Trumpeter Brad Goode has performed in Chicago with Von Freeman and Lin Halliday and led the Green Mill’s house band, but in recent years he’s been teaching music, most recently at the University of Colorado at Boulder. An inquisitive writer with an intriguing set of solo ideas, Goode recorded Hypnotic Suggestion in the Windy City in less than three hours, which lends to the immediacy of the performance.
On an initial perusal, the album sounds like a straightahead quartet date. Pianist Adrean Farrugia, bassist Kelly Sill and drummer Dana Hall offer the appropriate support. In “I Can’t Forget About You” and Michel Legrand’s “Once Upon a Summertime,” Goode’s muted tone tips its hat to Miles Davis. But more often than not, a push-and-pull feeling can be felt in the undercurrent. Hall frequently keeps a pulse on many songs, which implies a tempo without actually playing it. This feels especially effective in the title track, a bitonal number that opens the album with a big splash. The ballad “Beautiful Love” is played freely, unfolding and coming to a climax when Goode unleashes some low growls. In “Just a Thought” the growling shows up again after some blistering fast tonguing.
By the end of the album, a version of “Crazy Rhythm” where a juice jug serves as a plunger mute and the tempo again gets stretched out, it has become clear that Goode isn’t playing it straight.
Brad Goode: Hypnotic Suggestion
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