By Lee Rice Epstein

Along with the various ensembles Vinny Golia leads and directs, he’s additionally
a gradual sideman and featured participant with a lot of teams led by youthful
gamers. Amongst a number of he’s performed on this 12 months, three stood out.

Vinny Golia, Max Johnson and Weasel Walter – No Refunds (Unbroken Sounds,
2023) 

Bassist Max Johnson not too long ago launched this trio date from 2014. Together with
drummer Weasel Walter, Johnson is a brilliantly free improviser. The set
runs just below an hour, flying so quick and free with Golia performing
Dolphy-esque leaps alongside Walter’s percussive fills. An enchanting
drummer, Walter has a wind participant’s knack for pulling again all of a sudden earlier than
a roaring processional. And Johnson playfully jumps from a form of
supporting function to 1 extra goading and directional. His spherical tone is
generally harking back to Ronnie Boykins (the set general shows an early
ESP-Disk’ vitality, particularly some runs the place Golia evokes John Tchicai).

Vinny Golia, Stueart Liebig and Nathan Hubbard – There Is a Mild That Goes
On Mechanically (Castor & Pollux Music, 2023) 

The second launch for the trio of drummer Nathan Hubbard with Golia and
Liebig, who performs fretted and fretless basses. Hubbard’s one other one of
Golia’s longtime collaborators, and the three are so superbly in sync
all through two units recorded over a weekend in August 2019, “There Is a
Mild That Goes On Mechanically” (from Santa Barbara) and “Was It a Misplaced
Weekend?” (from Lengthy Seashore). As a melodic, percussive participant, Hubbard units
a tone for the group that calls again to John Stevens and Eddie Prévost small
teams. 

Vijay Anderson’s Silverscreen Sextet – City Jungle: Los Angeles
(self-released, 2023) 

City Jungle is Vijay Anderson’s second album together with his
Silverscreen Sextet. This time round, he’s shuffled the lineup barely:
cornetist Bobby Bradford, saxophonist Vinny Golia, tubaist William Roper,
and bassist Adam Lane kind the core band, whereas artist crushed blacks
created an immersive video that features as one other instrument. Anderson
has deep roots within the Los Angeles creative-music scene, born and raised in
Southern California, he’s performed with many West Coast luminaries (together with
Bradford, Golia, and Roper) for many years. And on a number of different tasks he’s
labored on with Bradford, Golia, Roper, and Lane, he’s persistently drawn
inspiration from visible media.

To go just a little deeper on this one, City Jungle: Los Angeles
explores town’s complexities by way of 5 chapters and interludes, which
embody dedications to historian and critic Mike Davis, the sensible artist
Simon Rodia (greatest recognized for his Nuestro Pueblo, or Watts Towers),
firefighter Sam Haskins (each the primary Black firefighter on the Los
Angeles Hearth Division and the primary LAFD firefighter to die within the course
of obligation), streetcar operator Arcola Philpot (the primary Black operator for
the Los Angeles Railway) and the humanitarian Father Luis Olivares (who
lived by his spiritual ethics and made his church a haven for El Salvadoran
refugees within the Eighties).

By means of each Anderson’s composing and the group’s improvising, the
evocation of those tales weaves a sophisticated tapestry. Come to this
album able to study, able to suppose, and able to have your complacency
challenged.

And a few visuals: