Album Notes

What The Critics say...... about Barry Romberg

“Romberg resisted the urge to put the jams (MRC Trio) through the same cut and paste process as the Random Access materials, and it was a wise call, for these long evolutions are the most effective way of hearing his own highly individual work. He may owe a sentimental debt to Elvin (Jones), but in his intense musicality and prodigious output he’s closer in spirit to Jack Dejohnette. Random Access Part 3 and Tribal Dance are both jawdroppingly good.”

Brian Morton, Wire Magazine

Drummer-composer-bandleader Barry Romberg is playfully subversive. The Latest installment…
(RA 3) is full of suprises and good humour, along with a multitude of good grooves…..Romberg displays quick hands, keen instincts and coloristic tendencies behind the kit….

Bill Milkowski, Jazz Times Magazine

“Barry Romberg’s sound hasn’t fully filtered down across that long border separating
his native Canada from the US, and it’s a shame. He’s distinctive and prolific, swirling his
own brand of originality with established sounds……Romberg’s drumming…..is crisp and geometrical, full of tight grooves, dividing the sometimes swirling music into percussive
departments.”
Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

“ Romberg struck me as the most startling drummer since Claude Ranger…..I’m truly
convinced Romberg has potential as a future jazz visionary.”

Bill Besecker, The Jazz Report

“Romberg is one of the most innovative jazz drummers in Canada.”

Dennis Slater, FFWD, Calgary

“ Romberg plays in a brisk bustling, licety-split manner, marshalling a lot of small, quick sounds with a sharp crack of a rim shot. It’s a personal style, something that a lot of drummers never develop in careers much longer than Romberg’s to date. He applies that style and all its textures to a heated post-fusion style of jazz, the sort that the Breckers, Bergs, and Sterns are doing down New York way.”

Mark Miller, The Globe & Mail

“The hardest-working musician in Canada just might be drummer Barry Romberg, who in addition to various sideman gigs, plays in the Barry Romberg Group, The Three Sisters, Inside Out, and the MRC Trio- and distributes recordings by these enembles on his own Romhog Records……
Romberg’s got his own style, but there is plenty of Elvin Jones in Barry’s offbeat accents and in his sheer power and force—and some Jack Dejohnette, too, in his vast musicality and creativity…..Romberg’s skills as a producer are as important as his ability behind his kit.”

Paul Olsen, All About Jazz