With one major exception, the tracks on
Brass Attitude reflect the relatively traditional (dare we say restrained) big band sound of
Maynard Ferguson's Big Bop Nouveau, whose most distinctive feature by far is -- surprise, surprise -- its leader. At 70,
MF still has a lot left, able to blast away at those ultrasonic passages and dish out that throbbing, unctious tone in the middle regions. Yet he seems to be choosing his spots with more economy, resorting frequently to the flugelhorn for mellower passages. The soloing by
MF's sidemen -- the most prominently featured of whom are
Tom Garling on trombone and
Sal Giorgianni on tenor sax -- is of a competent, energetic bop variety with few distinguishing qualities. Thankfully, an element of strangeness bursts forth at the album's midpoint,
"Misra-Dhenuka," a nearly 16-minute reminder of
MF's sabbatical in India. Grounded in a raga, it dissolves into a 6/8 meter vamp based on what sounds like a Spanish chordal pattern. A less welcome bit of weirdness is
MF alumnus
Denis DiBlasio's amateurish vocal cameo in "The Lip," which in this context fawns over
MF's high-note proclivity as shamelessly as rappers have about
Miles Davis. ~ Richard S. Ginell
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