Small Spaces - Mike Baggetta Quartet
Mike Baggetta, Guitar / Jason Rigby, Saxophones
Eivind Opsvik, Bass / RJ Miller, Drums
2009
Fresh Sound New Talent (FSNT 339)
The Heights
No Gravity
Stellar
Heartland
Olive Tree
Small Spaces
Hospital Song
Trails
"As he demonstrates on his solid new album, Small Spaces (Fresh Sound New Talent), the guitarist Mike Baggetta seeks an adventurous but accessible dynamic in his music..." - Nate Chinen, The New York Times
"This is a superb band...outstanding, and the performances are totally compelling."
- Andy Hamilton, Jazz Journal (UK)
"A strong, wiry nature...Rare is the young musician who fuses avant garde and postbop mettles so effortlessly. Small Spaces is a refreshingly unsafe approach to modern jazz." - Clifford Allen, All About Jazz New York
Small Spaces is the debut recording from the Mike Baggetta Quartet on Barcelona’s Fresh Sound New Talent label. Baggetta’s talents are showcased here not only as an exceptional guitarist with an individual sound and improvisational voice, but also his compositional gifts, for which he was awarded an ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award at the time of this release. Small Spaces features all original compositions by Baggetta and one Taiwanese song, Olive Tree, arranged by Baggetta for this quartet.
Although there is a variety of moods and forms on this album, all of the songs on Small Spaces are connected through the focus on melody and interactive improvisation within this working group. Baggetta’s compositions carry his singular touch throughout whether it’s the hard swinging title track, the Tristano-esque line of Stellar, the more free setting of The Heights, Hospital Song (written during Baggetta’s short and triumphant battle with thyroid cancer), the guitar/drums duet of Heartland or the album’s thoughtful closer Trails. One hears four passionate voices working together towards an exceptional end result - this is not a group of young musicians content to play it lightly.
