Personnel:
Seamus Blake (ts), Avishai Cohen (b), Marc Miralta (d)
Reference: FSNT-087
Bar code: 84 27328 42087 7
"Miralta is an uncannily musical drummer who penned three of the discs eight tunes. The music on this disc is firmly tonal, though drums, bass and tenor saxophone all spend more or less equal amounts of time in the spotlight. The compositions are smart without being smart-assed, profound without being humorless, attractive withough being flowery. Miralta and Cohen are remarkably comfortable and capable in their roles as soloists. At times, Cohens bass is as percussive as Miraltas drums: his contributions to "Sun Sol" are absolutely stunning throughout.
The tunes on "Sun Sol" are well-chosen, and display the trios broad stylistic range while providing plenty of harmonic, melodic and rhythmic challenges. "Circle K" and "Now and Here" both have a dark off-center funk feel, and I was especially taken by Miraltas risky-but-not-flashy drumming on both. Miralta is an accomplished composer as well: "Boston in 3/4" is a pretty lament that gets coaxed into a more urgent direction by Blakes expressive tenor saxophone. The other ballad, and the only standard on the CD, Newley and Bricusses "Pure Imagination," gets a rather more lush treatment, without being mawkish or gooey."
I have listened to "Sun Sol" a dozen times or more without tiring of it! Surely one of the years better releases.
By Dave Wayne (www.jazzweekly.com)
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"For the first time on record, tenorist Seamus Blake teams up with his old Berklee schoolmate, drummer Marc Miralta. They each contribute three tunes, while the session's bassist, Avishai Cohen, offers the opening minor blues "Go." The one non-original is "Pure Imagination," the Anthony Newley ballad used in the film Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Cohen co-arranged this tune very differently for Claudia Acuña's debut disc Wind from the South. The tracks "Circle K," "Now and Here," and "Mr. Omaha" build upon loosely flowing grooves and open-ended blowing, while "Boston in 3/4" and "70's Child" center around more lyrical melodies and structures. The title track, a quasi-African vamp, has more of an experimental flavor than the other tracks.
Cohen is never one to restrict himself to basic timekeeping; his playing here is characteristically aggressive and percussive. Blake and Miralta are both masters of their respective instruments, but it is their fine-tuned and highly musical interplay the result of years of collaboration that recommends this album."
David R. Adler (All Music Guide)
