A wonderfully Upbeat Jazz backdrop
author: Rob Anselmi / Phi Sequence
For those of you Jazz lovers out there, this is a real treat. It's like sipping a long slow glass of iced tea out by the Serengeti. Harvest Song is a highlight, as is Floating Garden, Gaslight, and Turnabout. The instrumentation and production is top notch, and I look forward to hearing more from Chris and his family of musicians. If you're looking for something that is easy on the ears, and will keep you coming back time and again, then this is the CD for you.
Read more...
Music for the Soul
author: Amy Appleby
This CD is my new favorite! Mr. Philpotts's original music is fresh, beautiful, and truly uplifting. I don't think anyone could listen to his lyrical, sophisticated playing and rich arrangements without feeling inspired and rejuvenated. In "Harvest Song," Mr. Philpotts has created a masterful contemporary opus which continues to unfold for the listener as pure musical pleasure. (a fan in New York City)
Read more...
"...Remarkable Musical Talent..."
author: Paul McCandless
"Chris Philpotts is a remarkable musical talent. He's created a varied, colorful collection of original music for this current album project which features his voice as a composer and an improvising woodwind virtuoso.
The tunes here are rooted in the modern idiom, wonderfully rhythmic and harmonically rich. The instrumentation is often surprising, interfacing Chris' soaring winds with the sounds of contemporary jazz and world music.
Whether on oboe, English horn or soprano sax, he strikes a balance between beautiful sound, tuning and execution and the spontaneity of extemporaneous music which often asks the performer to go beyond the classical lexicon. Coherent and lyrical, Chris' improvising matches the style and language of the compositions so well It's hard to separate one from the other.
Drawing on work from twenty years ago through the present, and highlighting Chris' gifts as a player and composer, this album is a long overdue debut."
Paul McCandless ( Windham Hill Artist and founding member of the group "Oregon" )
Read more...
"...eclectic and sophisticated tunes... "
author: Robert Walters
"Chris Philpotts is one of the wind players I admire most in the world. He moves between instruments and musical genres with the same ease and fluidity of his seamless legato. Various incarnations of these eclectic and sophisticated tunes have had an almost permanent place in my CD player over the years. Hearing his refined instrumental voice soar through a contemporary and worldly jazz palette is a delicious and liberating pleasure!"
Robert Walters ( Solo English Horn, Cleveland Orchestra )
Read more...