RECORDINGS Dan Pugach Nonet Plus One Playful throwback jazz nudged beyond nostalgia by its drummer/leader. The primary factor that seems to separate the Dan Pugach Nonet (“nonet” in this context refers to a nine-piece collective) from so much contemporary jazz is Pugach’s grasp that jazz—and its various subgenres—should be fun. This principle permeates every track of the drummer/composer’s debut album, Plus One, which is populated with energetic throwback jazz numbers in which Pugach’s capable, understated drumming bubbles with an indefinable modern quality that keeps even the most self-consciously retro moments (like the sultry vocal rearrangement of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”) from feeling like a purely nostalgic exercise. Having emigrated from Israel to study at Boston’s Berklee College of Music in 2006, Pugach displays a knack for navigating a century’s worth of American music in the space of a single album, leading his ensemble effortlessly between pop standards, big band confections, and […]