denny Schools Periods & Styles book

Recorded at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, December 18, 2010 "Jugular" Composed by Kevin Dean Kevin Dean - Trumpet Al McLean - Saxophone Mike Rud - Guitar This memorable hard-Bop tune is laid bare in a fine trio performance. Montreal's best Jazz musicians make great work of trumpeter Kevin Dean's original, which stands on its own without bass and drums. Of course the able accompaniment of Mike Rud on guitar provides a solidly swinging foundation for the enterprise, which makes us wonder why we ever needed bass and drums anyways... Kevin Dean and Al McLean are beautifully balanced on the session. Dean, a founding faculty member of the Schulich School of Music's Jazz program at McGill University, is known for his 'straight-down-the-barrel' Hard Bop aesthetic, and a refined, traditional delivery. Nuance and chops are deftly packaged into a compact and purposeful oeuvre; Bebop at its highest level. We hear echos of Lee Morgan and Clifford Brown when Kevin plays, but he remains vibrant and relevant, setting himself apart, and painting a unique musical picture with a traditional palette. McLean, on the other hand, is harder to both define, and to contain, with an ever-overflowing exuberance of style and technique. Al McLean wears a contemporary 'coat of many colors' (and it is gleaming gold here), as he easily adapts to different instruments and styles with an earnest joie-de- vivre. This is not mere sampling or referencing, which is what we have come to expect from ...