The cow-poke on the sleeve and the album title suggests that this is some kind of tribute to the American West and maybe it is. However, given the personnel, unsurprisingly, this is no clip-clopping along c & w hoe-down. The feeling instead is one of vastness, of open spaces, rolling plains. A wayfaring stranger venturing into the unknown. The musicians blaze their own trails with respect and acknowledgement of each other's space without building fences.
Ballaimy's tenor sax, melodic yet probing as if in wonderment of his environment. A picture may be worth a thousand words but music is surely worth a thousand pictures? His solo on Gershwin's The Man I Love - the only non-original - is musical poetry.
The final track Bioluminescence brings the setting sun and the conclusion of a highly evocative album
Composer and guitarist Messore solos effectively in a manner that brought Bill Frissell to mind which is praise indeed although the young musician is no copyist.
Indigo Kid isn’t solely a western music exercise, and his (Messore's) search for cultural roots and their meaning stretches further afield. “Much of my composition comes as a response to nature and surroundings,” says Messore. “I have travelled a fair amount, whilst doing so I always try to get off the beaten track: hitching, sleeping out, working locally. I am attempting to create music that has a strong sense of landscape with improvisation”. On the way he has looked to Africa and its folk music, especially inspired by the gentle rootsy jazz guitar of the unique Benin-born NY-based star Lionel Loueke. And to Brazil, the great Hermeto Pascoal being a subtle but pervasive influence throughout the album. But it’s the accessible combination of all these lyrical song-like forms and deeply rooted improv aesthetics that appear throughout these sensual and very striking compositions that this highly gifted guitarist has recorded for his band debut Indigo Kid.
Lance.
Indigo Kid - Babel Label BDV1197 - Release date April 23, 2012.
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