Downtown Music Gallery
Bruce Lee Gallanter
Featuring Nathan Hanson on tenor sax & electronics, Jacqueline Ferrier-Ultan on cello & electronics, Brian Roessler on bass and Federico Ughi on drums. Over the past couple of years the Minnesota-based Innova label has sent me thirty-plus promos. That is pretty prolific for a small label that specializes in more experimental, modern classical and electronic music. I try to listen to each disc they send, but I am a bit overwhelmed at times. In the past few months, they seem to have hit their stride with a half dozen great discs from Henry Brant, Virgil Moorefield, Mary Ellen Childs and the truly Fantastic Merlins. Although the Fantastic Merlins are mostly based in Minnesota, they do include former downtown saxist, Nathan Hanson, and current downtown drum wiz & label-head Federico Ughi. Although I am not familiar with the other two members of this quartet, each time I've played this disc, I've been blown away, as have the half dozen customers who have grabbed copies in the store. What is so fantastic about them?!? This is not just another swell improv disc, you can tell that a good deal of preparation and writing has gone into this gem. Commencing with the title track, Jacqueline's majestic cello sounds grand and rich with some superb cymbal-work from Federico, haunting tenor from Nathan and eerie bowed bass as well. "I Was Behind the Couch All the Time" sounds like early Curlew, who had similar instrumentation with cello and tenor sax in the frontline. The cello and sax both solo around one another as the rhythm team play some inspired jazz/rock grooves underneath. Nathan's tenor and Jacqueline's cello sound superb together as they play rich, warm, wooden harmonies on many of these pieces. I dig the way they start spaciously on "It Would Seem", before they erupt into a great rockin' groove, starting and stopping and then dropping back into bowed string space again. Both strings often sound marvelous and magical when they are bowing together and creating incredible harmonies with the sax. They is certainly the best Curlew disc we've heard in a long while, although this band is not actually called...
Featuring Nathan Hanson on tenor sax & electronics, Jacqueline Ferrier-Ultan on cello & electronics, Brian Roessler on bass and Federico Ughi on drums. Over the past couple of years the Minnesota-based Innova label has sent me thirty-plus promos. That is pretty prolific for a small label that specializes in more experimental, modern classical and electronic music. I try to listen to each disc they send, but I am a bit overwhelmed at times. In the past few months, they seem to have hit their stride with a half dozen great discs from Henry Brant, Virgil Moorefield, Mary Ellen Childs and the truly Fantastic Merlins. Although the Fantastic Merlins are mostly based in Minnesota, they do include former downtown saxist, Nathan Hanson, and current downtown drum wiz & label-head Federico Ughi. Although I am not familiar with the other two members of this quartet, each time I've played this disc, I've been blown away, as have the half dozen customers who have grabbed copies in the store. What is so fantastic about them?!? This is not just another swell improv disc, you can tell that a good deal of preparation and writing has gone into this gem. Commencing with the title track, Jacqueline's majestic cello sounds grand and rich with some superb cymbal-work from Federico, haunting tenor from Nathan and eerie bowed bass as well. "I Was Behind the Couch All the Time" sounds like early Curlew, who had similar instrumentation with cello and tenor sax in the frontline. The cello and sax both solo around one another as the rhythm team play some inspired jazz/rock grooves underneath. Nathan's tenor and Jacqueline's cello sound superb together as they play rich, warm, wooden harmonies on many of these pieces. I dig the way they start spaciously on "It Would Seem", before they erupt into a great rockin' groove, starting and stopping and then dropping back into bowed string space again. Both strings often sound marvelous and magical when they are bowing together and creating incredible harmonies with the sax. They is certainly the best Curlew disc we've heard in a long while, although this band is not actually called...