Samuel Mösching - Ethereal Kings (self-released)

On his latest album Ethereal Kings, Swiss-born and Chicago-based jazzer Samuel Mösching is a one-man fusion machine. Aside from four guest appearances, Mösching makes every noise on this record – guitar, bass, synth and drums (real drums, thankyouverymuch) himself, like Todd Rundgren if he’d attended Berklee. What makes his instrumental prowess most impressive, however, is not his skill level, but the taste with which he uses it. Mösching could be tearing up the fretboard or doing a Neil Peart on the drum kit, but instead holds back, concentrating on exploring every facet of his post-bop melodies, rather than drilling every music lesson he ever took into the listener’s brain. So whether he’s getting spacy on “Disconnect,” bluesy on “Indigenous,” swinging on “Beauty and the Beast Roleplay,” tender on “Melanie,” or rocking on “The Belief in Magic,” Mösching puts melody first and technique second. Admittedly, sometimes you might wish he’d let loose with a screamer now and then, as the record’s vision leans toward the mellow. But Mösching knows what he’s doing here, keeping his easygoing style away from the smooth jazz end of the spectrum, and simply reveling in tunefulness.