Photo by Scott J. Foreman
Venue: Shapeshifter (NY)
Date: April 27, 2014
Review by Dawoud Kringle
Spring was in the air in New York. I ventured to Brooklyn, to the side street where Shapeshifter Lab is located to hear Marbin perform as part of their recent tour.
Sohrab (the very Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi who publishes DBDBD) and I arrived to find they’d gone on a little earlier than we’d anticipated. As we settled in, they were finishing a lively jazzy metal song that immediately captured one’s attention.
This small sample actually spoke volumes on the richness of the Chicago music scene, and it’s parallels to the NYC scene. This hints at a very possible and probable promise of a strong network that could (and should) be built between NYC and Chi-town. This is clearly a project the musicians of the two cities would find mutually profitable. But I digress.
Marbin is a Chicago based instrumental jazz- rock fusion band formed in 2007 from the improvised music duo of Israeli guitarist Dani Rabin and Israeli saxophonist Danny Markovitch Slor. The two met shortly after Markovitch Slor had completed his military service as an infantry sergeant and Rabin had graduated from Berklee College of Music. Since 2008, Marbin has been living in Chicago and performing in the United States, playing over 300 shows a year with the accompaniment of drummer Justyn Lawrence and bassist Jae Gentile. They have released four albums: Impressions of a City (2009) as part of Paul Wertico’s Mideast-Midwest Alliance, and three under the name Marbin, Marbin (2009) as a duo, Breaking the Cycle (2011) with drummer Paul Wertico and bassist Steve Rodby (both formerly with the Pat Metheny Group) and Jamey Haddad (Paul Simon), and Last Chapter of Dreaming (2013) with its touring band and an array of thirteen guests. Marbin is currently signed to Moonjune Records and management.
As their NYC performance at Shapeshifter continued, Marbin went into a funky piece called “Just Music.” (guitarist Dani Rabin told an amusing story about where that song came from). After a complex head with a unison guitar/soprano sax, the guitarist took a solo using a thick harmonizer sound on his guitar. The sax played a solo over some very different changes. The song had somehow become a Motown ballad redefined through heavy funk rock. After they explored some more changes, the guitarist took another solo over a 1/4/5 progressions. The web wild and the rhythm section provided an appropriately controlled mayhem under him. Unexpectedly, the guitar shifted into a processed sound I couldn’t identify, and, laying down yet another groove, the sax took a lyrical solo that went appropriately “out” as things heated up. The song drew to a close.
A face melting fusion/metal intro to their next song. Somehow, they infused a klezmer structure into the frantic free for all.
They went into a lounge-type laid back groove with a lamenting melody on the sax. This contrast to their previous two insane chops fests increased in its intensity as the sax wailed passionately. The guitar, moving from sound texture to sound texture, built on the song’s melodic and harmonic framework in interesting ways.
On the next song, a hyper-surf guitar riff opened the way for a joyful sax melody. The sax solo invoked the spirit of early 80s east coast fusion. The drummer took a fantastic solo.
They continued with another loungy song called “Cuba.” The interplay between the crystal clear guitar and laughing sax was a contrast to the shredding unison lines.
Their final song began unexpectedly with beautiful guitar harmonics and an idyllic sax melody. This gave way to the power and bombast the band had gleefully conjured and navigated throughout their set. Personally, I would have liked to have heard where the harmonic intro would have gone on its own vibe. After a frantic guitar solo, they returned to the song’s beginning – all too briefly – before it ended on a bombastic crash.
Guitarist Dani Rabin is what a jazz musician would call a bad motherfucker,” (pardon my language) with chops to burn and plenty of real creativity to back it up. His reservoir of ideas and sounds seemed inexhaustible. The saxophonist Danny Markovitch Slor contrasted with the many textures of the guitar by virtue of only using a soprano sax with no alteration of its sound, and no other instrument. But his technique and ideas brought great depth and dimension to the music. The rhythm section of Jae Gentile on bass and Justyn Lawrence on drums was nothing short of amazing. Their muscular grooves and indomitable power propelled the band into its heights. Gentile laid down the bass lines in an easy, effortless manner. His contribution to the music made everyone shine, and brought attention to his own musicianship. Lawrence is an amazing drummer; every nuance he played was rhythmically and musically significant and interesting.
Photo by Scott J. Forman
Marbin has been achieving great things of late. The band does over 300 shows a year; no small accomplishment in this economy, and the band’s tight performance bears witness to their hard work. Their YouTube channel is an interesting work. The fact that their videos have been getting lots of play (“Redline” alone got over 22,000 hits) is nothing to sneeze at. But they also include music instruction, and business advice for musicians, such as a video on how to make a living touring. Clearly, Marbin has their act together on all levels.
Marbin is a brilliant and innovative band. Their recordings (one of which I’d reviewed some months ago) are only one side of the band. I recommend hearing them live; their vibe on stage is remarkable.
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