The Jazz Owl
  • Travis Rogers, Jr. -- The Jazz Owl
  • A Love of Music
  • Music Reviews
  • Reviews on Travis Rogers Jr.
  • Meetings with Remarkable People
  • SoulMates by Candlelight
  • Music in Portland
  • Toshi Onizuka
  • The Arts: Film, Literature and More
  • A Love of History
  • Baseball Stories
  • Personal Reflections

Natalie Cressman and Mike Bono Create "Etchings in Amber"

10/18/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Etchings in Amber is Natalie Cressman’s third album. And nothing could have prepared us for what we hear on this endearing, charming, and utterly surprising album.

Known as a Jazz trombonist (she picked that up from father, Jeff Cressman. Yes, that Jeff Cressman for you Santana fans), her previous outing, Turn the Sea, featured an eight-piece band with Natalie on trombone and also on vocals. That album defied category but anchored Natalie in the quest for her own music and her own expression of it. Turn the Sea followed Natalie’s debut album Unfolding which first introduced us to that delightful voice.

Enter Mike Bono, the New York City guitarist who has made a name for himself as a remarkable improviser. He has played with such diverse artists as Erykah Badu, Dayna Stephens, Chris Cheek, Andra Day, and more. The resulting duo of Cressman and Bono is a wonder of good fortune for we who love the delicacy of Natalie’s vocals and the determined virtuosity and elegant improvisation of Bono.

On Etchings in Amber, Natalie leaves behind her signature trombone and offers nothing but her plaintive, lovely, and enthralling voice. And it is all we could have hoped for. It is not the straight-ahead Jazz found on her first two albums but Natalie and Mike worked together on all the compositions and arrangements and the production of this album. Once again, she defies classification as she and Mike explore the peripheries of sound and meaning.

And if that is not Jazz, I don’t know what is.

The album contains nine tracks that flow seamlessly from one into the next. Together, Natalie and Mike create an extended tone poem of longing, beauty, love, loss, and remembrance. It is like flowing down the Moldau with Smetana.

Dusk introduces the album and one is immediately struck by the tone and texture of Bono’s guitar mastery. Natalie joins in and the sonic symmetry is unmistakable. Before ever moving on to the second track, I knew that I was hooked. After two or three hearings, I started to pay attention to the lyrics, having been totally taken with the music. Natalie reveals herself to be an equally adept lyricist and, for a writer like me, that is a big deal.

Wind of Whims is more fanciful and is it soon revealed that, although the songs are tied together in the perfect duet, they are structurally, lyrically, different and distinct. The beautiful I Look to You is a marvel of depth and emotion. Losing Grace shifts tempo and the dynamics are fascinating.

Goodbye Lullaby is the final track and makes one secretly moan, “No, no. This can’t be the end.” And, just like that, Natalie and Mike fade out leaving a hole in your heart.

Until you hit “replay.” And you will.



~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl


Picture
0 Comments

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    August 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2017
    February 2017
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    Categories

    All
    Aaron Parks
    Akira Ishiguro
    Ches Smith
    Chuck Van Haecke
    Dewa Budjana
    George Colligan
    Goh Kurosawa
    Helen Sung
    Jack Dejohnette
    Kai Kurosawa
    Keith Jarrett
    Matt Mitchell
    Oscar Noriega
    Osmany Paredes
    Peter Erskine
    Pseudocidal
    Ruben Rodriguez
    Sharp Three
    Simakdialog
    Steven Kroon
    Susan Clynes
    Thierry Maillard
    Tim Berne
    Tim Berne's Snakeoil
    Tom Guarna

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.