THE EARLY BIRD GETS (Aerophonic/Birdland) 9/10 It’s like a blade – not so much a scalpel and as scythe, hewing its way straight into your central nervous system. I first heard it soon after a general anaesthetic, and I swear hospitals could use Dave Rempis’s alto sound to clear their…
Category: Album Reviews
MODULAR (www.joshbennier.com) 7.5/10 Josh Bennier astutely builds improvising into the structures of his compositions, rather than just decorating song-forms with solos, so each player is given a context in which to carry the work forward on its multifaceted journey. The exceptional young trombonist bristles with so many ideas that he…
QUIRKS (www.stevearie.com.au) 7/10 Many musicians change their primary instrument in their teens, and the odd one (like guitarist Ralph Towner) in their 20s. But to spend 30 years as a double bassist in such stellar projects as Ten Part Invention and John Turnbull’s beat-poet show, Birth of the Cool, and…