Here, you've got a nice sized big band lead by trumpeter Erik Jekabson, and he walks the tightrope of clever sounds and harmonies as well as palpable rhythms. Modern stuff either sounds like a Gil Evans wanna-be or a musical version of a Jackson Pollock painting. RINGER OF THE WEEK Here's a band that avoids the pitfalls of most big band recordings. Yes, the name is intriguing - but what should one expect musically from the San Francisco-based Electric Squeezebox Orchestra? Bits and pieces of a number of disparate elements, really, from straight-ahead contemporary motifs to shuffle beats and old-line swing, from down-home New Orleans rhythms to throwback grooves from the '70s and even a seduc.
The talent of the Bay Area scene is nicely represented on this s. And considering how most of the ensemble consists of wind instruments, this weightless quality becomes necessarily important. Plenty of vibrancy to the huge sound generated by Erik Jekabson's big band, but it's the way the music flows so effortlessly that makes this a winning album.
How are they going to afford to leave their confines of Frisco and go on the road when there's a jillion players in this big band and all of them are required to add their own special sauce? Listeners in North Beach don't know how good they have it that. It took a Kickstarter campaign to get this record into existence.
