#Bloomerangs - Moments and Fragments (Instru Dash Mental)

Bloomerangs is a collective of Jazz musicians from Indiana, and their sophomore album Moments and Fragments furthers their effort to both transport the listener on a mind-altering journey and to prove that the genre still has boundaries to push. As composers as diverse as Richard Strauss and Arnold Schoenberg attempted to forge ahead in a world of Classical music after Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, so does this band deal with the endless issue of how to produce Jazz in the 21st century. Clearly they are aware of this, because they experiment with just about every stylistic variation the genre has to offer, often combining it with other unthinkable genres as well.

It is both a history lesson and a prediction of how Jazz will evolve in the coming decades, and the band explores everything from Free Jazz on “Catch a Clue” to overt Latin influences on “Untold.” Furthermore, the band even experiments with styles that are rarely tested, most notably the combination of Jazz and Grunge on “Change of Pace.” It’s admirable enough to attempt, but what’s most startling is that it actually works extremely well. Moments and Fragments can be a challenging listen, because the changes in style are abrupt enough to cause whiplash. However, Moments and Fragments is easily one of the most ambitious and daring albums in the genre in ages, and it comes out on Instru Dash Mental March 27th.