Thinking and gentle person's chamber jazz
fCh | GMT-5, USA | 11/18/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I happened to find this disc by searching for Scarlatti sonatas at my public library and getting intrigued by the otherwise natural association between jazz and Scarlatti. I am mentioning all this, for I have thought jazz, by and large, had gone the way of Miles Davis, with too few exceptions to warrant listening to the genera from 1980s onwards. In any case, trying to see what other fellow Amazonians thought about this album, I found no reviews.
OK, on with the music now. This is a thinking and gentle person's chamber jazz album. Excellent compositions, just right orchestration, changes of rhythm to please various registers, and a general sense of well managed musical tension (as in built and released). The more soulful pieces reach deep enough to leave you wondering how they do it with so few voices--it's got to be the original composition + the current transcription and rendition, so one part goes to the original composers, two parts to Donal Fox Quartet.
Needless to say, I'll run just now another expanded search for 'Donal Fox Quartet'; Happy listening to you, as well!
P.S. Donal is approaching the class of Oliver Nelson/Gil Evans, however different their venues might be..."