Year: 2007
Record Label: Armored Records
Style: Contemporary Jazz
Musicians: Stockton Helbing (drums, cymbals), Ken Edwards (trumpet, flugelhorn), Chip Mc Neill (tenor, soprano saxophones), Steve Wiest (trombone), David Braid (piano, Fender Rhodes), Noel Johnston (guitar), Brian Mulholland (bass)
Review: He’s been The Boss-Maynard Ferguson’s drummer and has enacted with a list of jazz stars. With this album, drummer Stockton Helbing fetches a touch of stratum to the fingerprints of these themes which on the whole are nice soothing pieces that urge on insights with a chummily voluble stream. Outfitted with his cymbals and drum-kit, Helbing and his septet perform a queue of originals in the standard-like mode. To that boundary, the drummer’s supple rhythms are in accord with his jazzy licks and render a tribute to his mentor.
Helbing caters to an air of philanderer during these soul-intended-touching works featuring nice solos by Ken Edwards, Chip McNeill and David Braid. That said, it’s a poly-shaded effort, indeed, as the septet ascends the tempo in blots, amid a bounty of mellow charged themes and ghostly melodic choruses evidenced on, “Pwned!”. Ultimately, the melodies strike a different chord, yet it is unduly honeyed and slushy. The band gullies their enterprise into the lulling side with this tonal however wily executed ride.
The collective doesn’t engage in quarrelsome moaning and over-lengthen solos. They certainly don’t reinvent the wheel, but the band does put across a sense of hard-hearted swoon surrounded by alternating solo moments. It’s more about fervency and technical discernment, earning a jovial settlement. Interesting…
Tracks: A Certain Amount Of Indiscretions, System Theory: Reloaded, If You Could See, For Nothing Is Secret, The Bad In Good, Pwned! Shifty, Say A silent Prayer, Sco-Ing, Emihl’s Ghost
Artist's Website: http://www.stocktonhelbing.com
Reviewed by:
Dr. Ana Isabel Ordonez
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