Echoing into the ethers for what feels like an eternity, the opening chords of the aptly-titled “A Spirited Life” might not seem like the most elaborate of any you’ll hear on the new record from Dan Engelhardt, the instrumental Here at Last,” but they turn out one of the more captivating melodies on this incredible LP just the same. In Here at Last, Engelhardt pushes the limits of jazz brilliance as hard as he can, often incorporating a heavy jazz mentality into the harmonies and replacing traditional lyrics with leads that say way more than words ever could by themselves. When you’ve got the kind of statements he wants to make on the table, there is simply no room for traditional lyrics to come between artist and medium.
While there might not be any verses for us to break down in this album, Dan Engelhardt honestly does not need them to make a point in tracks like “Far Away,” “Db Samba,” “Missing You” and “Spiritual Awakening.” In songs like these, and really the other ten that join them on Here at Last, there’s so much action going on just in the chemistry between the instruments that adding a vocalist into the mix would have been straight-up overwhelming (not to mention wholly unnecessary from most every angle). With this setting, we can really appreciate just how accomplished a player this guy is.
Here at Last enjoys one of the sharper production qualities an indie record can have without sounding like it was designed as a play for mainstream adulation. There’s definitely not a lot of varnish for us to have to sit and sift through in order to get to the actual substance of the tones in tracks like “Hymn to Florencia” and opener “Not Knowing,” but there’s a ton of attention to detail in spots that other artists would just as soon overlook altogether without a second thought.
I would have opened the album with “Far Away” instead of “Not Knowing,” but I can definitely understand why Dan Engelhardt decided to stack this record’s tracklist the way that he did. There’s a great overall flow to all of the songs here, and in some ways, having “Far Away” right where it is creates a little more tension moving into the middle of the LP (which, to be fair, is a terrific way of making sure that listeners are going to stay with you from the first bar to the last few strands of melodicism in the more immersive tracks here).
Though I had not heard Engelhardt’s music before now, I’m eager to hear more from his brand in the future after getting hooked on the magic he has to offer in this third official studio outing. Here at Last doesn’t necessarily change anything about the overall jazz spectrum as we know it going into 2022, but for what it lacks in revolutionary framework it more than compensates us for in sheer adrenaline, creativity, and an aesthetical provocativeness that has been missing from the genre’s most lauded releases for, in my opinion, far too long now.
Claire Uebelacker