 Fast-fingered
shards of sound, informed by both blues and bebop, fly out of Will Bernard's
guitar, landing perfectly amid his rhythm section's deliciously
syncopated, fat-bottomed grooves. Party hats and dancing shoes
are recommended when listening to the Berkeley guitarist's fourth
CD -- his first for New York label Palmetto -- though his brand
of soul-jazz is far from mindless. The beats are steeped in New
Orleans second-line funk (and, in the case of "Afro Sheen," Nigerian
juju), yet Bernard's 11 compositions are harmonically
challenging, with plenty of curves around which he and his musicians
-- including organist Wil Blades, trombonist Adam Theis, and alternating
saxophonists Peter Apfelbaum, Joe Cohen and Dave Ellis -- navigate
on their often-torrid solo flights. Bernard's
music is kind of like Medeski Martin and Wood's, minus the gimmicks.
-- Lee Hildebrande
|