Springing fresh from the world with the cats in his Flatbed Buggy band, 'Morning' is a panoramically arranged introduction to upcoming album Day from drummer Rudy Royston known for his extensive work down the years with guitar icon Bill Frisell. Royston, who is in his fifties, was born in Fort Worth, Texas and grew up in Denver, Colorado. The setting here is once again quintet - Royston with bass clarinettist John Ellis, accordionist Gary Versace, the Frisellian cellist Hank Roberts superb last year on Pipe Dream's Blue Roads and double bassist Joe Martin - who was on the excellent Mark Turner album Lathe of Heaven in 2014 and more recently we chilled to Martin and Royston swinging with Art Hirahara on Balance Point.
Flatbed Buggy's first album was in 2018 featuring the same line-up on the self-titled release. And, as is the upcoming CD, this forerunner was issued on Greenleaf Music.
Rudy Royston
photo: John Rogers/rudyroyston.com
Described by the label as ''a musical evocation of Royston’s youth spent in rural Texas'' the album is dedicated to Rudy's brother Ritchie who passed away last year and to his erstwhile bandstand bro cornetist Ron Miles who also died in 2022 and with whom Royston worked on such work as 1990s album My Cruel Heart.
A fine writer - listen top to 'Morning,' QED - if you are a relative newcomer to the music or still jumping up to speed largely hitherto unfamiliar with key chunks of Royston's work start straight away with a recent magical record that Royston is on with poet of the tenor saxophone, JD Allen - 2022's Americana Volume 2 thundering especially evocatively on the epic 'Up South.' The lead-off Day track lands in a Copland-esque in-the-voicings mood.
This upcoming studio album to be released on 5 May was recorded last year in New Jersey and is comprised mainly of Royston originals plus Joe Martin's 'Limeni Village' and Hank Roberts' 'A.M. Hours.'
MORE READING AND LISTENING:
Royston is on Bill Frisell's Valentine - review, 2020
The great drummer is also on Rudresh Mahanthappa's Hero Trio - review, 2020
- Go back above all to Frisell's Beautiful Dreamers (2010, Savoy) that shares some affinity with the Flatbed Buggy approach.
Tags:
