Monday, March 5, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
www.akroncracker.com please buy my records from my website! go to the merchandise section. i have a bunch of c.d.'s all lonely in my garage! thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, March 1, 2012
a pretty good review in the new Jazz Times
of "Seriously"
Ralph Carney’s Serious Jass Project
SERIOUSLY (Smog Veil)
Ralph Carney has always been a sort of wild man with chops. First in the proto-new wave band Tin Huey and later with artists like Tom Waits, his saxophone approach fits perfectly in screwball situations. Behind the jokes, though, it’s always clear that he can blow straight and fierce if the mood strikes him. So when he calls his own group a Serious Jass Project, expect the music to balance his irreverent sensibilities with a respect for his material.
Seriously, the second Project album, digs into bar walkin’, honkin’ jazz. Carney’s horn fluency makes him a virtual big band: He plays all the saxophones, from soprano to bass, not forgetting C-melody, as well as clarinets, trumpet, lap steel and English horn. He also sings, though his Leonard Cohen-esque range might be his Achilles’ heel. A three-piece rhythm section holds it all together.
This type of session could easily digress into bad parody full of goofball tenor sax honks, but Carney’s tight arrangements avoid that pitfall. “Meet Dr. Foo,” a Coleman Hawkins deep cut, deftly combines muted trumpet with flute. Frank Loesser’s “I Wish I Were Twins” puts the bass sax in the forefront, alongside the tenor. The final track breaks the mood with a free improvisation, “Echoes of Chloe,” revealing yet another style the group does well. Next time, if they merge musical worlds a bit more convincingly, things will really sound hot. And maybe Carney will avoid the temptation to break into nonsensical babble in the final moments.
- Mike Shanley
Ralph Carney’s Serious Jass Project
SERIOUSLY (Smog Veil)
Ralph Carney has always been a sort of wild man with chops. First in the proto-new wave band Tin Huey and later with artists like Tom Waits, his saxophone approach fits perfectly in screwball situations. Behind the jokes, though, it’s always clear that he can blow straight and fierce if the mood strikes him. So when he calls his own group a Serious Jass Project, expect the music to balance his irreverent sensibilities with a respect for his material.
Seriously, the second Project album, digs into bar walkin’, honkin’ jazz. Carney’s horn fluency makes him a virtual big band: He plays all the saxophones, from soprano to bass, not forgetting C-melody, as well as clarinets, trumpet, lap steel and English horn. He also sings, though his Leonard Cohen-esque range might be his Achilles’ heel. A three-piece rhythm section holds it all together.
This type of session could easily digress into bad parody full of goofball tenor sax honks, but Carney’s tight arrangements avoid that pitfall. “Meet Dr. Foo,” a Coleman Hawkins deep cut, deftly combines muted trumpet with flute. Frank Loesser’s “I Wish I Were Twins” puts the bass sax in the forefront, alongside the tenor. The final track breaks the mood with a free improvisation, “Echoes of Chloe,” revealing yet another style the group does well. Next time, if they merge musical worlds a bit more convincingly, things will really sound hot. And maybe Carney will avoid the temptation to break into nonsensical babble in the final moments.
- Mike Shanley
Monday, February 27, 2012
2 horns at once..
I was playing with my band "R.C.'s Serious Jass Project", plus Rob Reich, Saturday night. we did a live improvised film score to a 1927 French Film"The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower" @ the Pacific Film Archives at U.C. Berkeley.At one point of the film i played a tenor and soprano together. My back was to the audience, so it would be hard to see it. We finished and a guy came up and said something like "i thought i heard something that sounded like 2 horns played at once, what was that?" I said " it was 2 horns played at once" and then he said.... "with one mouth??" got me laughing...
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