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Brent Laidler: Wouldn't Be Here Without You

By Jack Bowers
April 13, 2022
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Brent Laidler: Wouldn't Be Here Without You

Although mostly unnamed, those honored on Indiana-based guitarist

Brent Laidler

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Brent Laidler's Wouldn't Be Here Without You are friends, mentors and fellow musicians who have offered encouragement and support on his spiritual and musical journey through life, several of whom comprise the sextet on Laidler's second album as leader.

Besides playing guitar (and repairing them by day), Laidler wrote and arranged all of the album's ten numbers, which are rhythmically strong and melodically pleasing. Some are vaguely reminiscent of other themes, such as the sunny opener, "Keeping It Simple" (Camelot's "Before I Gaze at You Again"), "A Second Chance" ("The Brotherhood of Man," but based on

Horace Silver

piano
1928 - 2014

" data-original-title="" title="">Horace Silver's "The Preacher") and "Wouldn't Be Here" ("The Best Is Yet to Come"). Laidler is an eloquent soloist, as are trumpeter

Mark Buselli

trumpet
b.1958

" data-original-title="" title="">Mark Buselli, woodwind specialist

Ned Boyd

saxophone

" data-original-title="" title="">Ned Boyd and organist

Jamie Newman

organ, Hammond B3

" data-original-title="" title="">Jamie Newman who gets the job done without shattering any windows or deafening any ears. Bassist

C Scott Pazera

bass
b.1972

" data-original-title="" title="">C Scott Pazera and drummer Richard "Sleepy" Floyd keep splendid time and solo with assurance when their number is called.

Laidler is fond of the bossa nova (what's not to like?) and has written three charmers for this session: "Keeping It Simple," "You Ain't the Bossa Me" and the closing "Pretty Little Bossa," as well as an open-hearted samba, "One More." For variety, there are the amiable "Foo's Blues" and "Walt's Waltz," the last written for Walter Cole, one of Laidler's high school band directors. The easygoing "Sunday Mood" is a contrafact of the jazz tune "Minor Mishap," "City by the Bay" a nod to Laidler's admiration for such film composers as Dmitri Tiomkin and

Lalo Schifrin

arranger
1932 - 2025

" data-original-title="" title="">Lalo Schifrin. The album's title song is a more recent composition that uses the changes of

Chick Corea

piano
1941 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Chick Corea's classic "Spain" for the solo choruses and features stalwart drumming by Floyd.

This is a likeable album of straight-ahead contemporary jazz by half a dozen earnest and talented musicians for whom the music is of paramount importance. In other words, a pleasant surprise.

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Track Listing

Keeping It Simple; Sunday Mood; You Ain��t the Bossa Me; A Second Chance; City by the Bay; Foo��s Blues; Walt��s Waltz; One More; Wouldn��t Be Here Without You; Pretty Little Bossa.

Personnel

Brent Laidler

guitar

Mark Buselli

trumpet

Ned Boyd

saxophone

Jamie Newman

organ, Hammond B3

C Scott Pazera

bass

Richard "Sleepy" Floyd

drums

Album information

Title: Wouldn't Be Here Without You | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Self Produced

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