AeschTunes Extra: Album Review: Juan Torres's All is Fused - "Before"
By Lesley Aeschliman

Joan Torres’s All is Fused is a jazz act out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The members of the group are Sergio Gonzalez on guitar, David Ojeda on piano, Fernando García on drums, Jonathan Suazo on alto sax, Gabriel Vicéns on guitar, and Joan Torres on bass. Their sound has been described as being similar to Weather Report, Pat Metheny Group, and Herbie Hancock. The act released an album, Before, on May 21, 2012.

There are a total of eight songs on Before, and they range anywhere from three-and-a-half to nine minutes in length. To me, “Doorway,” “Another World,” “Viccisitudes,” and “True” were the standout tracks on the album.

Overall, the album seems to flow together well as one cohesive unit. My only real complaint is that the final two songs (“Tragic End” and “Enlightenment”) do seem to drag a little and don’t really stand out from each other. The fact that “Enlightenment” is the longest song on the album at nine minutes in length doesn’t really help with this. Overall, though, Before is an album with a calming sound, and it works really well as background music.

About 17 years ago, I was a DJ for KEWU, a jazz station at Eastern Washington University. As I listened to Before, I thought that most of the songs sounded like they would fit right in with the material that the station was playing at the time that I was a DJ there, especially during the mid-day shifts during the work week. I have to admit that listening to this release made me a little nostalgic for my days as a KEWU DJ.

Before is a pretty solid jazz release, and hopefully Joan Torres’s All is Fused will release more albums in the future.

Sources: AeschTunes