Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » The Stacie McGregor Quintet: Straight Up

161

The Stacie McGregor Quintet: Straight Up

By

View read count
The Stacie McGregor Quintet: Straight Up
Stacie McGregor comes bopping back again with Straight Up. She released this album independently last year, but over the months it garnered enough interest for her to go in and re-record some tracks, have some remastered and even add a new tune. The album had been added to playlists in Germany, Australia, Hungary, Poland and Spain, and with the new sound, and the fresher approach, there should be renewed interest in McGregor and her music.

The new track, "Horacin' Around," does not require an intuitive mind to know in whose direction the acknowledgment flows. This one has a nice swing to it, the unison lines of the horns a delectable intro before Kevin Turcotte breaks out on the trumpet. His ideas swell from a deep well of inspiration, and so do those of Michael Stuart, whose saxophone is big and brawny, yet never overwhelms or shadows the strength of the composition. And then comes McGregor, adding the icing with her compact sense of articulation. This time around "Red's Blues" is given a deeper hue, a more palpable feeling rising from the intense emotive drive of Chris Mitchell on saxophone. Does "Very Late" tell a tale? It goes out of the dimension of the other compositions, fracturing time before it is bound on the gossamer lines of the horns that slowly but certainly give it shape. Stuart brings it into orbit as he frames convincing bop lines, Turcotte using the mute and soaring high, and McGregor adding a bright, traipsing line.

Straight Up is not all new, but it is improved, and that is good measure.

Visit Stacie McGregor on the web.

Track Listing

Uncle B; Top Cat; Straight Up; Red's Blues; i DK; Horacin' Around; Art's Place; Goodie's Dilemma; Very Late

Personnel

Stacie McGregor--piano; Kevin Turcotte--trumpet; Archie Alleyne--drums; Steve Wallace--bass; Michael Stuart--saxophone; Chris Mitchell--saxophone; Brandi Disterheft--bass

Album information

Title: Straight Up | Year Released: 2004 | Record Label: G-Three

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.