CD Reviews: WAVELENGTH : Cruzin’ The Music Highway (No Label )
|
Posted by: Adminon Tuesday, August 12, 2003 - 12:01 AM |
|
By Paul Donnelly
Looking at the cd cover suggests that these guys want to cover as many musical angles as they can. Signs saying jazz, funk, rock, latin & r’n’b litter their particular highway. Even on the promo sheet they list each track according to its relative genre(s). So it looked potentially a bit of a mixed bag to me.
One of my pet hates is the ‘ballad’ and there are a couple of those here, so I’ll gloss over them, if you don’t mind, and concentrate on what I feel are the real strengths of the band. Instrumentally, they are tight and know how to build upon a groove, as on the title track, where Ferdinand Magallanes their composer and keyboard man lays out a series of funky breaks. Guitarist Oscar Estrella trades juicy licks with him too. The quartet are augmented by horns on ‘Sigurado’, a jazz/funk workout that again features the guitar/keyboard soloists on good form. Mention ought to be made of the excellent rhythm section too, since they fuel this vehicle with ease and power to spare.
I do like guitars and Estrella turns his hands to some ringing, rock-influenced runs on the Latin jazz of ‘Teardrops Fall’ and the jazzrock of ‘Space Flight’. There is even a spot of what the promo calls ‘George Benson style guitar’ on ‘Sunday By Tumon Bay’, though this time it’s from Ron Smith. I don’t need to describe it, you can hear it, can’t you ? Music for late afternoons in the sun with something cool to drink – we’re having something of a heat wave in England right now, so this is very appropriate.
There are also a couple of tracks that feature other instrumental soloists. ‘Sorry Sadness’ falls into the smooth/Latin jazz groove and uses Mike Galisatus’ flugelhorn to add extra colour as well as showcasing more of that fluid Magallanes electric piano. For ‘Sunset Drive’ they retain the Latin feel with brass and some airy flute work from Alex Murzyn. Needless to say you can’t keep the guitar and keys quiet on this exhilarating workout. That’s fine by me. I like the way they sound.
So, my aversion to ballad stylings aside, this is a fine set of instrumentals, ideal, as the title suggests, for driving down the highway of your choice.
Paul Donnelly
Contact : wavelength@fmcompserve.com
|
|
/images/spacer.gif) |
| |
|
