Tour De Flux

Tour De Flux

Mandolinist Jamie Masefield, acoustic bassist Chris Dahlgren, and drummer Jon Fishman's moniker for their collective, the Jazz Mandolin Project, may be a bit misleading. Most of the material on <i>Tour De Flux</i> falls somewhere in the cracks between jazz, funk, and the more expansive and improvisation-heavy brand of rock favored by Fishman's <i>other</i> band, Phish. But that might be precisely why it's so enjoyable. Recorded right after the trio's 1998 tour (which built on their 1996 debut), the eight tracks on the album have enormous variety, segueing seamlessly from the countrified funk of "Chapeau" to the Zappa-esque wackiness of "Barber's Hint" to the folk ballad "Boodha." All showcase the kind of telepathic group interplay that only occurs between musicians who know each other's habits and styles intimately. Dahlgren and Fishman are a solid supporting cast, but Masefield is the real virtuoso: his playing throughout the album, from his high-velocity crescendos on "Clip" to his guitarlike heroics on "Nimbus," is consistently astounding. Whether it's enough to guarantee the entrance of the mandolin into the pantheon of widely accepted jazz instruments remains to be seen, but it's certainly a good start. <i>--Ezra Gale</i>