When I first started getting hooked on jazz about six years ago, I first started gravitating towards the “groove jazz” of the ’60’s featuring organists such as Jimmy Smith, Brother Jack McDuff, and Charles Earland and guitarists like Grant Green. I am not sure why I became attracted to this music over some of the other longstanding forms of jazz such as the “cool” jazz of Miles Davis or the more “out” style of Sun Ra and some of the experimental set but I did. I believe my longstanding love of soul music had something to do with it as the “typical” soul music of the time had very similar musical elements as the groove jazz of the period, most prominently the instrumentation and the dance-ability. Plus, groove jazz was geared more towards the mainstream, and therefore had more traditional melodic structure than a lot of the more adventurous jazz music played by the more esoteric jazz artists around at the time when groove jazz was at its’ peak. Though dismissed by jazz purists as almost a form of “easy listening” jazz with little invention, the form remains as one of the most accessible paths into the art form and many jazz fans were first introduced to the idiom by jazz hits such as Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” and many of the organ trio singles which scored high on the R&B charts by artists such as Jimmy Smith, Groove Holmes and the like. Eventually, as I became more educated in the art form, I decided to get farther and farther away from what most resembled the mainstream of jazz and started investigating the music of Davis, Thelonius Monk and some of the more free-thinkers of the art form. While I am still investigating this rich vein of musical art, I have come to appreciate the freedom of playing music without any structural or melodic boundaries and boggle at how liquid and impervious to the shackles of convention great jazz can be.

From listening to this CD, it seems as if singer/guitarist Kevin Cosgrove and his fellow musicians in Socks for Dinosaurs agree with me, as the aggregation has constructed an album rooted in several basic forms of jazz but is bursting with experimentation and odd little musical cul-de-sacs and twists and turns that turn relatively straight-up tracks into their own little weird avenues of musical exploration and textural experimentation. The name of the group alone may be the key that something is not quite right, but one only has to hear a few bars of the first song to know they’re in for a musical journey that is anything but bore-dinary (boring and ordinary, natch!) and far from what one would hear on any of those fast dwindling (thankfully) smooth jazz and “quiet storm” stations that have robbed jazz of much of its improvisatory bite over the past twenty five years or so. Though the project was begun by Cosgrove in order to create a work of art by an ad-hoc “artistic community” with his vocals as the center, I postulate he has found so like-minded a set of musicians as far as creativity and freedom expression goes, that he has in fact created one of the most interesting jazz bands to some along in quite awhile. Among the musicians Cosgrove has invited to be a part of this project is David Darling, a famed cellist and ECM recording artist, and pedal steel legend Buddy Charlton, who played in Ernest Tubbs Texas Troubadours. Pedal steel on a jazz record? Yes, Virginia, this is not George Benson warbling “On Broadway”, The Manhattan Transfer singing “Boy From New York City” or Kenny G playing that god-awful crap he manages to fill his albums with. Though, one could say there are elements of all those artists on this album, though done in a radically different way and spiced up with various elements from all points in the history of jazz, from the swing of the ’40’s, through the R&B grooves of the ’60’s and beyond into fusion and world music. One could take this album apart song by song and hold discussions about what artist of time period may have inspired the piece of music, but that would be boring and banal. More important than overanalyzing it is listening to it and enjoying it.

The opening song has a swirling background but the vocals by singer Eric Reinhardt (who does the lion’s share of the singing on this disc) make it seem almost country-sounding, though a somewhat psychedelic version of what country music usually sounds like. I think he takes the lyric from a song “Life’s A Trip – That Just Keeps Happening” a little more literally than the song would have you think. The next song, Brazil, does not musically evoke the subject matter but is a sort-of gypsy jazz number with an interesting violin part and early Billy Joel-style lyric structure. A female vocal joins in on their fun about halfway through. The third song, Tired, begins with a sort of classical string motif and features some interesting African percussion. Very interesting arrangement here to a lyric that is a fairly straight-forward song but is handling anything but, though singer Reinhardt strains his vocals for effect. Is Love Real, the next cut, is a real swinging jazz number with a ’40’s style with some wonderfully played vibe accents. Sort of Manhattan Transfer-ish but with just Reinhardt singing and sparse background vox for effect. Weary Angel has a sort of country vibe with delicate pedal steel and great bluegrass touches. Reinhardt almost adds a sort of Neil Young-ish quality to his voice for this cut. East Coast Land is a samba-style jazz ballad with vocals by guitarist Cosgrove. Some great conga and flute work flesh out the song. Change is a more funky number, with vocals by Reinhardt and a female singer named Xantha, but still jazzy with Reinhardt singing some scatting. Tar River is a slightly Eastern sounding jazz song with vocals by Reinhardt and Susan Deikman which inexplicably because an almost country song about a quarter way in thanks to some pedal steel provided by Buddy Chalton before turning back to its Eastern motif. The last song, Late At Night, is an effervescent jazzier with vocals by Reinhardt and Deikman that is a suitable closer for this eclectic album.

While different than most of the jazz music I listen to, I found myself becoming impressed and immersed into the music on this CD. While very eclectic and certainly not for every listener, jazz fan or otherwise, the musical ideas here are presented cohesively, intelligently, and with an idea of giving a listener something to grab onto melodically and stylistically while injecting a certain amount of originality and off-center musical elements as to keep the listener on their toes. There is nothing on this CD so obtuse as to befuddle a listener or make them shy away from the melodic thrust of the disc, yet this is not your everyday jazz music regardless of subgenre, and is CD one can listen to over and over again and discover new nuances in each song, making for a very engaging listen for an intelligent, savvy music fan that likes something beyond the norm.

Reviewed By Scott Homewood

admin Reviews, Scott Homewood