Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Patrick Grant: A Sequence of Waves (Twelve Stories and a Dream)

21

Patrick Grant: A Sequence of Waves (Twelve Stories and a Dream)

By

View read count
Patrick Grant: A Sequence of Waves (Twelve Stories and a Dream)
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Patrick Grant's music can be difficult to classify. This is probably, at least to a degree, intentional. The NYU film school professor and multiple-time ASCAP Plus Award winner was a long time member of the legendary Robert Fripp's Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists and has scored multiple theater and dance companies' projects.

Those with even a passing familiarity with Fripp's work, which became iconic during his time with the relentlessly experimental, impossible to categorize King Crimson, will correctly assume that Grant's music has a forward-thinking edge. Fans of King Crimson, Fripp, progressive rock, or contemporary film scoring a la Hans Zimmer will undoubtedly find much to appreciate in Grant's latest release A Sequence of Waves (Twelve Stories and a Dream), as will people with eclectic musical tastes or those with an affinity for unique instrumentations and rhythmic complexity.

The instrumentation on the record varies widely, but is glued together by consistently compelling rhythmic motifs and development. The timbres range from distorted electric guitars to beautiful swelling synths to acoustic percussion and strings. They manage to work together very well, such as in the beautifully composed and produced "Seven Years At Sea." Other highlights include the rhythmically intense, and aptly named, "Driving Patterns," as well as the epic "To Find a Form That Accommodates the Mess." The album even includes an extremely original cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba," that at the very least warrants one listen through, if not three or four.

From the unique and inventive production to the remarkably creative compositions and the uncommon and effective instrumentations, fans of innovative creative music would do well to give this record at least one listen through. Then see if the genre-defying work doesn't have you coming back for multiple listens, if for no other reason than to figure out exactly what was going on.

Track Listing

Lucid Intervals; Driving Patterns; Prelude I; Alcohol; Tobacco; Firearms; Seven Years at Sea; Breaking Butterflies Upon a Wheel; Lonely Ride Coney Island; Primary Blues; Prelude II; To Find a Form That Accommodates the Mess; One Note Samba

Personnel

Patrick Grant: guitar, bass, viola, piano, keyboards and percussion John Ferrari: drums, mallet instruments, percussion and production; Nick Didkovsky: guitar solo on "Primary Blues"; Dan Cooper: 7-string electric bass; Lynn Bechtold: violin; Dan Barrett: cello

Album information

Title: A Sequence of Waves (Twelve Stories and a Dream) | Year Released: 2017 | Record Label: Peppergreen Media

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.