Search - Fred Pallem & Friendz :: Le Sacre du Tympan

Ear Carnival

B. mcmurtry | 01/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a banquet of sound. Pallem manages to evoke Ives, Copland, Gershwin, Ellington, Kenton, Boyd Raeburn, Spike Jones, Raymond Scott, Don Ellis, Diz, Gary MacFarlane, Bill Frissell, Sam Rivers, Zappa, and that whole pantheon of composers and bands that have calculated to keep you from boredom, but with Pallem's unique teutonic twists. Musical quotes, which are many, go astray in amusing and inspired ways and cliches morph into surprises within shifting meters and keys. This is what swing music might have been, had it had lasted through bop, rock, and LSD. What "Classical" music would be, were it more friendly. A hyperbolic postmodern maniacal musical pallet of painterly sound. Whew! And when it doesn't swing it makes you laugh. With a little liner letter from the eclectic French master, Andre Popp (Dementia in Hi-Fi). If you can, also listen to "Country Band March" on "La Grande Ouverture" or just get both of his other available albums. They sort of lead up to this one and explode. BHM"