Zach Brock

By Howard Reich | TRIBUNE CRITIC

Top-notch young jazz violinists are not in abundance these days, which may explain why so many listeners queued up outside the Green Mill on Saturday night.

What Brock's admirers heard Saturday night...was something different from the past. Presenting the Chicago debut of a splendid sextet he calls Arrival/Departure, Brock explored the little-known music of Zbigniew Seifert, the visionary Polish violinist who died tragically young, at 32, in 1979...

But this is no ghost band or repertory outfit. Rather then simply revisit Seifert's music, Brock and friends are re-examining it according to their own tastes and sensibilities.

After playing a rhapsodic opening solo, Brock unreeled Seifert's serpentine tune in exquisite unison with singer Grazyna Auguscik and guitarist John McLean. - Chicago Tribune

By Howard Reich | TRIBUNE CRITIC
 
Great jazz violinists always have been in perilously short supply, which may explain why many listeners have been investing their hopes in the work of Zach Brock.

Brock’s art...combines the technical rigor of his classical training with the spirit of experimentation...

Brock has combined the best of two worlds: instrumental virtuosity and creative improvisation. More important, he has done so on the violin, an instrument that historically has been marginalized in jazz.

Brock’s emergence holds great promise. Having appeared on nearly two dozen CDs as leader and sideman, he appears poised for a stylistically wide-ranging career. - Chicago Tribune

It's hard to pin down violinist Zach Brock and his band The Coffee Achievers on their second album Chemistry; the CD starts out with a fusion track, “Cold Turkey,” complete with rapid speaker-to-speaker panning and electric violin with distortion, but switches to the album’s only vocal track with lyrics, “This Is Just,” with singer Melissa Stylianou. But it’s that variety, and the strength of compositions by Brock, keyboardist Sam Barsh (featured on the Avishai Cohen album reviewed above), and bassist Matt Wigton, that make this so enjoyable to listen to from end-to-end. That variety also means that there’s a track or two – at least – for almost any mainstream jazz station, whether it’s the contemporary funky feel of “1 A.M. Gate”, the pretty interplay of cello, violin, and vocals on “Playa Blanca,” or the frantic, dual electric violins on “Remember Young Ray.” Chemistry should appeal to younger listeners as well as those in your older core audience who remember some of the more electric sounds of the seventies. – Ed Trefzger - Jazz Week

Add Chicagoan Brock to the small list of players finding ways to bridge the potentially hazardous chasm between the violin and jazz. On tunes such as "This Is Just" and "Playa Blanca", which also incorporate the airy singing of Melissa Stylianou into the layered musical mix, he plays with a warm tone and occasional double stops reminiscent of Stephane Grappelli. Elsewhere, "Remember Young Ray" is a good example, he swiftly leaps into a swirling morass of fleet-fingered phrases simmering with electronic distortion sounds à la Jean-Luc Ponty. Recently awarded a Carnegie Hall residency, Brock is an intriguing young artist with a bright future. – Don Heckman - Los Angeles Times

On "Chemistry", Brock speeds past the mainstream modernism that distinguished his band's self-titled 2003 debut; he and his bandmates occasionally ramp up the electronics to approximate the sound that Jean-Luc Ponty and Michael Urbaniak pioneered in the 70s, while wordless vocals from guest singer Melissa Stylianou further separate the album from it's predecessor. – Neil Tesser - Chicago Reader

Brock’s electric violin work is soaring-intense-remarkable…Jean-Luc Ponty meets Chuck Palahniuk in “Fight Club.” Chemistry is good enough for the long haul, one of many inclusions in a brightening career.

- Dick Crockett, "Still Another Jazz Show", 88.7FM

In recent years, violinist Zachary Brock has emerged as one of the city's most promising young players, and his work in the Electric String Ensemble underscored the point. His silken lines, high-register yowls and consistently inventive phrase-making reaffirmed his rising stature as the rare jazz fiddler with something significant to say. - Howard Reich - Chicago Tribune

Violinist Zach Brock is starting to turn heads in the world of jazz, building a reputation as a consummate technician willing to take chances without abandoning musicality…classic American jazz with one eye on the fringes. - The Courier-Journal

The Chicago violinist plays with easy virtuosity based in swing and post-bop. His compositions groove in a way that recalls a gypsy swing version of Charlie Hunter, which is a tribute to the strong support cast on keyboards, bass, and drums who take the tunes out and work through them. But it all eventually comes back to Brock's violin - pulling lilting emotions, making the strings pop, and generally giving it his all, the young violinist won't strictly be a Chicago treasure for long. - Tad Hendrickson - College Music Journal

Those who have waited for a young jazz violinist to mold the genre of giants Stephane Grappelli, Johnny Frigo, and Jean Luc-Ponty are thrilled about this recording by Zach Brock. Mr. Brock can play lyrically in the light nostalgic manner of the gypsy violinists, or add effects to shape a violin solo with the authority of a rock guitarist. On Chemistry, Zach proves himself as composer, improviser and producer. With a fiercely charismatic presence onstage, Zach is the one on whom to place your bets in jazz. - Patricia Barber