Artist: Tad Britton
Album: Black Hills
Genre: Post-Bop, Contemporary Jazz
Label: Origin Records
Released: 2007
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- Time Remembered (9:09)
- Love Reborn (8:30)
- Fire & Rain (10:47)
- Dark Kiss (4:37)
- Red Drum (2:21)
- Ring of Fire (2:24)
- Falling Grace (7:16)
- The Windmills of Your Mind (3:30)
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- Personnel:
- Marc Seales - piano
- Jeff Johnson - bass
- Tad Britton - drums
Tad Britton grew up in Sturgis, South Dakota; hence the title of his debut album as a bandleader, Black Hills. The Seattle-based drummer has led an unusual life for a jazzman, getting his start in country bands as a teenager and spending a lengthy stint in the official house band of the Church of the Subgenius, the Swingin' Love Corpses, during the '80s and early '90s. A long association with mellow bassist Jeff Johnson, his musical partner on this low-key trio set, gives a better clue as to the content of Black Hills. Britton, Johnson and pianist Marc Seales are beholden to no particular subgenre of contemporary jazz, favoring a simple, meditative style and a taste for unexpected covers one wouldn't expect to work in a piano trio context, like James Taylor's "Fire and Rain," Michel Legrand's "The Windmills of Your Mind" and, most unusually, Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" transformed into a mournful ballad. These aren't attention grabbing hack jobs like the Bad Plus' covers of alt-rock classics, but simple, respectful versions of familiar songs that find unexpected byways within their well-worn tunes. The originals are equally fine, recalling perhaps a less experimental, more meditative version of E.S.T. Definitely worth a close listen.
Review by Stewart Mason