Today's Yesterday

This CD contains honest and clear playing in an avant jazz and improvised music style.

The attitude of guitarist Ken Aldcroft, altoist Evan Shaw, and the drummer/percussionist Joe Sorbara, is to play their instruments as 'servants' of the composition.

They improvise, of course, and they're expressing themselves fluently, but the composition is never forgotten, and we hear it in their solos.

In a tough-minded tune like "dominic", with its bare repeating phrase on the guitar, and with Evan Shaw diligently bending notes at the end of his phrases, we experience the sounds of composition and improvisation, nicely combined.

The 'title tune', "remnants" is a lot of fun. A radio sound switches off and on — Aldcroft? — then it flips between stations as light drums are tatta-tatting. Then as the alto starts to openly sing, the radio dial slides. Special mention must be made of Sorbara's ride cymbal and its swinging 'jazz rhythm' which stands in witty contrast to the creatively fragmented tune.

Intelligence, simplicity, and humour, simply abound in these eleven tunes.

Now: who would have thought the 'avant garde' could be so much (creative) fun?

-- David Fujino; The Live Music Report (04/2006)