| I'll go first. "Line" does what a CD ought to do these days: it makes you really want to hear the group live. The tracks alternate between stop/start vamps and blazing, rough swing. The recurring "Line" theme ties the album together and really seemed to remind me of early Andrew Hill or Eric Dolphy's work on "Out to Lunch"--swinging hard, sort of Monkish, but on the "avant-garde" side. In fact, if there is a drawback to this CD. Of course, it doesn't always blaze, but the cooler tracks are just as unpredictable.
I'd recommend this CD for fans of the Vandermark Five in particular. There is great craft here, and from a trumpet-playing perspective Kelly's got an attractive tone and approach real committed sense for the Lester Bowie kind of growl language that is pretty old school when it comes down to it. The only downside to this CD is not really a downside: that it is fairly intense and swings so hard, that it should really only be put on when you have some attention to give it. |