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タチアナ・パーハを思わせる瑞々しいヴォーカリーズが印象的な韓国人ジャズ・シンガーのソン・イ・ジョンと、BLAXTREAMからのリリースもあるサンパウロ出身のジャズ・ギタリストのヴィニシウス・ゴメスによる双頭名義作。

二人はスイスで活動している頃に知り合い、音楽的対話やストーリーテリングを重視するアティテュード、ショーロやエルメート・パスコアル、ノーマ・ウィンストン、コンテンポラリー・ジャズといった音楽的嗜好の合致により意気投合。本作への制作へと至った。モダンジャズのハーモニーに魅惑的なリズム、リスナーの耳をひきつけるメロディは、シンプルながらに複雑で、それらが調和し、心地よい余韻を残す。レパートリーも素晴らしく、ドミンギーニョスからキース・ジャレット、ジミー・ロウルズ、さらにはタチアナ・パーハ&アンドレス・ベエウサエルトもカバーしたカルロス・アギーレの名曲「Milonga Gris」までを取り上げている。

A collaboration between vocalist Song Yi Jeon and guitarist Vinicius Gomes, 2022s Home showcases the duos gorgeously enveloping blend of Brazilian, classical, and ECM-style jazz. Born in South Korea, Jeon has made her home in Switzerland for much of her career. Thats where she first met the Brazilian-born, New York-based Gomes while both were members of Wolfgang Muthspiels Focusyear ensemble in 2018. Together, they struck up a creative partnership, communing over their shared love for artful and intimately rendered chamber jazz. With her pristine tone and agile sense of harmony, Jeon is known for her distinctive, wordless vocal style, a sound often more akin to an instrumentalist than a singer. Its a sound that evokes the work of icons like Ella Fitzgerald and Norma Winstone, one that makes her as much of a collaborative improviser as Gomes. Similarly, Gomes has a fluid style that finds him bridging traditional Brazilian sounds, classical, and more far-reaching contemporary jazz idioms. Think Ralph Towner crossed with Carlos Barbosa-Liam and youll get a sense of the guitarists broad virtuosity. The duo combine all of their passions here, often blurring the genre lines. They also move freely between songs that have a more compositional sound and ones built largely around improvisation. Particularly redolent of all of this is the opening "Eleven Houses," in which Jeon glides over Gomes nylon-stringed Latin groove, occasionally locking melodic arms with him as they dance along their bright harmonic stairways. Interestingly, the one song that does not have any improvisation is their languid reading of Keith Jarretts ballad "Prism," the pianists meditative style a perfect match for the pairs deeply introspective aesthetic. Equally entrancing are cuts like Jeons spiraling take on Steve Reichians "Dancing Stars" and their kinetic bossa nova-meets-classical tango rendition of Carlos Aguirres "Milonga Gris." While Jeons primary focus is wordless vocalese, there are two songs that do have lyrics here, including a gorgeous version of the Jimmy Rowles and Norma Winstone number "A Timeless Place" and Jeons own "Expecting Spring," the latter of which features Korean lyrics written by her mother, adding yet another texture to the duos endlessly layered sound. With Home, Jeon and Gomes have crafted an album of nuanced beauty whose melodic textures shift delicately like shadows on a cloudy summer day. ~ Matt Collar