Dialectics (Cellar Live)
Curtis Nowosad
Released March, 2015
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
Juno Award Nominee 2016 Jazz Album of the Year: Solo
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kdVMMi8d1OAmOh_akCeEhRMTD3IVtekgM
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6Yzn3M6ytpHHMJ8DvIv19s?si=_pUaL72sSb-K-70KENVLSA
About:
The Winnipeg-raised, New York based jazz drummer, composer and bandleader presents a collection of dynamic and swinging original compositions on his sophomore album, as well as selected interpretations of music by Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, and Mercer/Schertzinger. Featuring world-renowned tenor saxophonist, Jimmy Greene, and Canadian-based, New York expats, Steve Kirby and Derrick Gardner, the band pays tribute to both its ancestors and its contemporaries in a way that is thoughtful, engaging and ultimately irresistible.
Track Listing:
1. Speak No Evil (Wayne Shorter) 05:44
2. Empirically Speaking (Curtis Nowosad) 05:43
3. Dialectics (Curtis Nowosad) 07:59
4. 159 & St. Nick (Curtis Nowosad) 03:38
5. A Casual Test (Curtis Nowosad) 05:08
6. Reconciliation (Curtis Nowosad) 03:07
7. Bye-Ya (Thelonious Monk) 05:07
8. Gleaning & Dreaming (Curtis Nowosad) 06:57
9. I Remember You (Johnny Mercer) 04:42
Personnel:
Curtis Nowosad: drums
Jimmy Greene: tenor and soprano saxophones
Derrick Gardner: trumpet
Steve Kirby: bass
Will Bonness: piano
Recorded June 17 & 18, 2014, at Musirex Studios, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Produced by Curtis Nowosad
Engineered and Mixed by Laurent Roy
Mastered by Dave Darlington
Cover Photo by Rachel Boese
Design and layout by Ian Hendrickson-Smith
Review:
Canadian drummer-composer Curtis Nowosad boldly tackles a new vision of post-hardbop on his sophomore album, Dialectics. Kick-starting the album with a time-shifting funk relay on Wayne Shorter’s “Speak No Evil,” Nowosad’s group of tenor player Jimmy Greene, bassist Steve Kirby, trumpeter Derrick Gardner and pianist Will Bonness smack-down the song’s hard corners every time, inserting rip-snorting solos like Pro Tools slice-anddiced sample injections. Nowosad and company repeat the feat on Monk’s “Bye-Ya,” bridging heated Latin circulation with angular, jumping rhythms that are as thrill-inducing as mad scientists riding a roller coaster. Nowosad is fiery and scalding one moment, breezy and swinging the next, and perpetually inventive throughout. His solo on “159 & St. Nick” sounds like a drum corps racing over Niagara Falls, his garrulous flams, crush rolls and skull-cracking accents pure joy.
Ken Micallef (DownBeat)
