Dylan at Newport notwithstanding, to many listeners the conflict between electric and acoustic is most contentious in the world of jazz. Even artists that receive almost total adoration from a jazz community, think Chick Corea, live a musical double life of electric and acoustic identities. I imagine that the fans who attended the recent Return to Forever reunion shows may not have heard a single one of the trad-jazz albums he's released, and vice versa. Marketing and cross promotional nightmares like that are mostly the realm of the dying giants of the music business; thankfully they are of no use to the shoestring budgets and innovative sounds of labels such as Present Sound Recordings. Their recent release of jazz/rock trio Goat's debut long-player is a prophetic look to the future for what happens when you jump over electric straight into the electronic.
Made up of Seattle musicians Zach Stewart (guitar/synths), Denali Williams (percussion) and Greg Sinibaldi (saxophone/electric wind instrument), Goat's Special Agent is sometimes dissonant, often challenging, but always fulfilling. With no bass player, the rhythm is kept elastic by Williams' drums, who is mostly interested in adding to the feelings and texture rather than strict timekeeping. As the guitar shapes the chords and structure of the song, Sinibaldi's remarkable wind work provides most of the fireworks. Those fireworks are not necessarily of a technical nature-this is a band more concerned with mood than spectacle. "Your News is Sanitized" sounds like Miles Davis recorded In a Silent Way with the Zawinul and Shorter of 1978 instead of their 1969 counterparts. "Wish" begins with the aching sound of Sinibaldi's simple notes above an oddly foreboding guitar. When the track explodes into a blizzard of EWI notes, the frantic soloing sounds like a combination of Mike Ratledge and John Coltrane. This album is a must for jazz rock fans with a taste for adventure.
Track Listing
1. The Lucifer Project
2. Armadillo
3. Wish
4. The High Priestess
5. Big K
6. Your News is Sanitized
7. Special Agent
8. The Star
Printer Friendly Page
Send to a Friend
