Search - Charles Pillow :: In This World

Jazz Beat Comes of Age

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 11/13/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What we have here is a new kind of fusion: world beat, jazz, and classical. Not that something like this has never been tried before, but I'm not aware of it ever working. Playing mostly woodwinds from the classical tradition--English horn and oboe--Charles Pillow has fashioned something genuinely new and ravishingly beautiful. This kind of experiment often founders on the shoals of insufficient familiarity with the various traditions attempting to be fused. Not here. Besides having complete mastery of two difficult to play horns, Pillow sets them in music contexts perfectly suited to their sonic and tonal palettes. Moreover, he demonstrates remarkable command of everything from penny whistle, to ocarina, to sopranino saxophone, to bass clarinet. Often this multiple horn approach doesn't work, because the artist is more concerned to show off his chops than to create something genuinely affecting. But Pillow eschews the virtuoso trap achieving instead an uncanny knack of evoking the exact right setting, tone, and voice for each of the horns.He's made inspired choices for bandmates as well. Peter Erskine, veteran drummer from Weather Report, Steps Ahead, his own solo projects, and many important sideman outings, is perfect in this setting. Pete McCann, though not having Erskine's years of experience, has carved out his own reputation for versitility on his two Palmetto solo outings. With impeccible guitarist Ben Monder and iconoclastic drummer Matt Wilson on board for the last two cuts, Pillow practically achieves musical nirvana. Mike Holober, a brillant but criminally under recorded piano and keys guy, also shines.One catches occasional whiffs of Oregon, Al Di Meola (esp. in his World Sinfonia outings), Joe Zawinal, Paul Winter, and Richard Stoltzman, but, really, Charles Pillow is forging a new path--one you'd be wise to travel on, if you have any affinity at all for this kind of music. Simply one of the best new releases of this or any other year."