Album Review: Jazz It Up from Bob Arthurs and Steve LaMattina
Album: Jazz It Up
Artists: Bob Arthurs and Steve Lamattina
Label: Blue Griffin Recording, Inc.
Website: www.bobarthursmusic.com
Jazz It Up, the latest CD from the collaboration of trumpet player Bob Arthurs and guitarist Steve LaMattina is a vessel for Ukranian folk songs, interpreted using European blues and American jazz conjugations. The endeavor proves to be a mellow outing sewing together moments of quiet contemplation and episodic anecdotes.
The seeds of appreciation for traditional Ukranian melodies are planted, displaying their vitality and intrinsic ability to speak to global societies. Fundamental sounding, the tunes resonate with people of diverse cultures. For instance, "Walking Around the Garden" permeates a bluesy French persuasive, reminiscent of the culture's nightclub atmosphere with smooth vocals and a sparsely layered melody containing a slow-simmering guitar strum and the occasional flare of the trumpet. The bluesy tone of the guitar strings ruminating along "Do Not Ask Why My Eyes Are Teary" have an American jazz quality, slinky and subdued as the chords embellish Arthurs monologue on the trumpet, personalizing the song with bon mots or pleasantries.
The repartee established between Arthurs and LaMattina shows consideration for each other in "Blues for Ukraine." The pair act as a catalyst for one another, forming a dance where each alternate turns leading and following the other. Resembling a folk dance for couples, Arthurs and LaMattina demonstrate a chemistry that is natural and always in agreement. The trumpet is often featured in the upper register like in the serenading verses of "My Dear Mother" and the sultry samba-pulsed cadence of "Hutzul Girl Ksenia." Still, Arthurs plays a supportive role to LaMattina's guitar along the sumptious rumba-esque undulations of "Oh Girl."
Arthurs and LaMattina's endeavor shows reverence for the ethnic essence of traditional Ukranian songs as well as contemporizing them for modern jazz audiences and followers of world music. The duo's implementation of jazz-inspired passages and blues-style elocution into folkloric melodies tailors these tunes for today's audiences.
Musicians:
Bob Arthurs - trumpet, flugelhorn, and vocls
Steve LaMattina - guitar
Artists: Bob Arthurs and Steve Lamattina
Label: Blue Griffin Recording, Inc.
Website: www.bobarthursmusic.com
Jazz It Up, the latest CD from the collaboration of trumpet player Bob Arthurs and guitarist Steve LaMattina is a vessel for Ukranian folk songs, interpreted using European blues and American jazz conjugations. The endeavor proves to be a mellow outing sewing together moments of quiet contemplation and episodic anecdotes.
The repartee established between Arthurs and LaMattina shows consideration for each other in "Blues for Ukraine." The pair act as a catalyst for one another, forming a dance where each alternate turns leading and following the other. Resembling a folk dance for couples, Arthurs and LaMattina demonstrate a chemistry that is natural and always in agreement. The trumpet is often featured in the upper register like in the serenading verses of "My Dear Mother" and the sultry samba-pulsed cadence of "Hutzul Girl Ksenia." Still, Arthurs plays a supportive role to LaMattina's guitar along the sumptious rumba-esque undulations of "Oh Girl."
Arthurs and LaMattina's endeavor shows reverence for the ethnic essence of traditional Ukranian songs as well as contemporizing them for modern jazz audiences and followers of world music. The duo's implementation of jazz-inspired passages and blues-style elocution into folkloric melodies tailors these tunes for today's audiences.
Musicians:
Bob Arthurs - trumpet, flugelhorn, and vocls
Steve LaMattina - guitar
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