David Flippo the Flippomusic GlobalJazz Ensemble
Tendrils of Light
Southport S-SSD 0024

David Flippo, acoustic piano and keyboards; Dan Hesler, saxophones and flute; Donn De Santo and Steven Hashimoto, bass; Aras Biskis, drums; Hamid Drake, djembe and tabla; Ken Gueno, percussion; Michael Zerang, dumbek.

Chicago, long a center of cutting-edge music, yields another outstanding and genre-breaking ensemble. Composer, pianist and professor David Flippo and his colleagues prove that careful, creative strategizing opens new avenues of musical expression. Conventional interpretations of such standards as "Well You Needn't" and "Do Nothin' Til You Hear From Me" are steadfastly avoided in favor of an aesthetic based on groove and prevailing tonal centers. The resulting spectrum of orchestral color bears witness to a powerful harmonic imagination, alive to chromatic implications and unfettered by chord structures based on intervals of thirds. A case in point is the brilliant original, "Walking Sideways", whose powerful, rhythmic center forms the basis of a highly chromatic yet singable melody. Cross-cultural influences manifest in the whimsically titled "Buddha's Siesta", based on evocative Japanese scale, and in "Arabopic", with its ultra-challenging interval sequence. Twelve tracks in contrasting style provide an excellent introduction to Dr. Flippo's work. This is an impressive, impeccably designed session.

by James D. Armstrong, Jr.

(available at Jazz Now Direct CD Store)

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