PAUL BEDAL - Cerulean Stars
Bace Records: BR-21-01
Paul Bedal: piano; Nick Mazzarella: alto saxophone; Matt Ulery: double bass; Charles Rumback: drums
Recorded 20th January 2020 by Ken Christianson at Pro Musica, Chicago.
Combining a career as a jazz musician and film composer, Bedal’s compositions are both deeply cinematic and constantly seeking for that unusual angle. Here the rhythm section produces tight jazz grooves, working a variety of styles within the broad canon of bebop providing solid foundations on which piano and sax build their tunes. Often the lead instruments play identical lines, moving in unison like birds in flight (and often sounding as if there is more than one saxophone playing the melody). On the opener, ‘Iris’, saxophone takes the tune’s motif and runs through some elegant solo work, occasionally meeting the piano to repeat the motif together before soaring off to other solos. Lead duties on the second track, ‘Cerulean Stars’ the album’s title, are taken by Bedal, producing flowing, liquid lines, before handing over to Ulery’s richly melodic bass solo. It is the quartet’s interplay and seamless camaraderie that immediately captures the listener, each player knows where and when to follow the lead of their fellows. It is only after you’ve enjoyed the group’s playing that you sink into the quality and sophistication of Bedal’s compositions. But, I guess, things are well designed tend to slip from our attention, leaving us simply to enjoy them.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Bace Records: BR-21-01
Paul Bedal: piano; Nick Mazzarella: alto saxophone; Matt Ulery: double bass; Charles Rumback: drums
Recorded 20th January 2020 by Ken Christianson at Pro Musica, Chicago.
Combining a career as a jazz musician and film composer, Bedal’s compositions are both deeply cinematic and constantly seeking for that unusual angle. Here the rhythm section produces tight jazz grooves, working a variety of styles within the broad canon of bebop providing solid foundations on which piano and sax build their tunes. Often the lead instruments play identical lines, moving in unison like birds in flight (and often sounding as if there is more than one saxophone playing the melody). On the opener, ‘Iris’, saxophone takes the tune’s motif and runs through some elegant solo work, occasionally meeting the piano to repeat the motif together before soaring off to other solos. Lead duties on the second track, ‘Cerulean Stars’ the album’s title, are taken by Bedal, producing flowing, liquid lines, before handing over to Ulery’s richly melodic bass solo. It is the quartet’s interplay and seamless camaraderie that immediately captures the listener, each player knows where and when to follow the lead of their fellows. It is only after you’ve enjoyed the group’s playing that you sink into the quality and sophistication of Bedal’s compositions. But, I guess, things are well designed tend to slip from our attention, leaving us simply to enjoy them.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
