Gilmore, David: Transitions

The starting point of Transitions from guitarist David Gilmore is his desire to pay tribute to the recently deceased masters Bobby Hutcherson, Toots Thielmans and Victor Bailey, legendary trumpeter Woody Shaw and 'living elders' Annette Peacock and Hermeto Pascoal; interpreting their music along with two original compositions. Hence, you'll already have a pretty strong impression of what flavours this jazz grab bag will be featuring.

The two original pieces happily play along, "End Of Daze" opening through pensive guitar and piano-sax trade offs. The feeling upbeat, if restrained, while still adding busy interludes and allowing the six instrumental components to come to the fore. The excellently titled "Spontanuity" pulls things back in a little, the themes more self contained and less expansive, Mark Shim's sax constantly breathing life into the precise rhythms. The Hutcherson pair of "Farralone" and "Blues And Matter" bring things into more traditional territory, the former's clever use of tempo always snagging the ear, while the latter adds a little more exuberance. With "Bluesette" (Thielemans) much more about languid mood and atmosphere and "Nem Un Talvez" (Pascoal) adding smooth, almost Latin moves, the narrow diversity continues throughout. Although the more daring and different "Kid Logic" (Bailey) and its quirky 'kid logic' vocal outbursts prove a welcome change of mood and structure as the percussion rocks and sways and the acoustic guitar cuts and jars.

Gilmore himself has, over the years, turned his guitar hand to many different 'masters', his touch gracing the pop of Joss Stone and Melissa Etheridge, while the likes of Boz Scaggs and Rise Robots Rise have benefited from his skills. Along with a plethora of jazz collab's and further releases where he leads the pack, as he does here, it's a varied CV. Transitions might well have benefited from an infusion of that wider outlook, the feel that you often know what's coming round the corner ever so slightly unavoidable. However this is still an engaging set of songs, performed with an eye for detail and no little passion. If the masters and elders mentioned above pique your interest, this will prove well worth checking out.

Track Listing
1. End Of Daze
2. Beyond All Limits
3. Blues Mind Matter
4. Bluesette
5. Both
6. Spontanuity
7. Kid Logic
8. Farralone
9. Nem Un Talvez

Added: June 4th 2017
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Transitions at Criss Cross Jazz
Hits: 1933
Language: english

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