Combs, Cory / Postcards From California
Album: Postcards From California   Collection:Jazz
Artist:Combs, Cory   Added:Dec 2003
Label:Self-Release  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2003-12-08 Pull Date: 2004-02-09 Charts: Jazz
Week Ending: Feb 1 Jan 18 Jan 11 Dec 14
Airplays: 1 1 1 1

Recent Airplay
1. Oct 21, 2005: Memory Select
Crossing Currents
4. Jan 09, 2004: Memory Select
Red River Valley
2. Jan 30, 2004: Memory Select
Rubber Band
5. Dec 12, 2003: Memory Select
Tomorrow Is the Question!
3. Jan 16, 2004: No Cover, No Minimum
Tell Me Something Good

Album Review
Craig Matsumoto
Reviewed 2003-12-13
Solo electric bass, often overdubbed. Very melodic and pleasant, sometimes a bit too pleasant, with good helpings of blues, country and Brazilian music... but also some out-there wackyness (1, 6, 13).

Looking at the package, you go in expecting New Age or that dreaded "rockin'" variety of smooth jazz (see 1, 14) ... but it's got some decent innovation and a good sense of humor, which counts.

Good slabs of blues and jazz/rock in here, but mostly it's mellow; Combs focuses more on song structure and melody than on showing off his chops. Lots of stretchy rubber-band sounds from the basses, and lots of guitar-like soloing.

See the band Living Daylights for a comparison; they're manic and funky but still very conventional in feel; Combs is like a gentle Sunday-morning version of their stuff. I liked this CD, but I suspect the stuff could sound pretty cheesy with a full band.

1- Mildly funky with drums. Cool freak-out solo
2- Slow country/blues loping
3- Mid/fast, pretty. Could be an Xmas tune
4*- Twisty and fast. Ornette composition
5- Mid/fast snippet
6*- Midtempo cowboy folkie, with some space-age touches. Funny.
7- Quiet solo
8- Breezy smooth-rock number
9- Kind of a kicking '30s jazz feel
10*- Swaying, drunk, and a bit folky
11- Complex and skippy, like prog rock
12- Mid/slow, gamely melodic
13*- Dark and dire, nearly industrial
14- Quasi-Santana Mexican blues
15- Midtempo, mildly bluesy
16*- Stevie Wonder cover, pleasant and slowly bouncy

Track Listing
1. Rubber Band   9. Segura Ele
2. Return to Sender   10. Postcards From California
3. Descendo a Serra   11. Crossing Currents
4. Tomorrow Is the Question!   12. Shattered Bread Knife
5. Wind Up Bird   13. On Too Long Reprise
6. Red River Valley   14. Foreign Postmark
7. On Too Long   15. Wade in the Water
8. West Wind   16. Tell Me Something Good