Mostly Other People Do the Killing

They’ve been called bebop terrorists! Having opted for a humorous, but profoundly meaningful name, and having made a habit of taking giant leaps -from today’s styles back to early hot jazz and from there back into the present-, MOPDTK have melded together a vast stylistic range of written and improvised music since 2002. Creatively reinterpreting the chapters in a century’s worth of recorded jazz, they have ended up with an authentic and timeless idiom that calls upon the entire jazz repertoire. At the same time, they have shown just how adventurous, advanced and daring the good old pre-swing stuff really was.

After the impressive “Blue” (2014), an album which recomposed Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”, the best-selling jazz album of all time, MOPDTK return with “Mauch Chunk” (2015). The album’s enigmatic title refers to the long lake of the same name in the mountains of Pennsylvania, an area of outstanding natural beauty which goes by the moniker “the Switzerland of America”.

At the forefront of the group’s sound are the motifs of the bassist and founder of the combo, Moppa Elliott, and the piano playing of Ron Stabinsky. Moppa Elliott has dedicated these pieces to his roots, to the musicians who he was inspired by and whom he has inspired. In short, this is autobiographical jazz—that its title alludes to the composer’s birthplace is certainly no accident.

The end result is a gamble: combinations of contrasting styles, unexpected marriages of the avant-garde and the mainstream, a game played within and beyond forms, a light sort of lounge music which can suddenly be anything but, traditions viewed through the prism of the post-post-modern...