Marbin

Marbin is a self-described ambient jazz duo whose self-titled debut album is a quietly expressive, meditative dreamscape. The album is a slim forty minutes of five numbers linked by five brief interludes that carry the listener across the atmospheric waves underlying each song. As a duo, Marbin has a surprisingly full sound.

Danny Markovich’s saxophone playing is both energetic and subdued, an enthusiasm that nicely compliments the album’s moody stillness. The other half of the Marbin duo, guitarist Dani Rabin, displays a sometimes edgier, sometimes softer musicality, as with the album’s opening number “Abadaba,” where the rock styling quickly melts into a sweetness that gives the number its slow, dreamlike quality. This is controlled guitar playing, void of nonsense ruckus and angst. Rabin, and for that matter Markovich, aren’t going to smash their instruments during a live performance. The personal story of Marbin’s music isn’t the extroverted, loud kind; rather we hear a gentler, introspective tale that stretches languidly from one song to the next.

The album is at its best when the label of jazz is fused with other influences, as in the playful and seductive, Latin-inspired “Cuba,” with its slow tango-like guitar and sax duet. Markovich hits every note on his riffs through the sax’s high and low registers while Rabin’s guitar conjures a dark haired woman winking in the doorway, imploring the listener to follow her hips. Similarly, the Eastern-inspired melodies and rhythm in “Crystal Bells” moves jazz away from a purely American context. The dual melodies showcase the tonal varieties of the guitar and sax with carefully cultivated harmonies.

Occasionally, the album’s ambient tone falls flat, as in the whispery, lonely piece “Mei,” where the melody’s repetition lulled me into a trance. On “Rust,” Rabin’s superb guitar riffs overpower the ambient harmonies floating underneath. This is a song were the ambience could pull back to let the pure, agonized guitar have a truly solo moment.

Founded in 2007, Marbin is still relatively young in their musical identity. Since their relocation from Israel to Chicago, the duo has collaborated with seven-time Grammy winner Paul Wertico, and the disparate influences on Marbin’s music are heard throughout their debut album. With their new home in the American Midwest, Marbin’s sophomore album should be just as interesting. Markovich and Rabin have succeeded in updating jazz with a twenty-first century sound that still manages to nod to the genre’s twentieth century roots.

~Lacey N. Dunham