Showing posts with label Bob Brough. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bob Brough. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

The Bob Brough Quartet - Time Away

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:18
Size: 114,4 MB
Art: Front

(7:28)  1. Traneian Blue
(5:58)  2. Entity
(7:09)  3. Basketball
(5:59)  4. Time Away
(5:42)  5. Winter Waltz
(4:55)  6. Dear Benjamin
(8:19)  7. Light Chasers
(3:44)  8. Blue Pickup

Bob Brough was hot, hot, hot back in 1982, with the trio Timewarp, on the CD Time Warp when it was given a Juno nomination. And Bob was hot, hot, hot back in 2003 with Richard Underhill's Quintet on the CD Tales from the Blue Lounge, when Richard’s CD won a Juno-award. Now, in 2008 Bob is hot, hot, hot following a 3-year-long adventure with the most recent version of The Bob Brough Quartet which has culminated in the release of a new CD, Time Away, celebrated officially at the Rex Jazz and Blues Bar on November 7, 2008. At the CD-release engagement, Bob Brough on tenor saxophone, Adrean Farrugia on piano, Artie Roth on bass, and Terry Clarke on drums, played two rousing sets comprised of jazz standards and original compositions by Bob or Adrean. Impeccable cohesiveness was the order of the evening as the 4 dynamic musicians moved as one through incredibly speedy and difficult improvised passages. The Quartet ended the evening with an audience calling for more and none the least unaware of the unstoppable nature of the energy in this fiery ensemble; nor of the up-beat determination of Bob Brough. Born in 1948 in Toronto, at 14 Bob was handed a baritone saxophone, his first musical instrument, in high school. Within days, his artistic vision was born “to make music and be heard.” Bob is “The Senator” of Globe & Mail jazz critic Mark Miller's book Boogie, Pete, and The Senator, published by Nightwood Editions in 1987. https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/bobbrough

Personnel:  Bob Brough on saxophone;  Artie Roth on bass;  Terry Clarke on drums;  Adrean Farrugia on piano

Time Away

Saturday, August 24, 2013

The Bob Brough Quartet - Like A Spring Day (featuring Carol McCartney)

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 55:15
Size: 126.5 MB
Label: (Self released)
Styles: Saxophone jazz
Year: 2005
Art: Front

[3:29] 1. Like A Spring Day
[5:13] 2. I Know Love Must Be Near
[5:19] 3. A View Painted Citron And Blue
[5:25] 4. Daisy
[5:44] 5. Indian Summer
[3:01] 6. Paradise Is Good Enough For Me
[5:24] 7. Only Summer Knows
[6:02] 8. There's A Place In My Heart
[5:27] 9. Today
[3:59] 10. Scarborough Fair
[6:06] 11. When The Atmosphere's Right

Surely saxophonist/composer Bob Brough must be one of the best jazzmen in Toronto. His second album, Like A Spring Day offers the opportunity to showcase the talents of singer Carol McCartney. Brough collaborated with lyricist Sonja Tran on all but two of the eleven compositions.

Last year at this time, I reviewed Bob Brough's debut recording, A Decade of Favorites and although he had appeared on over twenty recordings, this was his first album. The songs written for this new album are largely uptempo tunes with optimistic titles like "I Know Love Must Be Near," "Paradise Is Good Enough For Me," and the title tune. Sonja Tran's lyrics are sunny and uplifting as exemplified by the "A View Painted Citron and Blue." The goods are delivered by Carol McCartney who sings in a manner reminiscent of Jackie Cain (Jackie & Roy). Her delivery is enthusiastic and she seems comfortable with the jazz vocal genre scatting with ease. The best example of this is on "Today" where she has an extended scat opportunity and also trades four with the band. Bob Brough impressed us last year on his debut and, likewise, as an accompanist he proves equally adept. We get to hear him solo on every track and also provide gorgeous obbligatos behind McCartney in a manner that you'd associate with Stan Getz or Scott Hamilton. When we get the first ballad, "Daisy," Brough elevates the song per his solo. On the version of the Simon & Garfunkel-associated "Scarborough Fair," taken at a faster tempo, McCartney delivers the melody line and then hands off to Brough who soulfully makes this into a legitimate jazz version. The trio of Stan Fomin, piano; Artie Roth, bass and Kevin Brow, drums are all regular members of the Brough group and provide fine support with Fomin and Roth getting in some brief solo space here. ~Michael Galdstone

Like A Spring Day (featuring Carol McCartney)