tenor saxophone; Suzan Veneman, trumpet; Sun-Mi Hong, drums
ZenneZ ZR2025015 (CD). 2025. Ben Van Gelder, prod.; Alessandro Mazzieri, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½ Jazz people often hear about the vitality of the Netherlands jazz scene. But if they are American jazz people, they may not hear a lot of evidence. So We Could Live is the evidence. The leader, bassist Zack Lober, is actually from Montreal. He holds a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music and had a 14-year career as a sideman in Boston and New York, playing with heavyweights like Henry Threadgill and Butch Morris. In 2019, he moved to the Netherlands. Sun-Mi Hong grew up in South Korea but relocated to Amsterdam 15 years ago, at 20. There is a buzz over Hong on the international jazz street. She has a chance to become the first major jazz drummer from her country. Tenor saxophonist Jasper Blom and trumpeter Suzan Veneman are well-known representatives of the Dutch jazz scene, Blom as a battle-proven veteran and Veneman as a rising star.
Small chordless jazz ensembles are an acquired taste. They can sound stark and austere. But a chordless trio or quartet allows each player to function in wide open space, which can be exhilarating. If it is a challenging format for listeners, it is doubly so for musicians. There is nowhere to hide in such bands. For decades, the most common configuration has been the saxophone trio: sax/bass/drums. There have been many famous ones: Sonny Rollins's, Ornette Coleman's, Joe Henderson's, Joe Lovano's, J.D. Allen's. Zack Lober's debut recording in 2023, No Fill3r (released on ZenneZ, the same Dutch label as this recording), offered a variant of the format: It was a trumpet/bass/drums trio, with Veneman and Hong. So We Could Live, Lober's second album as a leader, presents another variant. It is a chordless quartet. With Blom joining, the frame of reference moves closer to Ornette Coleman's quartet with Don Cherry on trumpet. The tunes, composed by Lober or Blom, even share some of the reductive sing-song qualities of certain Coleman pieces. But Lober's band has many additional precedents.
The opening track, Lober's "Joe Type Tune," is a tribute to an ensemble more straight-ahead than Coleman's: the Joe Henderson trio that made the classic, two-volume album The State of the Tenor. The song pivots on an infectious two-bar descending bassline from Lober, with Hong riding, bumping, and kicking beside him. Blom and Veneman chase one another around in the catchy melody, then Blom cuts loose, bears down, and burns. The second track is by Blom. "Behind a Myth," a cryptic quasi-atonal abstraction with no solos, was inspired by early 20th century composer Paul Hindemith. Blom's "The Loose End" is more a mood than a song. Veneman, in her first solo opportunity, assembles ideas slowly and carefully, guided by her own proprietary musical logic. (Throughout this record, Veneman has interesting things to say that you've never heard before.) Lober's "Vignette" is a harder, edgier, 21st Century take on "Etcetera," a plaintive song Wayne Shorter recorded in 1965. Blom's "Feathered Head" refers back to Dave Holland's great 1973 album Conference of the Birds, an early paradigm for how two horns could fly free over churning bass and drums.
So We Could Live has an overarching theme. Lober calls it "an expression of gratitude" to his father, who "lived a life of sacrifice and service." The most explicit expression of this theme is the solemn title track, in which a four-note central motif recurs like an incantation. But this album is driven by passion more than reflection. Hong's drums gradually take over the song, in powerful breakouts and surges. The most touching portrayal of the theme is the solo bass medley "Dad/Besame Mucho." Lober's dark, lingering, looming bass notes sound like rapt immersions in memory, pure embodiments of deep feeling. Consuelo Velázquez's timeless bolero "Bésame Mucho" was the wedding song of Lober's father and stepmother.
This album was recorded in a famous place, Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum, Netherlands. Wisseloord's acoustics and equipment and vibe have made it the choice of people who could record anywhere, like Elton John, Michael Jackson, Sting, and the Rolling Stones. The sound of So We Could Live is rich, precise, alive, and inseparable from the album's revelation of emotion. The mix is slightly tilted in favor of the bass and drums, a risky decision that works here. It is exciting to experience the spotlight on these instruments because Lober's lines are uncommonly lyrical and Hong's energy is wildly creative. The mix also works because within it, Blom and Veneman, who are also special players, are undiminished and stand clear.—Thomas Conrad
Lober, bass; Jasper Blom, tenor saxophone; Suzan Veneman, trumpet; Sun-Mi Hong, drums
ZenneZ ZR2025015 (CD). 2025. Ben Van Gelder, prod.; Alessandro Mazzieri, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****½ Jazz people often hear about the vitality of the Netherlands jazz scene. But if they are American jazz people, they may not hear a lot of evidence. So We Could Live is the evidence. The leader, bassist Zack Lober, is actually from Montreal. He holds a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music and had a 14-year career as a sideman in Boston and New York, playing with heavyweights like Henry Threadgill and Butch Morris. In 2019, he moved to the Netherlands. Sun-Mi Hong grew up in South Korea but relocated to Amsterdam 15 years ago, at 20. There is a buzz over Hong on the international jazz street. She has a chance to become the first major jazz drummer from her country. Tenor saxophonist Jasper Blom and trumpeter Suzan Veneman are well-known representatives of the Dutch jazz scene, Blom as a battle-proven veteran and Veneman as a rising star.
