Perhaps in future albums Gilchrist will be free to drop the lead horn section that weighs down the rapturous elegance of his jazz designs and allow his compositional ability to take center stage. Until then, I’ll continue listening to Gilchrist for his addictive piano concoctions, and try very hard to tune out the cacophonous blasts of his funky horns.
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Article comments
1 - Mwanji
Have you heard his first Hyena CD?
I agree that the horns (especially the saxes, Cerri is a decent player) are far below Gilchrist's ability. However, even though the horn ensembles are sometimes a bit long-winded, I find that the way Gilchrist uses them (coming in several times per track, developing new motifs) is quite interesting. I like the layering going on (what you call "obscuring"). You didn't note how funky Gilchrist's playing is (especially in comparaison to his playing on his previous album, which is more avant-jazz-derived).
There are a lot of things that could be better (ie. Gilchrist has a lot of potential), I really hope he fulfills that potential, because the music could be mind-blowing.