BigEgoHead

[Ed Fuqua]

After much ado, the second recording of the Jeff Silverbush Quintet, GRANDMA MICKEY is available.

[olivier]

Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua

After much ado, the second recording of the Jeff Silverbush Quintet, GRANDMA MICKEY is available.

Congrat, Ed. Intriguing, this bird song thing. You sit on the Messiaen branch or with the Conference ?

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by SIR LAWRENCE

Congrat, Ed. Intriguing, this bird song thing. You sit on the Messiaen branch or with the Conference ?

You beat me to the punch on that one.

I was gonna buy this CD when I first read the thread, bu then I realized that some ham-fisted guy from the big apple already sent me one last year. Congrats, Ed!

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by olivier

Congrat, Ed. Intriguing, this bird song thing. You sit on the Messiaen branch or with the Conference ?

Just saw this and ordered a copy - intriguing idea - I'm a fan of the former, as you can tell from my sig!!

[Ed Fuqua]

Originally Posted by Chris Fitzgerald

You beat me to the punch on that one.

I was gonna buy this CD when I first read the thread, bu then I realized that some ham-fisted guy from the big apple already sent me one last year. Congrats, Ed!

If'n you want, I'll send you a "real" one. That way you get the booklet and everthang. Lemme know.

[Bruce Lindfield]

I got my copy from CD Baby and have listened to it a couple of times now - interesting stuff!!

It's in the realm of the "higher end" of things I hear at my local Jazz club - a lot of the bands/composers are bringing in Fusions between Jazz and other types of music... and often I've talked to them and they have mentioned being influenced by Messiaen in particular.

So there is a trumpet player called Tom Arthurs who writes his own stuff and he released an album Centripede which is influenced by Messiaen and I was tutored by Stan Sulzmann who also talked about this..amongst others.

Anyway the Messiaen + Jazz only appear occasionally - I hear elements of this from the piano in tracks 6 and 7, for example although there is obviously a strong 'Free' thing going on there as well...?

The bird song makes some of the tunes seem "jumpy" - or maybe "edgy" sounding - I wonder if this throws up new ideas for chord sequences or is it more about linear playing...?

Anyway I'm still listening and trying to decide what I think overall - but I do know I'd really like to hear how this works live...

I often find that if a band has a CD of original material at Jazz gigs, it helps to have heard/seen them play live to make more sense of it...if that makes sense!!

There's certainly a lot going on in this CD - lots of ideas for interplay and different rhythmic feels - a world away from head, solos head out good night!!!

I think track 10 Indigo Bunting sounded most like the kind of Jazz that I hear in the UK and really like - that could have fitted on a Acoustic Ladyland album!!

Flower Head reminds me a bit of Ravel or Debussy at the start then goes somewhere more American ...but if I go into every track It'll probably get boring...

I'd be interested to hear what others have thought of this who've listened - this is definitely my kind of Jazz!!

[Ed Fuqua]

Bruce - thanks Very Much for the nice review at CDBaby.

Modern Jazz with diverse influences and wonderful group playing!

Reviewer: Bruce Lindfield

A genuinely 'modern' Jazz recording - no standards,swing, everybody solos and head out! But rather - group interplay, free blowing and influences from other musical worlds than Jazz - most obviously of course Olivier Messiaen; whose love of transcribed birdsong is mentioned in the liner notes by Jeff Silverbush - but who is also heard in some of the piano chording. A lot of the tracks are shorter than I might have expected and it's like we are briefly dipping into sound worlds that Jeff has created - I can imagine that live, these pieces will be stretched and manipulated by the players, who do hint at the kind of group inteplay that informs the best live Jazz. So in a sense the music feels restrained by the format and this is why I have given 4 stars - but I'm sure that if I saw this group playing the same material live in a small club, it would merit as many stars as I was allowed!! It's definitely my kind of Jazz and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to hear where Jazz is today (rather than in the 1960s) and where it's going in future!