I've got a problem but it's the good kind of problem.
There's a backlog of CD's sitting on my desk deserving of some shout-outs. So much so, it make take two or more additional "Quickies" to clear off this stack. With just a little time for writing at the moment though, taking three off the pile will have to suffice for now.
They're all in — or in the neighborhood of — the jazz idiom, as I haven't gotten around to listen to new releases by Nick Cave, Steve Winwood and Mudcrutch (aka, Tom Petty and the Pre-breakers) enough times to say more than "Hey. It's good."
For the second Quickies in a row though, there's some tangential homage to George Clinton. Another guy was the subject of my first One Track Mind. There's also a dude I've never heard of before, but looks to be one who could make a few waves in the jazz world before it's all said and done.
Yeah, I think I'll start with him...
Taylor Eigsti Let It Come To You
Listening to Let It Come To You recalls the Josh Nelson CD I checked out last year. Here you have a up-and-comer jazz pianist with chops out the wazoo and displaying a wide range of styles from song-to-song. Often times I thought the next album cued up in my iTunes library was playing whenever the next track came up, there's so much variation in the instrumentation and arrangements.
OK, "up-and-comer" might not be the term to put on Eigsti anymore.
At just 23 years old, Let It Come To You marks the sixth release for the twice Grammy-nominated former child prodigy. Coming out next week, Let It... is his second for major record label Concord (yes, any record label with a stable that includes Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell is "major" in my book). As a kid, he's played alongside Dave Brubeck, Bobby Hutcherson, and Patti Austin, among others.
The first part of the album sticks with covers, many of them standards, and Eigisti reworked these songs into something very unlike the traditional arrangements. I particularly like how he took Wayne Shorter's bluesy, almost downcast "Deluge" and turned it into a snappy little number, throwing in extra chord clusters at the head for an added kick. Other times he gets perhaps a little too showy, as in "Fever." But the addition of a Columbian harp to that tune shows a lot of creativity (as co-producer, Eigsti takes much credit for these imaginative arrangements).
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