This music is everything  I look for in a jazz recording.  It's weaves it's way through a wide range of style, while maintaining a true center of gravity. The musicianship is tight, smart and fluid in that it seems to step out of the way of the music itself. And the music deserves it.  It soothes, it inspires, it celebrates and affirms the beauty of the beat, no matter where it falls.  It wears costumes, it slaps you on the back and cries on your shoulder...it laughs in your face, and then soothes your weary soul...It ambles down a darkened sidestreet,  steps out onto a brightly lit square and dances and shouts, it winds a serpentine path through the concert hall and back, settling down with a nice cool drink in the shade...smiling broadly and licking its bright red lips....
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For listeners wanting to stay on top of the "here and now" of the NY music scene, this CD is a must.  Paul Carlon has chosen a bad-ass group from the city's deep pool of talented, young musicians to bring his compositions to life.  From track to track, Paul's music clearly inspires his band members to play with a level of intensity that's often hard to capture in the recording studio.  Buy this CD, pop it into your stereo, and you'll immediately know what I mean.
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A young musical searcher on the New York jazz scene, Paul plays the tenor saxophone and composes and arranges original compositions which reflect the numerous crosscurrents flowing through the New York music scene, both traditional, blues-based jazz,  the big band tradition, particularly the Ellington/Strayhorn sound, and the afro-Cuban/jazz movement. He plays with a warm personal sound and a strong sense of groove.

Here he leads a band of serious up-and-comers that create a full sound with only 5 horns and an excellent rhythm section. They are in turn joined by 3 guests: Max Pollak, a unique artist who has combined a background as a drummer with tap dancing skills and a love of Afro Cuban rhythms to create a novel art form, Rumbatap--check him out on a featured track, Rumbatapestry; Ileana Santamaria, daughter of the great conguero, Mongo Santamaria, who sings wordless melody on Smada,  improvisations on Rumbatapestry, and a Yoruba chant on The Spirit Calls. Paul’s friend and mentor Buddy Terry contributes a blues drenched solo on Street Beat, with exchanges with Paul and Anton Denner on alto sax. Special mention should also be made of drummer Beaver Bausch, who has thoroughly absorbed the Afro latin styles, yet contributes consistently rhythmically forceful creative ideas.    Buy this album!
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WoW!!! Paul Carlon has really jam packed this cd. The way the cd accurately weaves so many different styles of jazz is pure genius. The orchestration of these styles like bebop, big band, and afro-cuban, demands your attention. Each track is it's own story told differently by each soloist. The way Mr. Carlon establishes these stories is almost hypnotic. And as if he hasn't given you enough, he adds the beautiful sounds of vocalist Ileana Santamaria and tap dancer/body percussionist Max Pollak. This cd is so refreshing and plentiful that every time you hear it, it's like hearing it for the first time.
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