Max Light – Chaotic Neutral (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Max Light – Chaotic Neutral (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 47:40 minutes | 889 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © AGS Recordings

Strangely enough, my perspective as a non-guitarist informs my profound appreciation of Max Light, an artist whom I am grateful not only to recognize as a peer and collaborator, but also as a deep inspiration and ever-warming bonfire in the often challenging journeys of art and life.

I play the saxophone, whose physical layout theoretically permits movement from one note to any other note across the entire range of the instrument. By comparison, the guitar actually prevents the same freedom of movement in its very design, requiring strategic hand positioning and often favoring certain sequences of notes over others. As such, the instrument rewards efficiency, mechanical creativity, and an engineer’s patience and aptitude for problem solving. In Light, the guitar encounters a true rarity: an equal, counterbalancing force of poetic expression paired with digital brilliance.

In spite of the technical complexities I’ve described, Light sustains the unmistakable feeling of spontaneous invention that is so vital in jazz. This is heard throughout the album but exemplified on “Things,” a hell for leather rave up of all that he is. Just as noteworthy is the singing character of Light’s tone, which reimagines the human voice through the vector of plucked, amplified sound, and which is heard to marvelous effect on songs like the title track, “Chaotic Neutral,” as well as “Is It True.” The latter epitomizes how he commands maximalist harmony in service of true balladry—the blues reified in 21st century harmony, with a gorgeous offering by pianist Julian Shore.

Tracklist:
1-1. Max Light – Pathos (06:03)
1-2. Max Light – Vals Quartzite (05:29)
1-3. Max Light – Introduction (01:05)
1-4. Max Light – Chaotic Neutral (06:03)
1-5. Max Light – Is It True (06:45)
1-6. Max Light – Brown Bear (03:56)
1-7. Max Light – Times Had (06:47)
1-8. Max Light – Wash (06:21)
1-9. Max Light – Things (05:07)

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