Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Milligan-Eagles Project: Milligan-Eagles Project featuri...
Milligan-Eagles Project: Milligan-Eagles Project featuring Billy Kilson
ByMilligan, who contributes three of the nine compositions, has studied with Holland and George Mraz, worked with artists including saxophonist David Binney, pianist Richie Beirach, and Canadian guitar icon Sonny Greenwich, and was the bassist for The Shuffle Demons, a group that gained considerably notoriety in Canada but, sadly, nowhere else. Possessed of a warm tone and unhurried confidence, his writing ranges from the folk-like ambience of "Like Water" to the more riff-driven funk of "Skunk Theory." His opening solo on "Exit Wounds" demonstrates that he's equally comfortable exploring the free side of things as he is laying down the powerful groove to which the tune eventually evolves.
Eagles may possess the technical prowess to shred with the best of them, but he rarely resorts to pyrotechnics, although his solo on "Exit Wounds" approaches the kind of power of John McLaughlin, but in a more Holdsworthian legato style. His acoustic work on the tender "For the Love of Trains" demonstrates a genre-bending approach indicative of the broad range of styles in which he's worked for the past thirty years as a performer and educator in his hometown of Ottawa. With a tone that ranges from down-and-dirty to warm and cleanin the case of the closer, "Plankton Comes Alive," in the space of the same tuneEagles is equal parts jazzer and psychedelic cruncher.
Kilson's power was on constant display during his tenure with Holland, and there's no shortage of it here, including his paradoxically relaxed yet frenetic work on trio's cover of Holland's "How's Never." But his more spacious and delicate work on "For the Love of Trains" is something of a revelation, a side of Kilson that rarely gets to be heard.
As engaging as the composed pieces are, most revealing are the two purely improvised pieces, which demonstrate everyone's ability to work in a freer context. "Improvisation 1," in particular, is equal parts soundscape and open exchange.
For fans of fusion with forethought and a liberal dose of unencumbered free thinking, Milligan-Eagles Project featuring Billy Kilson is just what the doctor ordered.
Visit Milligan-Eagles Project, Wayne Eagles, Mike Milligan and Billy Kilson on the web.
Track Listing
Skumk Theory; How's Never; Like Water; Improvisation 1; Exit Wounds; For the Love of Trains; Zone B; Improvisation 2; Plankton Comes Alive
Personnel
Wayne Eagles
guitarMike Milligan (double-bass), Wayne Eagles (guitar), Billy Kilson (drums)
Album information
Title: Milligan-Eagles Project featuring Billy Kilson | Year Released: 2005 | Record Label: TetraArtist
< Previous
And Now ...
Next >
Skyline