Trumpeter Ron Miles has had an on and off recording relationship with Bill Frisell, and here he teams up with his buddy, as well as the formidable drummer Brian Blade, to create an open and expressive disc that mixes lyricism with experimentation.
Miles has a rich and warm sound on his horn, and it works exquisitely well on the long tones. Plaintive pieces such as “Comma” and the bluesy “Dancing Close and Slow” make excellent use of contrasting Miles’ horn with Frisell’s fascination with pedals, effects, tones, pickings and dynamics. Blade’s communicative and subtle drumming keeps it all together, as on the gently rocking “Two Kinds of Blues” that mix with a Miles with anguished and sensitive howls. The attractively ambled gait on “Angelina” has some intriguing thoughts, and a pair of Mingus tunes mix Frisell’s funky picking with some pastoral atmospheres. Contemplative in a good and swinging sense.
Yellow Bird Records