Diego Rivera, Love & Peace, Posi-Tone ***

Go on blow the blues away partying like it's 1959. While Mestizo released approaching 12 months ago is better (the addition of trumpeter Alex Sipiagin made all the difference) this from US tenorist Diego Rivera and an otherwise identical line-up is …

Published: 12 Feb 2023. Updated: 13 months.

Go on blow the blues away partying like it's 1959. While Mestizo released approaching 12 months ago is better (the addition of trumpeter Alex Sipiagin made all the difference) this from US tenorist Diego Rivera and an otherwise identical line-up is pleasant and optimistic inhabiting the language of hard bop so naturally.

Rivera is big on melodic paraphrase and can do scurrying, scrabbling run in his sleep especially when behind him Stacey Kent pianist Art Hirahara, the Mingus Big Band bassist Boris Kozlov and the Frisellian drummer Rudy Royston superb this last year with JD Allen's latest Americana meditations, are so dependable in their swingmatism.

Pick of the album is easily a version of Horace Silver's 'Peace', a classic that in recent years on the live London scene Joey Curreri has delivered so well. The Love & Peace take on John Coltrane's 'Alabama' however needs even more gravity for an even greater outcome.

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Barry Coates, Invisible Witness ***(*)

“Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?'' Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man (1952) A balm of a record. If you are into Pat Metheny you will love this even though Barry Coates is no copyist - it's just that the sound world is a …

Published: 12 Feb 2023. Updated: 13 months.

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“Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?''

Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man (1952)

A balm of a record. If you are into Pat Metheny you will love this even though Barry Coates is no copyist - it's just that the sound world is a complementary kindred spirit to some of Metheny's past work particularly when Lyle Mays was alive. Just a small personnel of guitarist Barry Coates and drummer Jerry Kalaf but the production scales the sound up and it doesn't sound small and lonely at all unless when it's meant to.

Coates is a fine writer - check out his co-writes with Russell Ferrante and Jimmy Haslip 'Dark Horses' on 1989 Yellowjackets album The Spin and the skill here on Invisible Witness is in the panorama of the textural wash and distillation of distant vistas whether psychological or geographical conyeyed. The pick of the tracks involves the woozy otherworldliness of 'Antiparallel'. If you are a fan of Oregon then Coates' approach will also trigger a certain exultation deep within. Out on Bandcamp

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