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Russ Lossing: Alternate Side Parking Music
ByThis may seem odd fodder for an album themea full album, not just a single compositionbut Lossing's pen, his piano playing and his top-shelf quartet a piano-led rhythm section and a reed guymake it work.
The odd fodder is one of the keys.
"Honk" opens the set; it is an angular tune with a stop-and-start rhythm evoking scenes of back-and-forth, reverse/forward chess game parking moves in the attempt to claim a curb spot. Impatient dashboard finger-drumming, on the piano work, may signify sitting still behind the wheel waiting for an opening. "Move It Over" opens ominously on Matt Pavolka's aggressive bass and drummer Dayeon Seok's warped military march. Adam Kolker's tenor sax sounds like a threat to kick somebody's asswords certainly heard on these New York streets during the car-moving time. Lossing is on Fender Rhodes, his electric notes sounding like echos bouncing off metal fenders.
"Meter Maid" (it is probably not "Lovely Rita") seems at first tentative, the rhythm section untethered but searching, Seok's drums a jumble. But things gel when Pavolka's tenor arrives, Lossing chasing him up and down the street. Then Lossing switches to the Rhodes again and an insistent groove emergesmaybe the meter maid has slapped a few citations on the windshields and developed an attitude.
Attitude is another key. Lossing and his quartet have it, taking the tried-and-true sax-and-a-rhythm-section format into new territory.
Track Listing
Honk...; Cloned; Next 3 km; Move It Over; Parallel Park; Double Park...; Rain/Ramadan; Meter Maid...; Cloned Again; Turn...".
Personnel
Additional Instrumentation
Russ Lossing: Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer electric piano; Adam Kolker: tenor saxophone, soprano.
Album information
Title: Alternate Side Parking Music | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: Aqua Piazza Records
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