The Reese Project: Eastern Standard Time

The four piece combo who call themselves The Reese Project create a musical dialogue that is lively and harmoniously wheedled as the roving flutters of flutist Tom Reese are supported by the easy going tapping of drummer Aaron Walker and the fluid spins of guitarist Bobby Brewer and cellist Laurie Reese. The group’s latest effort Eastern Standard Time is a culmination of avant-based décor, melodic entangklements, vibrant exchanges, and orchestral polished jaunts. The foursome move every place imaginable on the chamber jazz spectrum without ever venturing off into dissension. All the elements work in agreement through the changes and progressions enabling the group to move as a solid unit while making space for individual expressions. Like a chain-gang. The Reese Project are tethered to one another and where one goes, the others soon follow.

The exchanges between the flute and guitar are often very active like in “Just Friends” stimulating tides of vacillation and spreads of bountiful buds. The ribbons of swirling twits from the flute and bouncy guitar patterns in “Alone Together” and “Heads Up & Gone” produce an amicable dialogue as the cello kneads into the melodic motions. The album turns more relaxing and pensive in the balladry frames of “Blue Dali” and “Meditation” and then rises up to a party mix in the swinging jaunts of “Out Of Nowhere.”

Maintaining that upbeat posture, the album travels into the traipsing strolls of “Somethin’s Brewin'” and the flaccid whorls of the flute and jazzy guitar chords injecting a bluesy tone in “When Sunny Gets Blue.” The track is supported by the coasting rhythmic grooves while the dulcet pirouettes of the flute along “Moment In Blue” halo the soft panorama with wispy breezes. The Latin-based rhythm of “Black Orpheus” is the backbone for the prancing flutters in the flute and the waltzing strokes of the cello. On the other hand, the boppish grooves of “Altoid Junkie” become an integral part of the tingling sensations emanating from the twittering phrases of the flute and meteor shower of sparks from the guitar chords.

The quartet does not have a singular way of thinking their compositions through but relish in paving new avenues of experimentation and producing fresh melodic forms. Uniting traditional vamps with experimental counterpoints, The Reese Project exemplify melodic aspects that rise above sounding ordinary. Teaming up with Grammy-award winning producer Jack Kreisberg, Eastern Standard Time goes beyond chamber jazz boundaries and gels orchestral pop with chamber folk and experimental music to form an exciting interaction in their instruments.