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James Carney: Ways & Means

By Terrell Kent Holmes
September 5, 2009
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Pianist James Carney takes the parameters involved in scoring films and applies them with the discipline of a jazz composer on the ambitious Ways & Means, the kind of challenging and cohesive work that listeners have come to expect from this exemplary musician.

Carney's band is as great a gathering of talent as one can find and they don't waste a note in his intricate arrangements. The excellence of

Tony Malaby

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Tony Malaby's tenor and

Josh Roseman

trombone

" data-original-title="" title="">Josh Roseman's trombone drive "Nefarious Notions"; Carney blends acoustic and synthesized sounds to produce a wonderful aural bouquet on the epic "Squatters,"

Peter Epstein

saxophone, sopranino
b.1967

" data-original-title="" title="">Peter Epstein adding a sprite of a soprano sax above

Mark Ferber

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Mark Ferber's impatient cymbal tapping, while trumpeter

Ralph Alessi

trumpet
b.1963

" data-original-title="" title="">Ralph Alessi doesn't play a solo as much as sing an aria. The improvised "Champion of Honesty," which opens with someone (probably Alessi) mumbling into his horn, sounds like Satan's Philharmonic warming up before a concert.

Carney's layered keyboard work paces the eerie "Onondaga," with Ferber's measured drumming and Epstein's passionate soprano building up the tension. "Legal Action" sounds like a marriage between jazz and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. "Pow Wow" is a free jazz type of improv that sounds like something

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus or

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane might have assembled. Even the ballad "Gargoyles," a touching tribute to Carney's late drummer Dan Morris, is just as rich with the layered interplay that defines the disc.

To say that Carney is simply a jazz musician would be somewhat off the mark. With all of the styles and influences he seamlessly integrates on Ways & Means, his music would disintegrate the boundaries of any single genre into which one might try to place it.

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Track Listing

Nefarious Notions; Squatters; Champion Of Honesty; Onodaga; The Business End; Legal Action; Fallout; Pow Wow; Gargoyles.

Personnel

James Carney

piano

James Carney: acoustic and electric piano, analog synth, glockenspiel; Peter Epstein: soprano and alto saxophone; Tony Malaby: tenor saxophone; Ralph Alessi: trumpet; Josh Roseman: trombone; Chris Lightcap: contrabass; Mark Ferber: drums.

Album information

Title: Ways & Means | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: Songlines Recordings

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