The Kandinsky Effect

The trio -- Warren Walker on sax, Gael Petrina on acoustic and electric bass and Gautier Garrigue on drums -- toes the line between progressive and traditional jazz with aplomb. With regard to the former, these guys can take their music pretty far out there, but their three albums remain accessible even to total jazz rookies. Petrina, the musical backbone here, varies his playing even as he fixates on melody as the driving force behind most songs (see early stuff like “Sad Novi” and “New Year’s Day” for examples). If you’ve been looking for inroads to the jazz scene, as broad as that can be, and/or an explicit reason to get out to Nighttown, well, here you go. (Sandy)