Sam Gendel
SUPERSTORE
Album · Jazz · 2022 · Leaving Records
The trouble with calling Sam Gendel’s music jazz is that the qualities that make it great—its sketchiness, its inconspicuousness, its low-key irreverence—are the same ones that will probably turn serious jazz fans off. Composed of 34 tracks, most about a minute and a half long, Superstore has the consistency of a daydream: bright, runny, inconclusive but evocative, each fragment a trampoline into imaginary worlds where ’30s big band meets ambient music, hip-hop, easy listening, and field recordings. “My [Heart] Sing” will give you a good idea, as will “Mfv” and “Foothammer.” But the magic of the album is the way the pieces accrue into a whole. And the jazz of it is that Gendel seems to feel free doing whatever he wants.
SUPERSTORE
Sam Gendel
The trouble with calling Sam Gendel’s music jazz is that the qualities that make it great—its sketchiness, its inconspicuousness, its low-key irreverence—are the same ones that will probably turn serious jazz fans off. Composed of 34 tracks, most about a minute and a half long, Superstore has the consistency of a daydream: bright, runny, inconclusive but evocative, each fragment a trampoline into imaginary worlds where ’30s big band meets ambient music, hip-hop, easy listening, and field recordings. “My [Heart] Sing” will give you a good idea, as will “Mfv” and “Foothammer.” But the magic of the album is the way the pieces accrue into a whole. And the jazz of it is that Gendel seems to feel free doing whatever he wants.
