Modest people and tasteful art are often overlooked in an era of attention-seeking loudmouths and raucous ideologies. Attention is paid to shameless self-promoters rather than to serious individuals who favor the sublime.
Steve Cardenas, a reticent guitarist from Kansas City, operates in opposition to the zeitgeist. Anat Fort and Hillai Govreen, musicians born in Israel possessing similarly reserved sensibilities, feature Cardenas on notable new albums.
Both Fort and Cardenas recorded albums for ECM Records with Paul Motian. Their mutual association with the late drummer compelled Fort to call on Cardenas for The Dreamworld of Paul Motian. The ravishing tribute also features bassist Gary Wong and drummer Matt Wilson.
The jaunty pastoral “Prairie Avenue Cowboy” and the metropolitan “Riff Raff” aside, Dreamworld is imbued with hallucinatory placidness. Cardenas’ characteristically understated solos add serenity to a low-key album that’s akin to the hushed murmuring of scholars in a palatial library.
Govreen’s Every Other Now is more conventional. Cardenas is one of eight musicians assisting the saxophonist and clarinetist on the mainstream jazz outing. Thanks in no small part to Cardenas, Govreen occasionally reveals fresh new possibilities for the form.