Led by composer/saxophonist Tom Elferdink and featuring four of the area’s finest acoustic improvisers, the Wonderland Jazz Ensemble has just released its first CD, A Wish.  Like facets of a prism, each tune on A Wish has a hue, groove and vibration of its own, and yet taken together, they reveal a singular musical vision.  That vision harks back to subversive jazz masters like Roland Kirk and Sun Ra, both of whom are saluted here.  Moreover, such a sense of jazz history marks a refreshing change from the buttoned-down neoclassicism of today’s young-jazzmen-in-suits.  Though Kirk and Ra have been relegated to the margins of the jazz canon, it is precisely their kind of musicality—with its daring eclecticism, shocking textures and surreal humor—that is most sorely missed on today’s jazz scene.  Moreover, there’s a Whitmanesque spirituality in this kind of catholic (small c) taste, a point beautifully illustrated by the medley which combines the rootsy Baptist hymn “Down to the River to Pray” with Sun Ra’s hard bop blues fantasia “Lullaby of Forrealville.”  When musicians forge extraordinary links like this, it is as if they open the possibilities of living a bit more for all of us.  Elferdink’s own compositions are similarly adventurous and inquisitive, their impressionistic chords punctuating sharp melodies like musical question marks.  This dialogic quality is highlighted in the albums’ centerpiece—“Think Back,” “Walk Back,” “Talk Back”—a suite which moves through introspective lyricism, film noir blues, Zappaesque stop-time and elegant ensemble swing to meditate on a poignant, melancholy theme.  And finally, the word “ensemble” cannot be overemphasized here.  Elferdink’s Wonderland colleagues—saxophonist Ken Morgan, pianist Eric Thorne, bassist Jeff Beavan and drummer Mike Van Lente—play with extraordinary taste and drive, making every note count. If you’re a fan of bold jazz, inventive artistry or genuine musical interplay, then A Wish is simply a must.

John Kimsey

DePaul School of Continuing & Professional Studies​

---