Laughing Barrel
ASIN: B00008PX2D
Track Listings
| 1. Parade |
| 2. New Breed Leader |
| 3. Psychedelic Black Man |
| 4. Still Small Voice |
| 5. Jesus Loves Me |
| 6. Sunday Best |
| 7. Fairy Court |
Editorial Reviews
Bret Saunders, The Denver Post
"Ron Miles creates music that is lyrical, inventive... Combine that with Brandon, Anthony , and Rudy , and the results are stunning. "
Product Description
Ron Miles lives in a constantly shifting musical landscape. Always, it is the conversation with other musicians which affects his landscape with shadow, light, and color. This quartet immediately understands-- with seemingly telepathic clarity-- Ron's musical tableau, and they bring to it their own visions and stories. It is when these stories come together that we find ourselves moving through this brilliantly changing landscape.
Laughing Barrel,Ron Miles Quartet,Sterling Circle,Jazz,Jazz Music,Pop,Post-Bop,The music is clearly rooted in the African-American experience, it reflects a variety of influences besides swing and bop-- everything from the blues of Jimi Hendrix and Robert Johnson, to roots gospel and country sources.
Average customer rating: 
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Laughing Barrel
Ron Miles Quartet Manufacturer: Sterling Circle ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  Bebop General
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ASIN: B00008PX2D Release Date: 2003-03-25 |
Tracks:
Album Description
Ron Miles lives in a constantly shifting musical landscape. Always, it is the conversation with other musicians which affects his landscape with shadow, light, and color. This quartet immediately understands-- with seemingly telepathic clarity-- Ron's musical tableau, and they bring to it their own visions and stories. It is when these stories come together that we find ourselves moving through this brilliantly changing landscape.Customer Reviews:
Talent deserving wider recognition........2004-08-19
Beautiful stealth "out" jazz.......2003-11-04
Listen. This is it. So what if Ron Miles, trumpeter extraordinare, resides in that Western cow-town, Denver, CO? So what if his band is relatively unknown? So what if this disc is on Sterling Circle Records (Wha . . . )? These guys can play. The revelation, for me, is Rudy Royston (Who?) on drums. Check him out on "New Breed Leader," ostensibly a post-bop workout, but in reality an ultra-hip, fluidly swinging, unclassifiable number. Royston's all over his kit, providing deep grooves even as he rhythmically deconstructs this intriguing number. Brandon Ross, e-guitar, also provides some unbelievable fireworks. Sounding like a cross between Jimi Hendrix and Pat Metheny circa Off-Ramp, he lets loose with a frenetic though thoroughly controlled blast of healing e-guitar indecipherability. When Royston comes in for his solo two-thirds of the way through, things reach critical mass. Bam! Splat! Shimmer! He blasts through the sonic sound barrier with warp-drive percussion madness. Controlled sonic mayhem, that's one plausible description.
Brandon Ross--why does the name resonate just behind consciousness?--takes center stage on the next number, "Psychedelic Black Man" (Ahem), with sustained wah-wah incredulity. That morphs into some incredibly beautiful balladic contemplation: "Still Small Voice" and "Jesus Loves Me," each of which, in their own way, showcases the leader's rich, burnished open trumpet playing. The dialogic interplay between guitar and trumpet on the latter provides unlooked-for sonic balm and opens the way for Anthony Cox, surely one of the great acoustic jazz bassists on the scene today, to bring it all together in a revelatory and mesmeric bass solo, which in turn leads into a great sprung-rhythm out solo from Miles, undergirt by sympathetic support from the band.
The next to last cut, "Sunday Best," a simple-sounding though very sophisticated number, proves Ron Miles can do just about anything. Graced with an impossibly catchy tune, succinct, evocative, I'm left with an uncontrollable desire to hit the "repeat" button. "Fairy Court," the last and perhaps most "normal" number here, nevertheless contains some weird restless energy magnificently uncovered by Brandon Ross's stunningly ideosyncratic guitar solo and continued by a free passage that somehow makes complete sense.
Yes, this isn't your normal jazz outing, But there's nothing to fear. What we have here is simply gorgeous, original, nearly a-referential, modern music. Not to be missed.
Junkmedia.org Review - Check him out!.......2003-04-30
This scaled-down quartet date retains similarities with his final Grammavision release Woman's Day. Ruddy Royston's polyrhythmic drumming and Anthony Cox's sturdy bass support Miles' melodic trumpet excursions. But it is in guitarist Brandon Ross' bag of effects pedals that we hear the sound of surprise. His guitar tone and solo approach varies with practically each piece. The sweetly melodic accompaniment of the opening pastoral ballad "Parade" is contrasted with his distorted solo on the following "New Breed Leader". Although there is sonic variety, this is no post-modern, stylistic grab bag. Miles' writing is, as with the best jazz writers, distinctly his own.
Borrowing heavily from laid back Midwestern country and soulful, mellow swing, Miles' music sounds like a distant cousin to Frisell's own recent excursions into the sound of the heartland. "Sunday best" could easily be mistaken for the sort of catchy tune Frisell himself would pen. But where Frisell has recently strayed from more discordant and edgy material, Miles' seems unafraid of occasionally venturing forth into the maelstrom.
The quartet's experimental edge is best exemplified by the closing track, "Fairy Court", an ostinato-driven free-form jam, with a cooking rhythm section and killer guitar and trumpet work to boot. Wah-wah guitar and plaintive trumpet ride over a steadily rising backbeat during "Psychedelic Blackman". Although more energetic than the other pieces on the album, these are definitely highlights.
Ron Miles is not an especially well-known player in today's jazz scene. Being based out of Colorado can have that effect on a contemporary jazz artist. But don't let that stop you from checking him out. His work deserves wider recognition.
Troy Collins
Junkmedia.org Review
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