Moss Project – Vision

Mancunian guitarist Moss Freed is at the helm of progressive jazz ensemble The Moss Project. This sextet are an inventive and musically resourceful bunch, melding technically adept instrumentation from violin, sax, keyboards, bass and two drummers, all with Freed’s slick, highly accomplished guitar leading the assault. The band cite influences as diverse as Stravinsky, The Bad Plus, Pat Metheny and Massive Attack. You probably wouldn’t be too out of line if you started mentioning Weather Report, Joe Zawinul, John McLaughlin and the like as well. Vision is impressive and often very beautiful (the winding lyricism of ‘Epic’ is especially appealing) but it does occasionally lean towards the nerdier, more chops-centric end of the jazz spectrum – though surely that’s not such a bad thing.