by Adorjan Horvát
Art Hirahara’s Peace Unknown is an integrated outing of compositional design with improvisational freedom. Hirahara’s writing has a meticulous concern for voice-leading, sectional interplay, and thematic motifs transformed over time. The pianist’s harmonic vocabulary that is expansive. Across the album, he leverages his septet as a palette, drawing from chamber-like jazz transparency to the density of big band textures. The nine-song album ensures that each formal turn serves the emotional and narrative arc of the project.
The personnel joining Hirahara are Alex Sipiagin on trumpet and flügelhorn, Diego Rivera on tenor saxophone, Patrick Cornelius on alto saxophone, and Michael Dease on trombone. Making several guest appearances is the added timbral breadth of Markus Howell’s alto saxophone. The rhythmic incision of bassist Boris Kozlov’s bass and drummer Rudy Royston drives the ensemble forward.
The title track, “Peace Unknown,” reflects thematic evolution. Opening with Hirahara’s piano establishing a harmonic field, the horns enter with buzzing voicings before the ensemble evolves into a collective improvisational space. The voice-leading is rich, with inner lines given as much care as the melody. “Anonima” shifts to swing with a horn arrangement employing antiphonal exchanges. Hirahara’s piano solo builds on the theme; his single notes and chordal choices are rich in color and swing. Kozlov and Royston are an excellent swing team.
“Irons In The Fire” exemplifies Hirahara’s architectural thinking in a straight-eighth composition of momentum overlaid with metric accent shifts, creating multiple rhythmic dialogues. Written material alternates seamlessly with improvised sections. The ensemble excels in this conversational setting that features spontaneous counterpoint. “The More Things Change” returns to swing. Rivera’s tenor solo balances motivic integrity with narrative arc, Dease’s trombone offering a relaxed contour, and Cornelius’ alto displaying rhythmic nimbleness with strong melodic shapes. Hirahara’s comping is supportive with harmonic motion. His solo is based on his voice-leading choices that enhance the outline of the changes.
“Drawing With Light” is built with horn layering and a piano solo that leans into Folk-jazz harmonic colors as suspensions resolve in unexpected ways, inner voices weave against common tones for expressive tension and release. “Brooklyn Express” is pure kinetic release with a nod to the hard-bop era. The solos, especially Sipiagin’s, maintain motivic cohesion at high velocity. In “The Looking Glass” and “Father’s Song,” Hirahara treats them as developing narratives, allowing harmonic rhythm and density to grow over time to form the emotional trajectory. The closer, “Two Cubes,” is a brisk modern swing, notable for its clean ensemble articulations, particularly the staccato hits, and the democratic distribution of solo space before a trading section that collapses the roles of frontline and rhythm section into one responsive organism and Royston’s drumming vigor.
Peace Unknown offers abundant material of vertical blend and horizontal motion. Hirahara is constructing an environment that encourages genuine dialogue and pacing to maintain the album’s cohesion across varied styles. Hirahara’s achievement lies in his ability to think orchestrally in a small-group context, creating a record that is enjoyable to experience. That’s the short of it!
