giantsteps
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The Half of It’s newly released self-titled CD has recently found its way into my CD collection. This Philadelphia based quartet’s brand of jazz fusion makes you sit up and take notice.
I’m a writer and I usually listen to music while writing. Some music is good for that. This CD isn’t and that’s a good thing. When I’m listening to The Half of It, I want to pay attention to what’s going on in the music. It doesn’t fade into the background. There is so much going on musically and I want to hear every bit of it.
This CD is full of original tunes. The rhythm section is tight and has a really good feel. My favorite track is D’faij. It’s really funky and has inspired some of my best chair dancing (dancing whilst remaining seated) to date.
Check out their website here and their MySpace page here. http://www.myspace.com/thehalfofit The CD is available for sale at CD Baby. http://cdbaby.com/cd/halfofit2
Patrick Bettison’s Walkin’ All Around is a unique blend of jazz improvisation and world beats. I might be a bit biased, but I think it’s a great CD. Patrick Bettison is my husband, and he recorded Walkin’ All Around in our small two bedroom apartment. I’d hunker down in the bedroom while he recorded himself beating on a TV table in the living room. The living-room floor was constantly strewn with cables. He was always looking for new objects to shake or beat for percussion–boxes of couscous, vitamin bottles. Sometimes I’d timidly stick my head through the door and ask if I could get a drink of water.
Now that the recording, mixing and mastering of the CD is done, you’d think I’d never want to hear it again, but I still want to listen to it. I slip it into the CD player on my commute to work. It’s one of my favorite CD’s.
The tracks on the CD range from silly to sad. Some have a New Age feel and some sound like traditional jazz. My favorite tracks are Boxing the Clown, Walkin’ All Around, and Missed Friend. Check out his MySpace page. http://www.myspace.com/patrickbettison
I recently got a new CD and was playing it while writing one of my blogs. “What’s this?” my husband asked when he came into the room. “This is good. What is it?” he asked again.
I didn’t want to tell him. It is rare that I find music that he can’t identify, but thinks is good. After letting him ask a few more times I finally came clean and told him.
Soul Cycle is a New York based group that blows my mind. I’ve been listening to Urban Organics constantly for several days. Once I find a CD I like I listen to it over and over again for a month straight.
The funky rhythms make me want to get up and dance. When I’m driving they make me go a little too fast. I guess I can’t hold the band responsible for my speeding tickets, can I?
I’m partial to the saxophone, so the first thing that I noticed about the CD was that the sax playing is great. When my father heard the CD–he’s a jazz pianist–he kept saying, “Who’s that piano player? I really like what he’s doing.”
Usually, I write about my favorite tracks on a CD, but I like all of them on this one. I just went through all of the tracks again to find a favorite and I really can’t choose a favorite.
You can check out the band on their MySpace page. http://www.myspace.com/soulcycle
Comments
Nice. Very very nice. At first "Fresh" sort of reminded me of Filles de Kilimanjaro-era Miles, definitely that Tony Williams style of drumming. And then "Stop Playing" starts out a bit like "Abraxas" but then they take it in their own direction. A lot of influences all coalescing into a thing of beauty. Thanks, giantsteps, for posting this. I can see myself hipping to this for the foreseeable future.
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hell yeah for chair dancing. seated car dancing is a close second in my list of preferred past times.