A Vivid, Thoughtfully Immersive New Album From Vibraphonist Sasha Berliner

Vibraphonist Sasha Berliner is all about creating a mood or painting a picture: crazed volleys of mallets are not her thing. Instead, she gives you tunes and ideas. Her latest album Onyx is streaming at Bandcamp. She’s got a show on August 31 at 7:30 PM at the Django; cover is $25.

The opening number, Jade, is tone poem of sorts, a warmly wafting Jaleel Shaw sax riff over a fluttery, layered glimmer from the vibes and James Francies’ Rhodes as drummer Marcus Gilmore coalesces from light-fingered flurries toward a mist. Almost imperceptibly, Berliner emerges and spirals around, Gilmore and then Shaw picking up where she leaves off. If Alice Coltrane had been a vibraphonist, she might have written something like this.

Bassist Burniss Travis II’s momentary downward portents introduce Crescent Park (In Elliptical Time), Thana Alexa taking over the mic with a lingering angst. then doubling the bandleader’s spare, moody, increasingly noirish lines.

Switching to piano, Francies delivers stern, spacious modalities to introduce Polaris, Shaw taking a break in the clouds: beneath the steady upward trajectory is a clever study in lithely syncopated rhythm, and the whole band are having fun with it.

Ephemerality is more energetic than the title would imply, piano and vibes mingling with an allusive unease until good cop Shaw busts it wide open. There are two takes of My Funny Valentine here, each a platform for Berliner’s coyly nimble, rapidfire precision. She plays the first solo.

NW, a shout-out to Berliner’s San Francisco home turf, is a lively, emphatic stroll. Those hills take it out of you, but the view from the top is worth the effort, Shaw floating over Gilmore’s shuffling clusters, the bandleader adding sprightly color before Francies leads the charge out. Berliner closes the record with a brief, summery, glistening shout-out to Milt Jackson. This album draws you in and eventually you get lost in it.