Fima Chupakhin - Water (2019)

On Water, recorded in the early spring of 2019, Fima Chupakhin presents six programmatic originals, an arrangement of a hymn, and two staples of the Great Jazz Songbook. Throughout the proceedings he engages with the last forty years of swing-oriented Black American Music on its own terms of engagement, guiding the flow with a strong compositional hand, imparting his own harmonic identity while giving his international band of high-functioning thirtyish New Yorkers ample room to maneuver. His own solos are subtle, persuasive, exploratory, never harsh or aggressive.