Roses
Reviews
Fo
Reviewed 2007-11-10
Reviewed 2007-11-10
BILL McHENRY: Roses
Sunnyside, 2007
This set of serious – even gloomy – modern jazz achieves a strange sort of dreary beauty, but it’s no fun at all. The songs have amorphous shapes and indefinite rhythms, but also seem heavily scripted much of the time. Still, the quartet features some serious chops, so it's all very well played and worth a spin… but only if you’re in a glum mood.
Fo’s Picks: 2, 5 … maybe 4, 6, 7
1. 6:10 – moody fanfare, mumbles and pulls amorphously, gets a bit agitated
2. 4:26 – a more optimistic sound, melodic sax/guitar bits in a bubbling stew
3. 4:46 – quiet, open, freeform sound, picks up a bit over gloomy drone
4. 3:49 – controlled, atmospheric cacophony: evokes the din of New York City
5. 4:44 – interesting melody on this one; slow with deep, saturated tones
6. 9:00 – guitar & sax take turns heating up & boiling over; nifty free drumming
7. 8:06 – sax wanders over droning note, then bass spars with sax, drums
8. 3:26 – odd stepping-stone melody, very deliberate pace
9. 4:20 – duet: sax tiptoes around dark, futuristic guitar
[ Fo ] 10-Nov-07
Sunnyside, 2007
This set of serious – even gloomy – modern jazz achieves a strange sort of dreary beauty, but it’s no fun at all. The songs have amorphous shapes and indefinite rhythms, but also seem heavily scripted much of the time. Still, the quartet features some serious chops, so it's all very well played and worth a spin… but only if you’re in a glum mood.
Fo’s Picks: 2, 5 … maybe 4, 6, 7
1. 6:10 – moody fanfare, mumbles and pulls amorphously, gets a bit agitated
2. 4:26 – a more optimistic sound, melodic sax/guitar bits in a bubbling stew
3. 4:46 – quiet, open, freeform sound, picks up a bit over gloomy drone
4. 3:49 – controlled, atmospheric cacophony: evokes the din of New York City
5. 4:44 – interesting melody on this one; slow with deep, saturated tones
6. 9:00 – guitar & sax take turns heating up & boiling over; nifty free drumming
7. 8:06 – sax wanders over droning note, then bass spars with sax, drums
8. 3:26 – odd stepping-stone melody, very deliberate pace
9. 4:20 – duet: sax tiptoes around dark, futuristic guitar
[ Fo ] 10-Nov-07
Recent airplay
Photo-Synthetic
Jena & Gomorrah — Aug 04, 2009
The Lizard
Memory Select — Jan 25, 2008
African Song
No Cover, No Minimum — Jan 25, 2008
The City
Memory Select — Jan 18, 2008
The Lizard
Memory Select — Jan 04, 2008
The City
Memory Select — Dec 21, 2007
Charting
2007-11-18 — 2008-01-20
Jazz
| Week Ending | Airplays |
|---|---|
| Jan 20 | 1 |
| Jan 6 | 1 |
| Dec 23 | 1 |
| Dec 16 | 1 |
| Nov 25 | 2 |
Track listing
| 1. | Roses | ||
| 2. | African Song | ||
| 3. | The Abyss Opens Up | ||
| 4. | The City | ||
| 5. | The New One | ||
| 6. | The Lizard | ||
| 7. | Keys Of C | ||
| 8. | Symphony | ||
| 9. | Photo-Synthetic |