Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Ryan Burns: Birds

188

Ryan Burns: Birds

By

View read count
Ryan Burns: Birds
Keyboardist Ryan Burns possesses a distinctive artistry, one that is integral to the success of the sound of the Matt Jorgensen + 451 group on sets such as Hope (Origin Records, 2004) and Another Morning (Origin Records, 2008), and with trumpeter Thomas Marriott on the strange and stellar Crazy:The Music of Willie Nelson (Origin Records, 2008). Burns also works as a leader on the acoustic piano trio set Tree-O (Odd Bird Records, 2007), and now on the plugged-in Birds. A fine pianist, Burns is virtuosic and always adventurous on the electric side of the keyboard spectrum.

Birds opens with the title tune that he introduced on the Another Morning CD. The sound glows into existence on luminescent electric keys at a measured pace. The dry, tart sound of Mark Taylor - Saxophone's alto saxophone seeps in, counterpointing the Fender Rhodes gleam with Burns' stick-in-the-mind melody. "June Bug" has an eerie, exploration-of-another-planet vibe, with bassist Geoff Cooke and drummer Jose Martinez supplying an altered gravity rhythm behind the leader's otherworldly safari.

"Humility" has an earthbound sound—soulful and late at night, with a half a bottle of bourbon on the table beside the empty glasses---while "PIP" jitters along, with Taylor sounding edgy on the alto.

"Turbulence" opens with Bach-like grandeur, drifting in no particular direction with an amorphous structure and orchestral electric keys. With "Blues for Hadley," a nod to Origin Records stable mate Hadley Caliman—a marvelous Straight Ahead (Origin Records, 2009) tenor saxophonist—Burns and the group steer things back almost into the middle of the mainstream.

The set closes out with "Slip Away," a relaxed, bluesy tune featuring the leader on Hammond organ and Cooke handling the melody on this pastoral gem, wrapping up a shining set by one of jazz's rising stars.

Track Listing

Birds; June Bug; Humility; P.I.P; Turbulence; Blues for Hadley; Slip Away.

Personnel

Ryan Burns: Fender Rhodes, Hammond organ, Moog Synthesizer, Wurlitzer; Geoff Cooke: electric and upright bass; Jose Martinez: drums; Mark Taylor: alto and tenor saxophones.

Album information

Title: Birds | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Odd Bird Records

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.