Quantum Man (Dot Time Records)
Bobby Selvaggio
Released February 21, 2017
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/browse/MPREb_JOhi5Om1CUw
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/1x9GOwQlfHwEJJjCIYvmcc?si=JOXb-sUeRCe0duYm3U7zaA
About:
Bobby Selvaggio’s newest recording “Quantum Man” contains some of his most interesting, adventurous playing and writing to date. This session captures Bobby’s sound on the alto at its best and with the addition of strings and voice to the traditional quartet setting Bobby has created music that is colorful, very textural and above all, full of melody. The music, all original compositions and arrangements show a wide range of styles, including traditional swing, straight-eighth, latin, rock/pop, funk, and drum & bass. This release features his new Transcendental Orchestra project, which is a Jazz Quartet, String Quintet, vocals, and percussion and electronics.
Track Listing:
1. Vanishing Thought 8:06
2. Quantum Man 7:41
3. Fading Rose: Movement I 5:59
4. Fading Rose: Movement II 7:49
5. Fading Rose: Movement III 8:38
6. House on the Hill 7:13
7. Proteanism 5:02
8. Love Within 7:01
9. Up Is Down 8:04
Personnel:
Bobby Selvaggio: saxophones, alto clarinet, voice box effects pedal, keyboard
Theron Brown: piano, keyboards
Dustin May: drums
Dan Pappalardo: bass
Jamey Haddad: percussion
Chelsea Selvaggio: voice
Chiara Stauffer: 1st violin
Amber Dimoff: 2nd violin
Andrea Belding Elson: 1st viola
Christina Spackey: 2nd viola
Trevor Kazarian: cello
Recorded 5 – 6 December 2015, at Audio Recording
Produced by Chris Coles
Engineered and Mixed by Bruce Gigax
Mastered by Kent Heckman
Cover Graphic by Luigi Colarullo
Review:
Bobby Selvaggio’s saxophone and warm yet bracing compositions star on what may be his most adventurous album. Even at its most abstract, the highly textured, refreshingly unpredictable Quantum Man is persuasive and moving. It’s Selvaggio’s first effort with his Transcendental Orchestra, which includes a jazz quartet, string quintet, voice, percussion and electronics. This album begins with “Vanishing Thought,” a soaring, aspiring showcase for Selvaggio’s fevered alto. Then comes the deliberate title track, a conversation that sets Selvaggio’s cautious single notes and jaunty voice-box effects against a calming string section. The tune thickens as Selvaggio’s single notes recede behind Theron Brown’s energetic piano, transforming the song into a kind of geometric round. And so the album evolves, taking the listener through a complex three-part suite called “Fading Rose” to “House On A Hill,” one of the most haunting tracks. The notion of bel canto, perhaps ingrained in Selvaggio as the son of Cleveland jazz accordionist Pete Selvaggio, permeates Quantum Man; it’s palpable at the beginning of “Fading Rose” as Selvaggio plays a caramel motif, building on it with ferocity. Ultimately, the album’s eclecticism is liberating, spanning the lyrical “House On A Hill,” the edgy, eccentric “Proteanism” and “Love Within,” a ballad so mellow you might think it’s a lost track from Focus, the Stan Getz-Eddie Sauter classic.
Carlo Wolff (DownBeat)
