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

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Bob Sneider - Out Of The Darkness

Size: 138,1 MB
Time: 59:40
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2001
Styles: Jazz
Art: Front

01. Isfahan (6:47)
02. Out Of The Darkness (5:20)
03. David’s Tune (4:24)
04. Waltz For Aleta (6:04)
05. Love Walked In (8:40)
06. Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye (7:27)
07. Vivo Sonhando (Dreamer) (3:40)
08. If I Had You (6:14)
09. You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To (6:11)
10. Pyramid (4:49)

Guitarist Bob Sneider, based in Rochester, New York, won two Downbeat awards for "Best Performance" before he was out of college, then went on to perform with Houston Person, Freddie Cole, Nnenna Freelon, and Jon Faddis; he also toured with Chuck Mangione for four years. Now teaching jazz guitar at the prestigious Eastman School of Music, Sneider is a classy player with a honeyed tone and smooth, melodic lines. Out of the Darkness is a good title for a CD where dissonance is an accent, rather than a lifestyle; listening to it is like taking a springtime ride with the top down.

On Sneider's second outing for Sons of Sound , he appears in different settings - duo with percussion, bebop quintet, trio - each revealing a different color in his extensive palette. His writing gifts are especially evident on the burning title tune and the tender "Waltz for Aleta," and his addition of an intriguing head-twist to "Love Walked In." There's a good mix of electric and acoustic guitar, and the pacing is a naturalistic, satisfying sequence of density and mood. A string quartet enhances two tracks without adding any of that cloying sweetness; in fact, "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" is a highlight of the album, along with the graceful takes on "Isfahan," "Pyramid," and Jobim's "Dreamer." Bassist Bob Stata, pianist Paul Hofmann and drummer Mike melito are consistently first-rate. The last track, Kenny Burrell's "Lyrestro," is actually a concert video, playable on Quicktime 3.0, which my antique equipment will not accommodate; but while I can't report on the audio, the video reveals that a good time was had by all. It certainly sounds like it. A thoroughly enjoyable CD. ~Dr. Judith Schelesinger

Personnel: Bob Sneider (electric and classical guitar), John Sneider (trumpet), Paul Hofmann (piano), Bob Stata (bass), Mike Melito (drums), Tony Padilla (percussion), string quartet: Diedre Foley (violin), Heather Netz (violin), Adrienne Sommerville (viola), Christoher Hutton (cello), strings arranged by David Ravello

Out Of The Darkness

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Bob Sneider, Joe Locke - Nocturne For Ava

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:15
Size: 160.8 MB
Styles: Contemporary jazz
Year: 2004
Art: Front

[6:45] 1. Last Tango In Paris
[5:54] 2. Afterglow
[7:31] 3. Theme From Blow Up
[6:10] 4. Laura
[5:54] 5. Black Dahlia
[6:12] 6. Windmills Of Your Mind
[5:51] 7. Nocturne For Ava
[7:12] 8. Kiss Me, Kill Me
[6:57] 9. I Want To Live
[5:19] 10. Flirtbird
[6:25] 11. Los Feliz

John Sneider: trumpet; Grant Stewart: tenor; Bob Sneider: guitar; Joe Locke: vibes; Paul Hofmann: piano; Martin Wind: bass; Tim Horner: drums; Luisito Quintero: percussion.

In 2006, guitarist Bob Sneider and vibraphonist Joe Locke assembled a collective devoted to the jazz soundtrack of noir fiction called The Film Noir Project. That same year they released Fallen Angel (Sons of Sound). Switching labels, Sneider and Locke release their second Film Noir Project installment in Nocturne for Ava, honoring the brunette bombshell Ava Gardner and her contributions to the noir genre like the film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's The Killers.

It is a subtle hypnotism Sneider and Locke perform by naming their collective The Film Noir Project. Billed as being dedicated to the spirit of the jazz soundtrack as part of film noir sets up certain expectations. Cleverly, The Film Noir Project immediately stimulates aural images of smoky saxophones and martini-bright brass complementing the environs of West Coast crime in the '40s and '50s. While this expectation is partially realized, The Project polishes the concept with brass cleaner to a high sheen.

Nocturne for Ava consists of eleven selections, eight of which are reinterpretations of noir soundtracks with the remainder being stylized realizations of the genre. The Project is nominally an octet, or sub-atomically a trumpet- saxophone quintet with guitar, vibes, and percussion. Sneider, Locke, and percussionist Luisito Quintero are the added degrees of freedom to this quintet equation that provide the noir atmospherics. An early example is Sneider and Locke weaving a gossamer spell beneath John Sneider's muted trumpet on Mark Isham's "Afterglow." The pair state the piece's extended melody languidly while drummer Tim Horner (using brushes) and pianist Paul Hofmann, equally languid, add color and grit.

Herbie Hancock's "Theme From Blow Up" is deftly stated by Hofmann and Locke and propelled by drummer Horner and percussionist Quintero. The musical effect is of a fast moving urban landscape like that of the movie's center of London. Of the originals, Sneider's "Black Dalia" and Locke's title piece readily mesh with the directed compositions in both execution and the atmosphere that results. The theme of film noir soundtrack works well and this group ably interprets the theme. ~C. Michael Bailey

Nocturne For Ava