Packed with strangely catchy, offbeat sonic portraits, Virtues of the Well (Corridor CORD 31007-2; 62:24) showcases the creative craftsmanship of guitarist Robert Tye in a super-tight trio (bassist Jim Simonson and drummer David Taylor make up the stellar rhythm section). A sneaky arranger, Tye catches listeners off-guard with pieces which seem abstract, but are meticulously designed. For example “Thorn,” with its rolling big-beat drums and skittering guitar fretwork, has the ingredients of a whacked, grand fusion wallop, but builds into an atmospheric suite with distinct, oddly hooky passages. Likewise, the eerie spindly riffs and harmonics marking “(My Vacation) At the Laundry Mat” turn offbeat chords into attractive melodies. The trio works with a variety of colors as well: where “Okay” features Tye’s dextrous, doodling fretwork in a bluesy call-and-answer format, “The Girl From South Walkerville” emerges as a quiet appreciation, with the small ensemble moving in and swelling with light reverence, and Chris Plankster’s piano work providing golden highlights. This precise execution on a variety of surprisingly catchy pieces, make the Virtues of the Well well worth discovering.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro