Releases of new jazz bands or artists can sometimes be maddening. You want, above all else, to hear a complete document of what the band sounds like. Instead, you often get a release choked with guest appearances by whoever happens to be the bigwig players of the day, inevitably changing the group’s personality.
The relatively new duo, Zohar & Adam, walk a line in this respect with the release of their debut album, Osmosis. Bassists Christian McBride and saxophonist Steve Wilson appear with the duo on their tribute to the late Chick Corea, “For Chick.” And while the legendary jazz names stop there, the many guests on this album ultimately play into the trope, making it difficult to hear an unvarnished document of the duo’s musical identity.
Brothers Zohar and Adam Cabo play keyboards and drums at 19 and 21 years old, respectively, and music apparently runs in the family. Their sister, Nago, is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, and their mother, Dassi Rosenkrantz, plays fretless bass. When the brothers were kids, they played in the family group, the Solar Sound Band, an alt-folk quartet. While other kids were bingeing Breaking Bad during the Pandemic, the Cabo brothers were woodshedding, solidifying their rapport together.
In some ways, that rapport shines brighter on their very short 2024 EP, Zohar & Adam & Friends (Live at the Howland), than it does on Osmosis. Nevertheless, the brothers are careful to establish their chemistry together before navigating a musically diverse album. The short “Intro” opens Osmosis and leads into “Dying Hands,” the album’s first full tune. Full of stop-and-go moments and rhythmic shifts, “Dying Hands” showcases the brothers’ fluid communication and exacting connection, with Zohar using an electric piano sound on his Nord Stage 3 keyboard (which he plays using various sounds on all but two tracks). When they stop, they stop. When they go, they go. There’s no hesitation or even the hair’s breadth of a missed beat.
One wonders what sort of diversity they could have pulled off if they had simply recorded a duo album in the strict sense of the word. Alas, that challenge must wait for another release. Osmosis expands and contracts through the course of the album, including tracks like “Demon,” which features Saudi- American rapper Nory and one of Zohar’s keyboard mentors, J3PO, or “Just One of Us,” which features one of the duo’s frequent collaborators, Ben Mizrach, on electronically enhanced alto sax. Interspaced between these are the short acoustic piano-based numbers “back home” and “trust fall.”
Two of the album’s highlights, “For Chick” and “The Table,” show the extremes of Zohar & Adam’s expression and their commitment to a singular tone. The former is a high-jazz romp with the brothers making McBride and Wilson seem right at home as all the musicians communicate with each other à la Corea’s influence. “The Table,” which features their sister Nago on vocals, acoustic guitar, and electric bass (along with Rosenkrantz on fretless bass), is lyrical and haunting, harkening back to their Solar Sound Band days, as they drive the beautiful melody through the song’s unusual structure.
But the Cabo brothers seem easily distracted by novelty. On “Just One of Us,” Mizrach’s odd electronic enhancement goes a step too far, muddying up an otherwise compelling performance. “Message From Above,” featuring Ian Ackerman on electric guitar, still feels like a work in progress, Adam’s extended drum solo notwithstanding (making the Howland performance, where it is listed as “M.F.A.,” just as compelling, if vastly different). And “Demon” walks a line dangerously close to a token hip-hop tune rather than a fleshed-out statement on how the duo fuses jazz and hip-hop rhythms.
Even so, the overall effect here is one of incredible musicianship and undeniable chemistry that drives many of the tunes. One can only hope that on the next release they will disinvite the guests and record with just the two of them.
