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Mark McGrain: Love + Time + Divination
by Dan Bilawsky
When Crescent City trombonist Mark McGrain first conceived of this album, it was a way to honor his parents by visiting some of their favorite songs from the '30s and '40s. In the end, he remained faithful to his core mission while broadening the repertoire to include far more than familiar glimpses of the past. Love + Time + Divination, a drummer-less trio date enhanced with a few appearances from New Orleans vocal treasure John Boutté, contains ...
read morePlunge: In For The Out
by Dave Wayne
Trombonist Mark McGrain is one of those guys who follows his own muse. Though he's not particularly prolific, each of his albums as a leader feature some truly profound music-making. In for the Out is no exception. On his fourth album as a leader, McGrain has re-invented himself, playing with an expanded New Orleans-based group and with a completely revamped sound. Tin Fish Tango (Immersion Media, 2011) and Dancing on Thin Ice (Immersion Media, 2009), also recorded in New Orleans ...
read morePlunge: Tin Fish Tango
by Dan McClenaghan
Plunge is a drummer-less trio, featuring leader/trombonist Mark McGrain teamed with bassist James Singleton. The “no drums" approach allows flexibility in the music's time element, and a fluidity of the flow of notes, while horns and bass make room for space as a major component of the sound.The slippery tango of the title track to Plunge's third CD, Tin Fish Tango, opens the disc, featuring brief, concise soloing, entwined with jaunty bass lines. McGrain and saxophonist Tim Green ...
read morePlunge: Dancing on Thin Ice
by Raul d'Gama Rose
There is a plangorous significance to Dancing on Thin Ice. Built on the symbolic thin ice of New Orleans' ecology, it depicts a city that has bounced back from Katrina but only just. It also tells a broader allegorical tale about the planet's teeter-tottering cultural ecology--hence the cover silhouettes of a mastodon and hammerhead shark, representing the strength of all that lives on earth and in the depths of the ocean, and all that makes jazz strong, pliant and enduring. ...
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