Customer Reviews

The Company You Keep

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A little bluegrass, a little jazzy, it's something new (to me) & totally to my tastes. I really recommend this one based on the technical side as well as the aesthetics. I was really impressed.

I discovered Alison Brown and her remarkably talented quartet (what a piano!) at the Rochester Jazz Festival in '08. She knocked everyone out. This CD is completely original with wonderful and unpredictable jazz melodies and rhythms. Definitely a departure for the banjo from the typical country/bluegrass-- what a joy to see how great a jazz instrument it can be! I am online to buy another copy for friends and to see what I can find from John R. Burr (piano). Can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

I'm not into doing reviews, but the one star review is unjust. Its OK if you don't like a particular style of music, but don't rate it poorly on that basis. Yes, I have all of Alison Brown's albums, but I like both traditional bluegrass and jazz played by folks like Bela Fleck, David Grisman, Mike Marshall, etc. This is a great album!

I was surprised and delighted with this Alison Brown CD. I never heard of her before. Amazon offered one of her free song for Xmas. I give it a chance and was intrigue with the Banjo Cool Jazz fusion of Evergreen. After listening to it I was hooked so I got this CD and I did not disappoint. I you are a fan of Cool Jazz genre, Alison Brown bring a little bit something different to the table. I enjoyed her music.

I encountered Alison Brown and her gang at a recent Nashville bluegrass gathering. I'm not a country music guy, so my expectations were modest. But Alison Brown and crew really knocked me out. I wouldn't mind more more vocal, but this is banjo music with mind brain and soul.

I also liked a newer Oklahoma group that played later... the Rockin' Acoustic Circus... RAC. Hard to find their CDs (I think they have 2, but worth the search).

Another helping of bland jazz-country banjo fluff from Alison. Nicely recorded and deftly played, with an excellent cast of studio musicians, but musically pretty barren. Stylistically, it's a wishy-washy new-age product with faint country roots although it is perhaps intentionally more jazzy than country, so there is lots of pretty doodling but not much earthy gritty substance.

The compositions are mostly Alison's, with the help of the band's pianist John R. Burr, while The Road West is Mairtin O'Connor's and Forky On The Water is traditional. The instruments accompanying Alison's banjo include piano, mandolin, fiddle, bass, guitar and percussion.

There are certainly high quality production values here. The recorded sound is full, glossy and easy on the ears, but musically the album joins other wallpaper Americana coming out of Nashville at the moment that is unfortunately meaningless and forgettable (like Jerry Douglas's largely disappointing Glide).

I'm a fan of the banjo and of rural bluegrass generally, and perhaps my ears rebel if there's too much infused jazz, but deep musical ideas were just not forthcoming here so it didn't grab me at all (neither did a live performance a couple of years back). One for the fans, perhaps.