Burnett

Despite critical acclaim as a performer, the rootsy singer/songwriter T Bone Burnett earned his greatest renown as a producer, helming recording sessions for acts ranging from Roy Orbison and Elvis Costello to Counting Crows and Sam Phillips.

T Bone Burnett has created a wildly influential career as both a producer and singer/songwriter, helping to establish the foundation for modern Roots and Americana music. So, it comes as bit of a surprise to hear his latest – a collaboration with Jay Bellerose and Keefus Ciancia – an eclectic, experimental record mixing dance, electronica, trance and tribal drumming that sound little like Burnett’s past catalogue…

Anomaly is a smart album, in large part because it insists on being so. Saxophonist Aaron Burnett has assembled an impressive group, most notably drummer Tyshawn Sorey, whose mentoring influence in the avant-garde certainly is apparent. But this is an album that constantly see-saws between the experimental and bop, working to balance ideas soundly, still trying to sift through countless ideas. These lengthy compositions surely convey grand concepts about the movement from bebop to post-bop and into the contemporary realm, and have no qualms about accessibility.