About Us
| About Us | ||||
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| Studio album from Mike Reed ’s People, Places & Things | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | 482 Music | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
01:03:57 |
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Studio (s) |
Shape Shop Studio and Strobe Recording Studio, Chicago |
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About Us is a jazz album by Mike Reed . The second album by Reed's band People, Places & Things was made on February 21st and March 2nd, 2009 in the Shape Shop and Strobe Recording Studio, Chicago. The recordings appeared on 482 Music in 2009 .
background
After his band project Mike Reed's Loose Assembly (most recently with Greg Ward , Jason Adasiewicz , Tomeka Reid , Joshua Abrams ) the drummer founded Mike Reed's People, Places & Things in 2007, with whom he recorded the first album Proliferation (482 Music) in the same year . When recording the second album, the line-up again consisted of Mike Reed Tim Haldeman (tenor saxophone), Greg Ward (alto saxophone) and Jason Roebke (bass). The previous album , Proliferation, was inspired by the underrated people, places and things of Chicago in the late 1950s, wrote Troy Collins. About Us continues this concept while avoiding the previous session's focus on cover versions (e.g. by Wilbur Campbell , Frank Strozier , John Jenkins , Tommy Madman Jones and Sun Ra ) in favor of original compositions. Some of these came from Reed and his bandmates; in addition, "three of the most influential artists in Chicago" each contributed their own title, which they made heard together with the quartet. Those musicians were saxophonist David Boykin in "Big and Fine", guitarist Jeff Parker in "Days Fly By (With Ruby)" and trombonist Jeb Bishop in "Big Stubby".
Track list
- Mike Reed's People, Places & Things: About Us (482 Music 482-1068)
- It's enough 5:02
- VS # 1 7:45
- About Us 6:40
- Big and Fine (David Boykin) 10:58
- The Next Time You Are Near 5:41
- Big Stubby (Jeb Bishop) 7:13
- Flat Companion 4:52
- First Reading: Paul's Letter 4:21
- Under the Influence of Lunar Objects 5:05
- Days Fly By (With Ruby) (Jeff Parker) 6:20
- All other compositions are by Mike Reed, Greg Ward, Tim Haldeman and Jason Roebke.
reception
Troy Collins gave the album four stars in All About Jazz and wrote: “Most of the album is full of staccato riffs, serpentine themes and exciting tempos and indulges in revisionist swing . Classic bebop and hard bop traditions are updated with angular intervals, modern harmonies and collective arrangements . Ward and Haldeman unwind passionate, interlocking cadences that move at Roebke and Reed's mercurial tempo and push the limits of convention without denying the teachings of their ancestors. ”The session flourished above all with the guest musicians; "The gruff, boastful blues of Boykins'" Big and Fine "slowly expands into thorny territory and climaxes with all three saxophones entwined in an enchanting vortex of kaleidoscopic sound." Bishop's sweeping "Big Stubby" follows a similar one Strategy and culminate in a contrapuntal horn choir that contains spirited variations on the main theme without rhythm accompaniment. The relaxed pace of Parker's “Days Fly By (with Ruby)” ends the session with melodious elegance. About Us shows some of Chicago's brightest new stars, Collins concludes, "who are advancing the art form without ignoring the innovations of the past."
Also in All About Jazz, Mark Corroto said that while About Us looks more forward than the previous album, the sound is firmly anchored in Chicago's post-bop scene. The guests Jeb Bishop, David Boykin and Jeff Parker each contribute a composition and their typical sound to individual tracks. Their music complements a very strong quartet; adding the guests makes Reed's band great. David Boykin, who started his bluesy “Big and Fine” like Reed somewhere in the 1950s, is reminiscent of Chicago jazz that arrives on the riverboat from New Orleans. Likewise, trombonist Jeb Bishop plays a groove from Chicago's tough past in “Big Stubby” by alluding to orchestrations with a wide horn before the players split off solos and then come together in an a cappella mix. After all, with Jeff Parker, there is “the epitome of the modernist, whose different guitar lines can sound broad and expansive at the same time”. He creates a calm, balanced, and graceful end to the session.
Adam Kivel wrote in Consequence of Sound that Mike Reed from Chicago is a great drummer, but with his project People Places and Things he could not only prove his compositions, but also his skills as a jazz historian. Despite his band's amazing talent (or maybe because of it), the guest musicians' melodies are possibly the best on the album.
Web links
- Listing of the album on Allmusic (English). Accessed January 1, 2020.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Troy Collins: Mike Reed's People, Places & Things: About Us. All About Jazz, October 6, 2009, accessed May 25, 2020 .
- ↑ Mike Reed's People, Places & Things: About Us at Discogs
- ↑ Mark Corroto: Mike Reed's People, Places & Things: About Us. All About Jazz, November 6, 2009, accessed May 25, 2020 .
- ↑ Adam Kivel: Mike Reed's People, Places & Things: About Us. Consequence of Sound, November 9, 2009, accessed May 25, 2020 .