As I listened my way through composer/guitarist/pianist Alex Nazaretski’s debut album, I was reminded of the old “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. There are several musical paths, and each can lead you in a very different direction. The nice part with this album: there’s really no wrong way to go.
At the start, we enter a grove of bright chamber music for strings, piano and percussion in the opening track, “Azure.” Linger here. It’s luminous and refreshing.
Follow one path to skittering, hypnotic jazz trios, in the mode of The Bad Plus, in “The Haze” (I & II). Nazaretski plays piano here on his jazz tunes, locking into intriguing grooves with bassist Danica Rebudiao and drummer Jack Kelly.
A second path shares some rhythmic elements with those trios, while you also find soaring electric guitar in prog-rock instrumentals of the title track “A Long Forgotten Past” and “Lattice.” Here Nazaretski plays piano and guitar, with Kelly continuing on drums.
And yet another path, the third and least assuming, teases us — a series of three dreamy classical guitar solos called “Incantations.” Nazaretski’s distinctive and assured playing highlights each musical line. And if you were to follow the album in the order he created (instead of my idiosyncratic paths), these pieces provide a satisfying set of guideposts as part of the overall musical journey.
I’m struck by the ways that this music is restlessly seeking, pulling in shared traces from classical music, jazz and even a touch of heavy metal. All of these elements are part of Nazaretski’s musical roots and his eclectic studies at the Eastman School of Music, from where he graduated in 2024. As he continues his studies (at the Yale University School of Music), I’m intrigued to hear which musical paths he continues to show us.
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