Michael Oien bs/comp); Matthew Stevens (gtrs); Nick Videen (alt); Jamie Reynolds (pno); Eric Doob (dms) + Travis Laplante (ten) on Mad to Live.)
(Review by Lance).
In The Early Autumn - nothing to do with Woody or Stan Getz - opens up this, at times, compelling album. Delicate, introspective, piano, bass and guitar explore the leader's composition. Imagine Bill Evans further down the line.
Skol brings in Videen on alto and gives Doob a chance to shine. Mad to Live sees the quintet augmented by Laplante on tenor. I'd have liked to have heard more from this line-up, both horns bring a post modern feel to the composition.
Ask Anyone has Oien heavily featured and he proves himself to be everything a Berklee graduate should be ten years on. By which I mean, creative, in command of his instrument and able to swing in a contemporary setting, it's true - ask anyone!
Smile This Mile is described as "quietly passionate" and who's to argue? Alto and piano say their piece gently underlined by the others.
Dreamer, a 13 minute three parter, opens with Videen creating a mood that befits the title of the mini-suite. Floating, drifting perhaps musing of the dawn, the musicians gradually take off following the sometimes bizarre patterns that dreams take, Reynolds flitting in and out, Doob building the tension, Oien omnipresent, guiding them to the normality of the morning light.
All My Trials, the only non original - it's a traditional American folksong - paradoxically is all bass proving, should anyone have doubts (!), just how meaningful a bassist he is.
And Now, the end isn't near, it's just the beginning!
Lance.
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