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Barry Romberg's Random Access: Accidental Beef
by Jerry D'Souza
Barry Romberg's Random access continues its musical adventures with some Accidental Beef that was put together at the Rex Hotel in Toronto. It was a good night: the band exudes a raw, intense urgency that has been captured in all its glory. The music balances improvisation with a basic structure, providing a perfect base for the musicians to take off on a trajectory or play in consonance. As they have done on past recordings, they do so once again, with ...
Continue ReadingBarry Romberg's Random Access: Accidental Beef
by Dan McClenaghan
Canadian drummer Barry Romberg's Random Access, with four previous studio recordings to its credit, has made its name with a carefully crafted electronic sound, owing much to Miles Davis' late-'60s/early-'70s recordings. With Accidental Beef, part five in the Random Access series, he takes the group outside the tighter confines of the studio for an excellent live recording that proves itself his most compelling work to date.With a mix of spontaneity and and tight grooves, this sound churns with ...
Continue ReadingBarry Romberg: No Soap Radio
by Paul Olson
Toronto drummer/Romhog Records factotum Barry Romberg probably needs to go out and get some sun and fresh air. Fortunately for us, however, he can't be bothered; he's too busy toiling in the bowels of his Romhog Digital studio making recordings like No Soap Radio, the fourth in his Random Access series. The Random Access formula's simple enough. First Romberg improvises in the studio with mainstays like guitarist Geoff Young and violinist Hugh Marsh--no preconceived notions, no rules. Then it's time ...
Continue ReadingBarry Romberg: No Soap Radio
by Jerry D'Souza
One of the first things that is apparent when looking at this CD is that Barry Romberg has a sense of humour, evident not only in the titles of his compositions, but also the text of the liner notes, particularly a question and the relevant answer. The crackerjack band he has includes some of the finest improvisers who can take a melody, lay it open, and make it whole again. That they have played together before makes their empathy all ...
Continue ReadingBarry Romberg: Random Access Part 3
by Elliott Simon
Canadian drummer Barry Romberg (who played last month as the drive behind the large ensemble NOJO at Jazz Standard) has released the third part of his Random Access series. As with previous installments, he has gathered together a noteworthy cadre of his friends that include some of Canada's top jazz musicians to present a percussively led paradise of sound. In this case, nine musicians join Romberg in various combinations for a completely original program.There is a definite fusion ...
Continue ReadingBarry Romberg: Random Access Part 3
by Dan McClenaghan
It's hard to ignore a set that includes a musical dedication to the late Long Beach, California poet laureate, Charles Bukowski. The closer on Toronto-based drummer Barry Romberg's Random Access Part 3 does so with “The Long Haul," referencing, perhaps, Bukowski's long slog to a belated success as an author of distinctively gritty prose and poetry.The disc is touted as “musical experiment," a creation of musical structure out of chaos. That--deleting the word “musical"--might be the essence of ...
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