Daniel Thatcher: Waterwheel
Shifting Paradigm Records

The seed for Daniel Thatcher's Waterwheel (both band and album) was planted when the Chicago bassist, guitarists John Kregor and Matt Gold, and drummer Nate Friedman convened for a performance of John Scofield and Bill Frisell's Grace Under Pressure album at Fulton Street Collective six years ago. The experience resonated so powerfully with Thatcher, he immediately began considering a possible next step, with Waterwheel the obvious result. Similar to Marc Johnson's Bass Desires, Thatcher leads the band from the bass chair, with Kregor, Gold, and drummer Devin Drobka, on board since 2018, executing his charts.

If the guitar voices of Kregor and Gold aren't as distinctive as those of Scofield and Frisell, they're hardly alone in that regard. After all, their influential counterparts are unique stylists whose individual sounds are instantly identifiable. But the playing of the Waterwheel duo in no way disappoints, and the interactions between them and the intricate tapestries they generate are a constant source of satisfaction. The two blend terrifically.

Thatcher's provided the quartet with a solid set of tunes (several written before the band's formation), and as much pleasure can be derived from the compositions as the group's realizations of them; that impresses all the more for the fact that the album's Thatcher's debut recording as a bandleader. It's been a while in coming, it turns out, as he's been a versatile presence in Chicago's musical circles for nearly two decades. He's also a Tai Chi and Yoga instructor and a Certified Music Practitioner, and as such the states of harmony, balance, and proportion associated with those endeavours also inform his music-making.

The guitars chime resplendently through the opening “Odds Are Even,” with the leader and a brushes-wielding Drobka providing lithe propulsion. A lovely stutter-like theme gives the performance shape before the guitarists effect a seamless delve into soloing. Both deftly adapt to the various stylistic turns the album takes—lyrical and eloquent here and aggressive there—and are virtuosic without being self-indulgent. Kregor and Gold are clearly on the same page as partners go, with each supporting the other as they move between foreground and background. In performances that are neither too tight nor too loose, the four players deftly hew to compositional structures while building on them with improvisation.

Thatcher's uplifting melodic sensibility moves to the fore in “Albedo,” with its radiant soar further elevated by the mellifluous expressiveness of the guitarists. The tenderhearted folk setting “Let's Grow Old Together” captures Thatcher's sweet side, with his bowed intro a particularly lovely expression. The four aren't afraid to get heavy either, as the fiery parts of “Three Sages” and the slowcore sludge of “Viscous” make clear. Waterwheel is an instrumental jazz outfit, for sure, but rock is never far from the mix.

May 2021