Down Home (RootsToBoot Music)
Petr Cancura
Released January 6, 2013
All About Jazz Five-Star Review
13th Independent Music Awards Jazz Instrumental Album Winner 2013
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nJJkC_XA7w4m1AJFTfrbFT6waoiZbvodk
Spotify:
About:
Though he was born in the Czech Republic, made his mark in Canada and now lives in New York, the tenor saxophonist Petr Cancura has a feeling for the rural American South, particularly as depicted through black-and-white photographs. Down Home is his attempt to evoke that milieu, with an instrumentation that usually includes violin and guitar along with drums.
Interview New City Notes: https://terrypender.blogspot.com/2014/10/brooklyn-jazz-meets-mississippi-blues.html
Track Listing:
1. Those Were The Times 4:03
2. Farmer Tune 3:53
3. Music Box 1:37
4. Anabelle’s Waltz 3:42
5. My Country 3:41
6. Roasting 4:44
7. We Ain’t Gonna Stop Now! 2:15
8. Dry County 3:59
9. Partners In Crime 4:49
10. Blind Willie 4:33
11. Shine On 3:54
12. We’re Going Home 2:35
13. Lay Me Down 3:41
Personnel:
Petr Cancura: saxophone, banjo, musicbox, sounds
Richie Barshay: drums & percussion
Garth Stevenson: bass
Kirk Knuffke: cornet
Brian Drye: trombone, tuba, piano
Additional recording by
Jayme Stone banjo (2)
Liz Hanson snare drum (7)
Clay Ross guitar (5)
Chris Bartos guitar (9, 10)
Recorded January 20th & 21st at Applehead Recording in Woodstock, New York, by Chris Bittner / Michael Birnbaum
Additional recording in Brooklyn, Boulder, CO and Toronto, Canada
Mixed & Mastered by Petr Cancura
Artwork and Photography by Petr Cancura
Review:
Once jazz migrated from New Orleans and the Deep South to Chicago and New York, a favorite put-down for those making music that wasn’t urban, cool or modern was to call the musicians “country.” It was as if all things of jazz consequence outside of urban centers was required to be imported from said cities.
Of late, jazz artist have latched onto the ‘slow food,’ buy-local movement, taking ingredients found in the country to build upon this thing called jazz. Petr Cancura is one such artist. The saxophonist/banjoist’s Down Home is three parts roots music, two parts jazz, one part blues, mixed on a country porch, and, pardon the cliché, it cooks.
Inspired by a trip from Brooklyn to Mississippi, Cancura wrote jazz tracks built from the Deep South. Doubling on banjo and musicbox, the saxophonist takes jazz back to a rural place. The banjo opens the affair with “Those Were The Times,” a slow, smoky tune draped in Brian Drye’s trombone and Kirk Knuffke’s untucked cornet. Like the Americana work of Bill Frisell, there is an authenticity to Cancura’s vision. His “Farmer Tune” features the rat-tat-tat of Richie Barshay’s drums; the music is a picnic of a dance track. The same can be said for “My Country,” with its simple logic. Bassist Garth Stevenson makes his instrument sound like a washtub bass, and the band spins their partners round and round.
To call this music country is a compliment. Just like you could call Rahsaan Roland Kirk or Ornette Coleman country, Cancura brings the unembellished parade music of “We Ain’t Gonna Stop Now!” into the party. He includes a baby’s music box, and rural blues with the swinging banjo heard on “Dry Country.” The music is a roots party. Cancura’s saxophone duet with Chris Bartos on “Partners in Crime” is hearty, filling and robust. Knuffke’s plaintive sound rounds the track into a family affair.
The disc is best summed up by Cancura’s anthem, “Shine On,” an encouraging blues that lingers long after the track ends. It’s as if the windows have been thrown open to allow a deep breath of music to flow through the jazz house.
Mark Corroto (All About Jazz)
