ASTROLABE (www.chriscody.com) 8/10 It’s as if new instruments are being devised by the minute, such are the improbable combinations Chris Cody contrives among his eccentric octet. Not mere whimsy, this eccentricity stems from the composer’s crafting a musical account of the voyages of French explorer La Perouse (the Astrolabe being…
Category: Album Reviews
CRAZY TIME (Stubby) 7/10 The title, which dates from before the current imbroglio, certainly suits the manic edge that is one side of this Canadian R&B band’s character. You hear that edge in Richard Underhill’s urgent alto solos, in the three-part horn lines that could cut you off at the…
FREYA (Edition/Planet) 8/10 Initially the rhythm stumbles with the broken motion of a leg in a splint, while the alto skates blithely by, before drummer Dan Weiss starts treating the thrumming insistence of Matthew Brewer’s bass as something to be tamed rather than healed. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi has already cauterised…