Reviews for “Henceforth”:

New York City Jazz Record:
Max Light is one of the most promising young guitarists to arrive on the jazz scene in recent years. Light won second place in the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Competition and distinguished himself as a sideman on albums with trumpeter Jason Palmer and tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger. His sophomore recording as a leader includes Preminger, Kim Cass (bass) and Dan Weiss (drums), all of whom have worked together. Most of this session focuses on the leader’s intriguing originals, starting with “Barney & Sid", an offbeat, angular melody with tight unison lines by the leader and Preminger (who also contributes an edgy solo). The melancholy “Henceforth” has a rock-like rhythmic undercurrent that gives way to the saxophonist’s searing solo and a more subdued improvisation by Light. The breezy “Luftrauser” has the flavor of early -’60s Ornette Coleman, though the guitarist’s solo darts back and forth across stylistic boundaries, while Preminger gets a bit more out than the leader; Weiss’ powerful drum solo wraps this masterful performance.
”Subjective Object” is introduced by pensive unaccompanied bass before it becomes an intense musical conversation between the guitarist and tenor player; its centerpiece is Light’s darting solo. “animals” has all the characteristics of a ballad and its heartfelt melody communicates to the listener without the need of a lyric. The sensitive work of Cass and Weiss (on brushes) provides superb backing for the engaging solos of Preminger and Light. John Coltrane’s seldom played “26-2” supplied the inspiration for the guitarist’s “Half Marathon”: Weiss and Cass negotiate its tricky rhythmic structure with east, while Light’s and Preminger’s solos never run out of fresh ideas. The Saxophonist contributed the infectious Latin-flavored blues “High or Booze” to close the session. Its complex theme makes for terrific interplay and intriguing unison lines. A fine end to a stunning album.
-by Pierre Giroux

Allmusic:
There might not be a more evocatively named improviser than guitarist Max Light, whose 2023 album Henceforth displays his luminous, sun-dappled style of post-bop jazz. The second-place finisher of the 2019 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Guitar Competition, Light has distinguished himself on the jazz scene, playing with other luminaries like bassist Kaisa Maensivu, trumpeter Jason Palmer, and tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger. In fact, with Preminger he has recorded several small group dates, like 2020's Contempt as well as their lyrical 2022 duo collaboration, Songs We Love. An exploratory soloist whose husky tone and architectural lines recall Sonny Rollins, Preminger once again joins Light here, along with bassist Kim Cass and drummer Dan Weiss. With his crisp guitar attack and penchant for contrasting long, note-heavy lines with shorter, more frenetic motifs, Light's playing brings to mind legendary players like Pat Martino as well as contemporaries like Kurt Rosenwinkel. While Preminger tends to play the melody on a song, Light and even bassist Cass play as much melodic material here. Often, as on the woozy title track and the shimmering "If You Could, Would You," they share the melody, intertwining their lines with a weaver's delicacy. Other times, they take turns starting off a song unaccompanied, as on "Subjective Object," where Cass plays a mutative ostinato bass line tinged with Middle Eastern accents. There's a low-key conceptualism to some of Light's songs, like the opening "Barney & Sid," which is dedicated to his cats. He kicks it off with a sparkling guitar flourish that has the wild-eyed energy of a cat playing with a string and nicely sets up the song's tail-twitching groove and off-kilter harmonies. Other conceptual ideas drive "Luftrauser," a hard-swinging number whose springy, fractalized melody sounds improbably like if Ornette Coleman composed a video game soundtrack. Elsewhere, they sink into "Animals," a smoldering, languorously played ballad in the Billy Strayhorn-Charles Mingus tradition, and display a knack for swaggering group interplay on the wryly titled "High or Booze." There's also a deceptive complexity to much of Light's work, as on "Half Marathon," where the relaxed, dancerly melody might just slip by you before you realize it's a bold contrafact of John Coltrane's "26-2" written in an ambitious 13/4 time signature. It's that kind of heady yet always relaxed energy that Light and his band excel at throughout Henceforth.
-by Matt Collar

JazzTrail:
Suitable for straight-ahead jazz curious and inveterate post-boppers alike, guitarist Max Light’s sophomore album, Henceforth, comes with a healthy quota of adventure as well as precise interactive playing. Exclusively composed of originals, the album features him alongside reliable associates: saxophonist Noah Preminger, bassist Kim Cass and drummer Dan Weiss. This is the same quartet that brought to life Preminger’s 2020 album Contemptment. Their skills allow them to play tightly and also be open to spontaneous change.
“Barney & Sid” is an exciting standout. The bass and drum workout passes a sensation of wobbliness in the step due to challenging rhythmic accentuations and tempo, while Light and Preminger provide unison melodies weaved with plenty of intervallic allure to keep us focused. The latter expresses his highly developed language, extracting an impressively dark and robust sound from his instrument. His unquestionable tonality serves as a foil for the guitarist’s fluid solo that arrives next. Over its course, he has Cass hopping and sliding across the fingerboard, almost creating polyphony. Always so rhythmically intense, the bassist opts to make the notes soar on “Animals”, a brushed and expressive ballad.
With a laid-back posture and peculiar exotic fragrances in its fabric, the title cut develops from a central guitar lick that is followed by the saxophone. At odds with this vibe, “Subjective Object” spreads out of the speakers with a punchy, not-in-the-pocket rhythmic swirl that intrigues before ending in a vamp wherein Preminger and Light work in parallel. They are the improvisers of “High or Booze”, which culminates the album with a powerful emotional arc. The tenorman blows with range and cites the theme as he concludes his statement, whereas the guitarist lines up clean-limbed notes that ricochet with liveliness.
In addition to all these ingenious post-bop numbers, Light offers two plain neo-boppers - “Luftrauser” and “Half Marathon” - developed with a sinuous, strong complexion. Max Light is a talented instrumentalist and composer to follow closely, and this well-planned album doesn’t disappoint.

The Aquarian:
You have got to hear Henceforth (SteepleChase Records) by guitarist-composer Max Light. His quartet with tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger is, in a word, exquisite. Preminger is an equally impressive leader in his own right, with a stunning string of albums under his own name. Bassist Kim Cass and drummer Dan Weiss perfectly accentuate this über-talented frontline. Just like Light’s 2020 trio CD Herplusme and his 2022 duo CD with Preminger Songs We Love, this 2023 quartet record captures his artistry beautifully. His “Half Marathon” is a rewrite of John Coltrane’s “26-2” in the oddest time signature of all: 13/4. Traces of alt-rock, video game music, folkloric West African rhythms, Ornette Coleman, Ellingtonia, and Mingus rear their heads. Leonard Cohen once wrote, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” It’s a perfect metaphor for the music of Max Light.  

Downbeat:

Herbie Hancock Guitar Competition coverage - “Max Light projected the best guitar sound of the three. He wielded a thick, cobalt tone, which he often let linger with single notes during his improvisations, especially on his glowing treatment of Duke Ellington’s “Prelude To A Kiss.” Before that, Light demonstrated rhythmic agility as his fluid lines wended through the harmonic lanes created by Bobby Watson and Reggie Thomas, and the shifting momentum of Victor Lewis’ spry modern-bop composition, “Hey, It’s Me You’re Talking To.”

Jazztimes:

Herbie Hancock Guitar Competition coverage - “Light had a hushed, mellow tone and ginger touch … In his solo on Victor Lewis’ “Hey, It’s Me You’re Talking To,” it had a stunning fluidity that carried over to his second song, Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss.” The perfection of his tone and articulation were clearly Light’s strengths, and he emphasized them at every turn.”

Reviews for “Herplusme”:

Jazztimes:
Max Light is having quite the year. The 27-year-old guitarist from Bethesda, Maryland is releasing his debut album as a bandleader, Herplusme, only a short time after he took second place in the prestigious Herbie Hancock (formerly Thelonious Monk) International Jazz Guitar Competition. Watching the contest, it was easy to see how he made it so far; wielding a beautiful Gibson ES-345, he played Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss” with delicate romance but also imaginative harmonic interplay—preventing the ballad from sliding anywhere near maudlin territory—and Victor Lewis’ “Hey, It’s Me You’re Talking To” with high finesse and a tone that bridged the symphonic reverb of Les Paul and the bluesy shred of Joe Bonamassa.

On Herplusme, Light demonstrates a strong fluency with the angular contours of modern jazz guitar, especially how it’s being defined (or redefined) by the likes of Mary Halvorson and Miles Okazaki. He follows their angular tonality while pursuing a greater emphasis on group dynamics, organizing the album around the interplay between guitar, bass, and drums as much as solos. For the opening track “Boy,” his chunky, dense chords clash against Matt Honor’s crashing drums while bassist Simón Willson navigates a through line on the bass. On “Overcrooked,” Light plays circular melodies that spiral down together in a whirlpool. Light, Willson, and Honor further disorient the listener by never truly playing on the beat—at times they’re nearly on, at times very much off—making it seem as if the melody is constantly snagging.

Light returns to something like his “Prelude to a Kiss” approach on “Dog,” which is also the most “out” of all eight tracks. His tone here is more muscular than romantic, alternating between blaring block chords and spindly arpeggios. Midway through, he embarks on a snaking solo that sees his fingers in constant motion across the fretboard. I suspect they’ll be moving similarly for years to come.

UKVIBE
MAX LIGHT TRIO ‘HERPLUSME’ CD (RED PIANO) 4/5
24TH FEBRUARY 2020 
Max Light, originally from Washington DC and now resident New Yorker, is a guitarist who sits comfortably alongside contemporaries such as Julian Lage, Lage Lund and Rotem Sivan. In a similar way, it is this new release from the guitarist that showcases his writing and performing skills in a nicely rounded trio package. Matt Honor on drums and Simón Willson on bass complete the threesome and together they perform eight original compositions, all of which are fairly short, yet concentrated and playful.
Light won second place in the 2019 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Guitar Competition and has performed with the likes of Donny McCaslin, Jason Palmer, Noah Preminger and Walter Smith III. “Herplusme” gives the guitarist an excellent platform to showcase his talents and with superb interaction and support from Honer and Wilson, the trio work intuitively well together, performing well and showing great promise throughout this recording.
The session is pretty much what one might expect to hear from a guitar-led contemporary jazz trio, and there are some lovely little touches and exquisite interplay highlighting the best elements of a trio at work. The opening track “Boy” shows an edgy originality to this trio that I really like, with its exploratory bass and drums the perfect accompaniment to Light’s inventive playing. The fiery “Overcooked” embraces an adventurous essence that spirals through different cycles of beat and tempo. The balled “Pumpkin Pie” is a slow-burner of a track that gradually draws the listener into its unexpected eloquence. The exploratory “Dog” highlights this trio at their most original, a driving force that confidently takes on the jazz idiom with a refreshing style and panache. I love the way that “Baby’s Hard Times” grows from birth to adulthood in the space of a few minutes, rising up with emotion and vulnerability. Whilst “The Things You” is a pretty straight-ahead jazz standard type piece, “Bagel” is anything but, with its wonderful bittersweet resonance. The final number “Dennisport” is a complex chordal piece reminiscent of a young Pat Metheny and finishes the album off in style.
“Herplusme” is well worth checking out, especially if you’re into your jazz guitar trios. I would expect there’s a lot more to come from Max Light, let’s hope so!

Jazz Trail
Herplusme is the very first artistic statement from American guitarist Max Light. This album triangulates eight of his cerebral compositions and benefits from the competent substructure provided by bassist Simón Willson and drummer Matt Honor. The trio shows a high sense of synchronicity and fluidity on “Boy”, a first-rate command of tempo and patterned textures on “Overcooked”, and an appetence for swinging on “Dog” and “The Things You”, which is an uncompromising take on the standard “All The Things You Are”. Both “Baby’s Hard Times” and “Bagel” revolve around a relentless, laid-back thematic idea and glide on feathery brushes. But while the former flows at a courageous 13/8 signature meter, the latter, partly inspired by Philip Glass, goes through juxtaposed beat cycles with deftness. Delicately harmonized, “Pumpkin Pie” thrives at the sluggish sound of a heart beat, and “Dennisport” closes out the album by nodding to Ben Monder with dexterous guitar fingerpicking and ample morphological vision. In some instances, one might have a weird sensation of minimality, but Light’s compositional efforts are rich in many ways.

All About Jazz
For a recording themed around childhood memories, Herplusme sure sounds pretty grown-up. It's fitting for Max Light's trio, however; they're nothing if not playful, even though the writing and musicianship are backed up by decades of experience. The opening "Boy" is a rhythmic obstacle course that finds Matt Honor (again) and Simón Willson taking staggered steps alongside the leader. It's meant to illustrate the idea of exploring, though, and so the piece gradually finds its form before slowing down to a comfortable stop. The following titles generally stay as simple as their guitar-trio instrumentation, illustrating a series of further vignettes through the song arrangements and good-humored play.
A couple snapshots evoke plain melodies and feelings common to youg'uns everywhere. It's certainly not all about childhood; a minimalist read on "All the Things You Are" has them sharply improvising over the song's partial framework after some pieces are omitted. "Baby's Hard Times" gives them the hardest time in meter and structure, though the sweeping build of the resulting love song is well worth it. The smart writing stays front and center while the players' performance brings their colorful mini-scrapbook to life with warmth and subtlety.

Jazzenzo: 

Bimhuis Amsterdam concert review - “The guitar playing of Max Light is simply magnificent.”

Birdland Neuberg Press:

Neuburger Rundschau | Reinhard Köchl - “The brittle, nimble, glass lines of actual phenomenal guitarist Max Light.”

Donaukurier | Karl Leitner - “Light is the current and ideal sparring partner. He takes his ideas further, processes them, and refines them.”

Dustygroove:

Noah Preminger Afterlife (Criss Cross) review - “An album of subtle majesty from tenorist Noah Preminger – done with a sound that builds and flows wonderfully – partly from the guitar work of Max Light, who may well be the lynchpin of the quintet! The switch of guitar for piano gives the whole thing a different vibe – as Light's playing has this strong sense of glow – which resonates between the bass of Kim Cass and drums of Rudy Royston.”