The quartet takes its name from its members - Seamus Blake(tenor saxophone), Jay Anderson (acoustic bass),Oz Noy (guitar) and Adam Nussbaum (drums) spent 2 days in the bassist’s New Paltz, New York, studio and the results are worth sitting down and soaking in.  Opening with 2 standards and a tune from the debut Crosby, Stills and Nash Lp, the music is loose-limbed and playful.  After a playful groove introduces the pace, Blake and Noy read the theme from Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are” in unison (first line) and with harmony (second line.)  The solos are rich with ideas and there’s a strong sense that these 4 musicians are friends.  They’re playing together; not just “playing” their instruments, but having fun with music.  Thelonious Monk’s “Played Twice” is another of that master composer’s pieces that sounds simple but is anything but.

After Blake and Noy play the head (twice), the piece relaxes into a reggae-soaked groove courtesy of Nussbaum’s slapping snare and Anderson’s popping bass lines.  Both Blake and Noy get to solo over the shifting (and shifty) grooves..now be-bop, now reggae, now back.  Anderson, as melodic a bassist as you’ll hear, tosses in a quick solo then Nussbaum trades bars with the band.

The bassist provides 2 original pieces to the program, the swinging “Will Call” (Noy has a great solo, trading licks with Blake) and the bluesy, boozy, “At Sundown.”  On the latter piece, Noy’s guitar slides, moans, squeals and wails through his solo, moving up and down the fretboard with abandon but not insanely. The guitarist’s “Minor Shuffle” has a Steely Dan feel in the melody line and opens up to a blazing guitar solo as well as a fine tenor solo.  The title track is credited to all 4 members – it’s got a catchy groove, feeling like the tune the band would play in the last set when they were kicking back.
BANN’s music is fun to kick back to, doesn’t ask a lot but delivers with good grooves and fine solos.  There are times when that’s exactly what a listener needs.

For more information, go to www.musiceyes.com.

Here’s the title track for your edification, courtesy of Music Eyes and IODA Promonet:
As You Like (mp3)

STEP TEMPEST

Direct link: http://steptempest.blogspot.com/2011/02/surprising-sounds-or-dont-judge-cd-by.html