Carl Bryan And Sound Dimension

The music on this CD is very much in the Young Lions/modern hard bop vein. In this 1989 session, drummer Carl Allen leads a fairly young all-star group - comprised of trumpeter Roy Hargrove, Vincent Herring on alto, soprano, and flute, pianist Donald Brown, and bassist Ira Coleman - through five originals by bandmembers and five standards. Veteran trumpeter Freddie Hubbard sits in on "Piccadilly Square" (a rare chance for one to hear both Hubbard and Hargrove soloing on the same number) and "In the Still of the Night." Few surprises occur, but the musicians (particularly Herring) play up to expectations and fans of hard bop will enjoy this.

According to Bryan Lee’s own words, all the arrangements of the songs included in the album came to his mind while he was sleeping. The night before a show at Spitsbergen church in Norway, our man dreamed how those songs should sound, which he thought was an inspiration Lord gave him during the dream. The next day he played them as he had dreamed and it was a so spectacular success, that Bryan and his band recorded them while they were staying in Norway. Seven years later, producer Steve Hamilton mixed them in his studio and published the album we have now on hands. Bryan Lee lost his sight at the age of eight and when he was fifteen he moved to Chicago where he spent twenty years developing a successful career as a singer and guitar player, performing with the great bluesmen of that time.

Carl Vine has always been suave. From his early dance scores in
the 1970s (he wrote his first in high school) to his larger orchestral works of the ‘80s onwards, his music has remained assured, tuneful and immaculately crafted. For an artist who’s also helped direct the world’s largest chamber music organisation, Musica Viva Australia, for over a decade, the string quartet seems like his perfect medium. This disc brings together the bulk of his quartets to date: four full works (Nos 2, 3, 4 and 5) and two movements from his first foray into the medium, Knips Suite from 1979.

Among the young British instrumentalists vying to pick up the mantles of the great soloists of a generation ago, flutist Katherine Bryan seems among the most promising, and she takes a major step forward with this, her second release. Her startlingly clear, bright articulation in the upper register is pleasing on its own, yet the real attraction here is that she approaches a repertory intelligently and brings fresh perspectives to it. The Flute Concerto (1993) of Christopher Rouse only seems to be the odd item in the set; Rouse's instrumental writing, with its intricate grasp of texture and register, is truly a descendant of the French (and French-Swiss) music on the rest of the album, and it was an inspired choice in terms of showcasing Bryan's technique as well. The three central movements have a memorial tone, with flute solos woven into Rouse's characteristically spacious chords, and Bryan has the stamina to stick with the long line here. Ibert's delightful Concerto for flute and orchestra (1934) receives an absolutely crackling performance from Bryan.

Any casual listener looking over this 132-track five-CD set would probably conclude that it was far more Bill Haley than they need bite off in one gulp - and they'd be right, as casual listeners. For the serious rock & roll enthusiast, as well as the hardcore Bill Haley fan, however, there's a wealth of worthwhile material to be found here, some of which will amaze even those fans: a dozen great songs and 55 or so more that are good, and another 20 that are fascinating mistakes, and that's a good average for an artist who is generally thought of as having generated just a handful of important records. What Haley had most of all was a distinctive sound - between the backbeat, the country boogie roots, and the R&B sources - that pretty much defined white rock & roll for almost its first two years (until Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins emerged in the spring of 1956); the first two CDs here offer that sound in abundance…

Drummer Carl Allen welcomed some of "The Young Lions" to his Atlantic CD, including altoist Vincent Herring, Teodross Avery on tenor, and trumpeter Marcus Printup. The music, essentially modern mainstream jazz circa 1967, is comprised mostly of Allen's originals. Printup sounds like a mixture of Freddie Hubbard and Wynton Marsalis, Herring is content to emulate Cannonball Adderley, and Avery looks toward early John Coltrane; in other words the soloists are generally pretty derivative. Despite that fault, the performances (which have colorful guest appearances from tenor-saxophonist George Coleman and trombonist Steve Turre) are generally enjoyable and hard-swinging.

Saxophonist WAYNE ESCOFFERY reflects on love, loss, and solitude on his stunning new album, the atmospheric and haunting, ALONE, featuring a remarkable all-star quartet with Gerald Clayton, Ron Carter & Carl Allen.

Saxophonist WAYNE ESCOFFERY reflects on love, loss, and solitude on his stunning new album, the atmospheric and haunting, ALONE, featuring a remarkable all-star quartet with Gerald Clayton, Ron Carter & Carl Allen.

Dorothy Fields (1904–74) was an American lyricist who wrote the lyrics to classics including I’m in the Mood for Love, On the Sunny Side of the Street, and The Way You Look Tonight. She began her journey in the early twentieth century in New York-based Tin Pan Alley, which was a group of music publishers and songwriters. She eventually worked on Broadway and in Hollywood.

Saxophonist WAYNE ESCOFFERY reflects on love, loss, and solitude on his stunning new album, the atmospheric and haunting, ALONE, featuring a remarkable all-star quartet with Gerald Clayton, Ron Carter & Carl Allen.