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Tim Hagans: The Moon is Waiting
ByIf Hagans has a something special going on with the drumsand, more especially, with Uotila, then this is all-pervasive on The Moon is Waiting. But he also has something going on with his guitarist, the incomparable Vic Juris, and bassist Rufus Reid, who plays with such gravitas here that he could well earn the moniker, "The Professor." Each of the musicians play with rare technical supremacy as well as marvelous emotion, and this is something that warms and slow-cooks a cool album; one that could well be one of this year's finest so far.
The thrill of the charts is insidiousinfectious among the musicians themselvesand thus, their playing creates a kind of pandemic contagion that inflicts such a delicious ache in the ear that it is tempting to want more. And there is plenty of it, from the wickedly mixed metaphor in the interplay of "Ornette's Waking Dream of a Woman," to the frighteningly free and idiomatically magical playing on the title track and "Wailing Trees," complete with the whispering of cymbals creating mad gusts of wind, as bass and drums conjure up harmonic ecosystems for Hagans' wailing leaves and branches.
The monumentally hypnotic "First Jazz" recalls the fission of bebop and the ballooning fusion of cool in its fractal dialogues between trumpet and guitar, and trumpet and rhythm section. The primordial bite of "Boo," featuring Hagans' howling at the end of the song, is magical, while the rippling emotion of "What I'll Tell Her Tonight" is most heartfelt and stirring. The elegant stutter of Hagans' playing on "Things Happen in a Convertible" almost acts as a daring taunt, as much to the mythical figure in the car as to the other musicians, who respondas Reid does, in his probing solowith aptly wonderful and brilliantly controlled playing.
Fortunately, this music is ultimately contained in short songs; if Hagans had written a longer suite for The Moon is Waiting, its piercing pleasure would have been almost painful.
Track Listing
Ornette's Waking Dream Of A Woman; The Moon Is Waiting; Get Outside; First Jazz; Boo; What I'll tell Her; Wailing Trees; Things Happen In A Convertible.
Personnel
Tim Hagans
trumpetTim Hagans: trumpet; Vic Juris: guitar; Rufus Reid: bass; Jukkis Uotila: drums, piano.
Album information
Title: The Moon Is Waiting | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Palmetto Records
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