Cameron Mizell: Negative Spaces

Cameron Mizell is not a well-known guitarist but he is a talented one. Working with just keyboards and drums on this CD he goes on an expansive excursion through the realms of jazz, progressive rock, funk and country.

Just the first four tracks, which actually run together without a break, he goes through New Age meditation, slow-winding progressive rock, distorted psychedelia and finally twangy roadhouse country with Brad Whiteley switching expertly between electric piano and organ as needed and Kenneth Salters holding the rhythm together.

In a harder-edged vein "Take The Humble" and "Barter" are bubbly pieces of funk and "Get It While You Can" is energetic blues-rock in the Allman Brothers Band tradition that leans heavily on the organ. Meanwhile "Clearing Skies" is a stately blend of yearning guitar and piano reminiscent of Pat Metheny's prettier compositions, "A Song About A Tree" is a bucolic country melody and "Unfolding" adds a reggae backbeat to its pastoral twang.

Mizell has a clean, precise tone and a versatility that brings to mind any number of other eclectic guitar slingers like Danny Gatton, Bill Frisell, John Scofield, Link Wray and Joel Harrison. He can evoke a pastoral sunrise as well as a sweaty roadhouse and this trio format gives him a basic but flexible platform for strutting his stuff. He really deserves a lot of attention.

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