Carol Morgan: Post Cool: Vol 1 The Night Shift

Trumpeter Carol Morgan is an innovative musician with an explorative sense and a unique and easily recognizable style. On the first installment of her Post Cool: Vol. 1 The Night Shift she tackles bop-based, nocturnal themed, pieces that she and her quartet exquisitely interpret.

Morgan and her sidemen deftly deconstruct trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's famous "A Night In Tunisia," exposing its ingeniously crafted structure, and infuse it with modernistic elements. Morgan and tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm interchange their roles of stating the main motif and embellishing it. Frahm extemporizes with intelligence and passion using expressive honks and squawks as well as angular and intricate phrases. Morgan, in her turn, delightfully flirts with dissonance as she refreshingly rebuilds the standard with a multilayered improvisation that remains true to Gillespie's creative spirit. Drummer Matt Wilson concludes with a muscular and thunderous solo.

On the original "Night" Wilson lays down a quiet and intriguing groove with a complex set of reserved thrums and sparkling cymbals. Morgan and Frahm contribute hypnotic wistful refrains. Bassist Martin Wind with his erudite and lyrical spontaneous soliloquy forms the core of this mystical and haunting tune.

Wilson and Wind establish an organic and elegant rhythmic framework for Joseph Kosma's timeless "Autumn Leaves." Within this darkly hued ambience Morgan and Frahm engage in a captivating duet. The two overlap their respective embellishments of the composition's melodic fragments to make for a cinematic and memorable performance that is definitely the highlight of this, otherwise, uniformly superb album. Frahm's circular, reverberating lines resonate against Morgan's burnished tones as the band closes the recording with suave sophistication on a nostalgic and sublime note.

This is Carol Morgan's sixth release as a leader but, as with her previous ones, the high caliber artistry and the seamless camaraderie among all involved show that quality and not quantity is her focus. Moreover this stimulating disc increases the anticipation for the second volume of Post Cool.

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