Free Jazz by Stef Review
JASON STEIN SOLO In Exchange for a Process
Leo Records 2009

Jason Stein is a bass clarinetist. He plays no other instrument. This gives him the opportunity to focus his skills, and with great success.

Jason Stein is a musician. He records to make music, not to demonstrate his technical skills.

Playing solo is the absolute art of creativity and inventiveness or the perfect recipe for absolute boredom. It is like the ultimate exercise any musician should try to accomplish, not only with his instrument or his own restraints and possibilities in mind, but also taking the listener into consideration. Pushing the envelope. Going beyond the borders of your own creative limitations. Jason Stein manages to be captivating while exploring his instrument and doing something meaninful musically. It is also a physical exercise. You can hear him breathe, squeeze out the last note of a phrase, get multiphonics out of his reed, play around with timbral explorations. All that's fine, but it also makes for a great listen: the sensitivity, the lyricism, the internal dialogues, the joy of playing, the sad quality of sounds, the distress, it is all here, .... just for you to enjoy.

-Free Jazz by Stef, January 2010