Silver Dollar From A Green Island A music festival is a long journey through sound in a short space of time, be it a few days or a fortnight. These events can also plant the seeds for new work that grows in the weeks, months or years after the final notes have been heard and the artists left town. This is the case for Samuel Blaser’s album Routes. The point of departure for this stellar groove adventure was the Tampere Jazz Happening in Finland. Since the 2008 release of his album Seventh Heaven, with guitarist Scott Dubois, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerald Cleaver, Blaser has become a prominent member of both the Swiss and European improvised music scenes. His collaborations with forward-thinking mavericks such as pianist Benoit Delbecq and guitarist Marc Ducret have revealed astute phrasing and a richness of tone, which moves seamlessly from floating sensuality to ballooning aggression to create appealingly strange soundscapes. The Drummond project was, in keeping with the source of inspiration, more groove-based, and the band that Blaser led at Tampere featured players with a command of calypso, reggae, salsa and African music. Bassist Ira Coleman, pianist Alex Wilson, the artistic director of Routes, drummer Dion Parson, saxophonists Soweto Kinch and Michael Blake, and guitarist Alan Weekes, all performed magnificently. While retaining the off-centre rhythmic tantalization and attention to detail of Jamaican music, Blaser’s group brought a distinct freshness to the stage.