Jazz Diary sounds like that — music that started as a note in the dark and found its way, with the right musicians, into something worth staying up for
Changes Music
Tomas Janzon – guitars, composition; Nedra Wheeler – bass; Tony Austin – drums (tracks 1–6); Chuck McPherson – drums (tracks 7–10)
Tomas Janzon plays guitar with the kind of clarity and melodic precision that stops you mid-conversation — a piano-like tone so bright and distinct it almost sounds like a different instrument. Jazz Diary is the record that introduces him to anyone who hasn’t been paying attention.
He pulls from the tradition — traces of Wes Montgomery surface in his runs — but the references bend into something distinctly his own. What separates him is partly that tone, and partly a melodic confidence that lets him sit inside a phrase, stretch it, leave room around it.
The album runs two trio lineups, both anchored by bassist Nedra Wheeler — with Tony Austin on drums through the first half and Chuck McPherson on the second. Wheeler has been part of Janzon’s musical world since his debut recording, and in many ways Jazz Diary is built around her. She’s a melodic bassist as much as a rhythmic one, and Janzon gives her space to solo throughout — she’s a genuine co-voice, not just an accompanist.
“Spirit Secret” opens the record and hits immediately — Janzon shifting between flurries of notes and longer held tones, the bass and drums driving a rocking rhythm underneath. “In One Day” pulls back the tempo and finds a different kind of momentum; the bass lands a beat behind the guitar, every time, and that deliberate lag creates a tension that’s as pleasurable as it is persistent. “Early Sunday” is the tightest of the three — rimshots precise as a metronome, bass lines booming, and somehow all three musicians sounding like individuals while playing as one.
“She’s Listening” pushes the tempo up a notch — Janzon picking phrases harder, more insistently, coming back to them with small variations each time. “Did I Say” is the album’s most restless track — the guitar starting percussive, then breaking into single note runs, clusters of notes, a jagged rhythm trading off against a bass that solos as freely as the guitar, the drums building underneath it. “To Summer,” the album’s only non-original, is an arrangement of a Swedish folk melody — slow pretty guitar notes over a staggered walking bass line that occasionally carries its own melody before staggering back.
The album closes with “Six on Five,” a duo recording with Wheeler from the early 2000s, held back until now. Wheeler opens it by striking the bass percussively before the piece settles — a quietly perfect way to close. Janzon has said he keeps staff paper close at hand, writing down ideas as they come, even at three in the morning. Jazz Diary sounds like that — music that started as a note in the dark and found its way, with the right musicians, into something worth staying up for
