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Alex Maguire
douBt: Never Pet a Burning Dog
by Mark Redlefsen
Guitarist Michel Deville, of the Belgian Wrong Object, and British keyboardist Alex Maguire team up to form a power trio with drummer Tony Bianco as doubt, on its debut, Never Pet a Burning Dog. Deville steps out with a louder, more direct tone, affectionately and more overtly exposing the influence of Terje Rypdal--even including one of his compositions, Over Birkerot," from Odyssey (ECM, 1975). The enhanced gunslinger performance is warranted, to meet the demands thrown up by Maguire and his ...
read moredouBt: Never Pet a Burning Dog
by John Kelman
Sometimes bringing two musicians together for the first time can yield some real magic. That was the case when British keyboardist Alex Maguire joined up with Michel Delville and members of the Belgian guitarist's flagship group, The Wrong Object, for Brewed in Belgium (MoonJune, 2008). Never Pet a Burning Dog largely pares things down to a trio featuring Delville, drummer Tony Bianco, and Maguire, who expands his sonic palette here to include electric piano, organ, synth, and that bastion of ...
read moreAlex Maguire Sextet: Brewed in Belgium
by Gary Gomes
Alex Maguire has built an extremely strong reputation as a multi-faceted keyboard player over the past few years. He has, in addition to small band settings like this one, held the keyboard chair in the late drummer Pip Pyle's group Bash! and, after that, participated in a reunion tour of Canterbury legend Hatfield and the North. He also developed a technique of playing he calls comprovisation"--a blend of spontaneity and structure that he demonstrates in spades on this live recording. ...
read moreAlex Maguire Sextet: Brewed In Belgium
by Nic Jones
Keyboard player Alex Maguire has worked with the present day incarnation of the British band Hatfield and the North and clearly he has more than sufficient chops to deal with a range of musical situations.
The fare offered here is often freer than the Hatfield way, however. And when the music goes inside, such as on the opening of Psychic Warrior," the impression is of a program of music which tries to cover so many bases it compromises ...
read moreAlex Maguire Sextet: Brewed in Belgium
by John Kelman
While calling them a pick-up band would be unfairly dismissive, the members of Belgium's The Wrong Object sure do get around. Since 2007, in addition to its own Stories from the Shed (Moonjune, 2008), TWO has collaborated with British trombonist Annie Whitehead and trumpeter Harry Beckett on Platform One (Jazzprint, 2007), and Elton Dean on The Unbelievable Truth (Moonjune, 2007)--one of the British saxophonist's last performances before his unexpected passing in February, 2006. Brewed in Belgium continues the group's winning ...
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