Arisawkadoria “Chapter One” Review

Ari Zucker (guitar), Kevin “KJ” Sawka (drums), and Joe Doria (B-3 organ), are each individually accomplished artists steeped in the culture of Seattle’s progressive music. Combined, they are Arisawkadoria, a rising force in the worlds of jazz, funk, and instrumental music. Their debut album, “Chapter One”, is an intricate exploration of sonic possibility exhibiting masterful instrumentation and ground-breaking improvisation.

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Ari Joshua Zucker creates dynamic, surging sound-scapes with the electric guitar and laptop. He is a classically trained jazz guitarist and a teacher at the Seattle Drum School. Ari has played with many groups and in jazz festivals around the world. I have personally seen Ari play solo at house parties in the Seattle area, and have watched him captivate audiences with warping surround sound using only a guitar and small effects controller. Joe Doria is a Hammond organist that has played with Skerik’s Syncopated Taint Septet, the band of the one-named Seattle saxophone legend, Skerik. Kevin Sawka, or KJ Sawka as he is more commonly known, makes a practice of upstaging DJs (perhaps unintentionally?) at electronic parties around the world with his live Jungle/Drum & Bass acts. He can outmatch the most sophisticated drum machine with his careening super-sonic funk grooves on an acoustic drum set.

“Chapter One” draws the audience in with an ambient electronic introduction that pops and sizzles with anticipation. The second song bursts off in a jarring funk groove with the organ running a driving bass line. It lays a solid foundation that the guitar gently floats over into a descending jazz melody. We are carefully introduced to our players, as though they were the costumed performers of a circus act, each one jumping out from behind the curtain and demonstrating only the smallest sample of their talent. They bounce off each other, pushing and pulling the transfixing audio like taffy.

“Chapter One” takes a turn at ‘Ninja’, and we see the true theatrics begin. The somewhat eastern mood, dubby bass, and jungle drum pattern draw comparison to past experimenters like Bill Laswell, Tabla Beat Science, and Seattle’s own Critters Buggin’. The song fizzles out like a holiday sparkler, the tempo slowing and the cymbals sizzling. The album takes a big breath in during ‘After Death Part One’, having exhaled a tremendous amount of creativity in ‘Ninja’. It twists the listeners’ anticipation like winding the rubber band on a balsa wood plane and setting it on the launch pad. ‘After Death Part Two’ rockets forward into probably the most memorable tune of the CD. While the audience teeters on a frantic drum pattern they are washed in a rain of vibrato harmony. The listener is set adrift on the blissful sea of awareness as they inundated with radiating sonic detail.

Arisawkadoria embark on a three song continuous jam starting with ‘Turtle Beats the Hare’. One can easily imagine the grin on the players’ faces as they attack each other with bursts of jazz in ‘Turtle’. In ‘Speedy’ the insanity continues as the guitar becomes distorted and the keys become shrill with heavy oscillation. We see rock and roll from the other side, not a simplistic subordinate to more complex forms of music, but as a strong culmination of the energy from a sophisticated combination of styles. The album drives on without pause into ‘Extensions’. As we bounce along into a new groove the Hammond B-3 expands into our aural backdrop and foreground. It sets a rolling, grooving bass line that pulls the intensity of the drums into perspective. The atmosphere is set with a spacey arpeggio that sounds like it could be straight out of the movie of 2001, A Space Odyssey.

As a fan of each of these performers individually, it is bliss to hear this collaboration take place. Arisawkadoria’s “Chapter One” is an album that shouldn’t be missed by any living human being.