Bruce Arnold Art of Blues
Featuring:
Bruce Arnold — Guitar
Dean Johnson — Bass
Tony Moreno —Drums
Bruce Arnold kicks it up a notch with “Art of the
Blues” (MSK 157)
Great musicians have been doing their own take on the blues since the
form was created, and now Bruce Arnold joins their company with Art of
the Blues. Arnold has exhibited astonishing versatility with his
various projects, tackling pieces as disparate as Olivier Messiaen’s
“Quartet for the End of Time” and Native American chants. He is best
known however, for his explorations into the application of 12-tone
theory in jazz improvisation. Arnold here applies a similar
intellectual rigor to the 12 tracks that are by turns lyrical, spare,
haunting and always intriguing.
As Bruce explains it: “In Art of the Blues I have applied the
structural rhythmic and harmonic ideas that I have been working with
over the past several years to the blues form. These structures deal
with small three note groups and the superimposition of time fields
over a basic pulse. I’ve used the unit of a half step and a minor
3rd as my motif, and composed twelve blues, one in each key.
You’ll also hear some fun with time signatures and the use of a dotted
quarter note as a vehicle for multiple time layering.”
Joining Bruce on this bracing set and negotiating the tricks and turns
are stalwarts Tony Moreno on drums and Dean Johnson on upright bass.
Mr. Moreno is featured on almost every tune; his stellar drum solos are
filled with layered time improvisations and endless creativity. “It was
a conscious decision on my part to feature Tony on all these tunes”
says Bruce “ I wanted to showcase the many types of time manipulations
that we have been exploring over the past few years.” Time
juxtapositions abound, with a G Blues 30 bar in 3/4 in with 5 measure
phrases, a D Blues 18 bar form in 5/4, an A Blues 15 bar form in 7/4,
an E Blues 12 Bar form in 9/4, and a B Blues 24 Bar form in 4/4.
And although Bruce’s composition is forward thinking, his chordal
accompani- iment style throughout Art of the Blues conscientiously
harkens back to the roots of Rhythm and Blues guitar. All these
elements combine to create a collection of tunes that while sounding
like a traditional jazz guitar CD also presents a personal new approach
and direction for the blues.
Below are a few excerpts from this CD:
Cat
Feet- 013 Blues in C
Castles-
013 Blues in G
Bruce Arnold—$14.99
Item#: MSK-157
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