| Jazz Fusion |
Jason Kruk’s Beyond the Veil Is an Ambitious, Spirited Fusion Statement
Drummers who lead their own dates tend to fall into one of two camps: those who use the bandstand to show off chops, and those who use it to build something bigger than themselves. Jason Kruk, on his long-awaited sophomore album Beyond the Veil, is firmly in the second campm and while the record doesn’t land every one of its ambitions, it’s a genuinely engaging, often thrilling listen from a musician clearly more interested in narrative than in flash.
Kruk has spent three decades moving through jazz, funk, big band and Afro-Cuban music, and that range shows up not as a checklist of styles but as a kind of compositional confidence. Rather than centring the record on his own playing, he assembles a genuinely stacked cast – guitarists Wayne Krantz and Adam Rogers, Snarky Puppy’s Michael League and Bob Lanzetti on bass and guitar, pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Fima Ephron and saxophonist Brian Donohoe – and then largely steps back to let the conversation happen. It’s a generous way to lead a session, and it pays off: this never feels like a drummer’s vanity project. It feels like a genuine ensemble record that happens to be steered from behind the kit.
Twelve tracks and nearly seventy minutes is a lot of ground to cover, and the album is structured almost like a suite, animal-titled pieces giving way to elemental ones, tracing something like a spiritual arc from struggle toward clarity. Kruk has spoken about the album growing out of his own journey with addiction and faith, and you can hear that underlying seriousness in how patiently these pieces are allowed to develop, rather than rushing to a hook.
The best moments here are genuinely excellent. Opener “Ascension” sets the tone with real generosity of space. Kruk lets the arrangement breathe before the band locks into its more propulsive sections, and it’s an effective way to earn the listener’s patience early. Wayne Krantz’s presence on the middle stretch of the record, particularly around “The Eagle,” is a highlight. His angular, slightly abrasive melodic sense pushes Kruk’s drumming into more exploratory territory than the album’s opening tracks suggest, and the two of them clearly enjoy pulling against each other.
The mid-record cluster of “Dad” and “Water” offers some of the record’s most affecting writing, a genuine change of temperature that gives the louder, riff-driven tracks around them somewhere to land. And when the band commits fully to the fusion-forward material, as on “The Lion” or “Fire,” the ensemble’s chemistry is obvious. Art Hirahara’s electric piano work in particular deserves more attention than it will probably get, threading through the busier arrangements with real melodic sense rather than just filling space.
Where Beyond the Veil is less successful is in its sheer scale. Twelve tracks built around a loose conceptual arc is an ambitious undertaking, and there are stretches in the back half of the record, particularly through the run from “Wind” into “Earth”, where the material starts to feel more like variations on a mood than distinct statements in their own right. A tighter edit, trimming the album down by two or three tracks, would have sharpened the impact of the strongest material considerably. There are also moments where the “elite ensemble” concept works slightly against the record: with this many high-profile voices sharing space across seventy minutes, a handful of tracks feel a touch crowded, as though everyone is being given their moment rather than the composition dictating who should be heard when.
None of that undercuts what Kruk has actually achieved here, though. This is a record with real emotional stakes and a clear point of view, played by musicians who are plainly invested in more than just session work. It just occasionally asks more patience of the listener than the material fully rewards.
Beyond the Veil is a spirited, thoughtfully constructed fusion record from a drummer with genuine compositional ambition and the connections to realise it properly. It doesn’t quite reach the taut, essential-listen territory of the year’s very best releases, but there’s a great deal here to admire: strong individual performances, real emotional depth, and a drummer who clearly understands that leadership means building a platform for others as much as it means playing well yourself. A very good record, and one well worth your time.
Frankie Pfeiffer
Editor in chief – PARIS-MOVE
PARIS-MOVE, August 23rd, 2026
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Tracklisting:
1.Ascension 04:43
2.Awakening 06:02
3.The Lion 06:21
4.The Ox 06:13
5.The Eagle 09:17
6.The Man 06:00
7.Dad 05:15
8.Water 05:49
9.Wind 05:10
10.Earth 05:44
11.Fire 06:02
12.Creation 06:54
Musicians:
Jason Kruk – drums, compositions
Wayne Krantz – Guitar
Adam Rogers – Guitar
Bob Lanzetti – Guitar
Michael League – Bass
Fima Ephron – Bass (electric & upright bass)
Art Hirahara – piano, Fender Rhodes
Brian Donohoe – tenor saxophone, sound effects
Produced by: Jason Kruk
Recording Studio: Mission Sound, Brooklyn, NY
Recording Engineers: Oliver Strauss Miles Turney
Mixing Engineer: Dan Millice