Billy Pezzack is currently in Great Britain making a name for himself by sharing his musical knowledge on the guitar to the next generation of guitarists. With the talent that Pezzack possesses, it was only a matter of time before he took his ability to play many musical styles on the guitar and put that talent into making an album. So it comes as no surprise that the musician just released an all-original album called Your Blue Sky,
Your Blue Sky, the new instrumental album from Billy Pezzack, was recorded in two sessions with three other musicians that helped fill out the sound. Along with Billy on guitar, Paul Pezzack played the bass guitar, and drummers Iolo Whelan and Mark O’Connor provided the rhythm for the tracks. O’Connor played drums for the first five tracks, while Whelan helped out on the rest of the release. Having two drummers for the release created two different feelings to the music. O’Connor’s style is slightly lighter while Whelan’s drumming style is a little on the firmer side.
Pezzack and the other musicians spent quite a bit of time playing jazz while making this album. The first track (which happens to be the title track of “Your Blue Sky”) finds the Pezzacks and O’Connor creating some smooth jazz. A later track “Yep,” features the trio with Whelan as drummer creating a song that is a little more upbeat. That track is immediately followed by “Keeping Stones,” a jazz song that slows the tempo down.
Staying with the slower pace created by “Keeping Stones,” the brothers Pezzack create a beautiful song called “One Summer”. That song is followed by “Twinkle,” Billy’s loose interpretation of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”.
Jazz is only one genre of music created in the songs that make up the album Your Blue Sky. Sometimes the musicians led by Billy Pezzack create music that falls into other genres. It is on the songs “The Binf,” “Talking to Myself,” and “Billy’s Blues” that the musicians create some really good instrumental blues tunes. With “Vibro” and “Blackwater,” Pezzack, Pazzack and Whelan take the jazz they create and kick it up a notch by adding a rock edge to it. “Get A Proper Job” can only be described as “instrumental rock”. The versatility of all of the musicians allow for the lines to become blurred between genres and the variations of music created on Your Blue Sky keep the album interesting for the 50 minutes worth of music.
Most albums seem to feel as if they are very tightly organized, like each note has to be in a certain spot or it’s just not correct. However, this is one thing that separates Your Blue Sky by Billy Pezzack from most of the albums being created- the album has a very loose feel to it. Pezzack and the rest of the musicians seem to allow the music to dictate where the songs end up. It’s the loose feeling that makes Your Blue Sky enjoyable.
Many aspects to Your Blue Sky make it a great release: Whether it’s the two sessions created with two different drummers, the variations of music that were created during the recording process for the album, or the talent of Billy Pezzack himself, the many different things that went into creating the release help to make Your Blue Sky by Billy Pezzack a pleasure to listen to.
Review by Matheson Kamin
