Quiet Silence

Funny thing about the Fender Rhodes electric piano, it's made the transition from being a sound that screamed "seventies!" to a more timeless one, like the Hammond B-3. Marc Searles shows why on the opening solo on "Fog," the opening track of "Quiet Silence" from Matt Jorgensen and 451. Searles' solo on the Rhodes is not only attractive, it shows how the chime-like keyboard can really anchor a group's sound. Mark Taylor complements the keyboard solo with one on alto sax that makes me think he might like Bunky Green and Billy Drewes.

Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place" follows the opener, and is a rhythmic two minutes and forty seven seconds of great group interplay that could have proven to be trance-inducing (in a good way), had they not done a fade-out. Phil Sparks' bass grabbed my attention on "Tumbleweed" even before his solo. The title track, at almost ten minutes, is the disc's centerpiece, with some excellent tension in its eastern flavor.

The four (almost) standards are just as compelling as the disc's originals. Coltrane's "India" lets the tenor sax of Rob Davis to step out front. Davis nods to Trane without stooping to imitation in his solo. Burt Bacharach's "The Look of Love" has a straight and sincere approach. The closer of the disc, the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows," is an uptempo take on this under-recorded tune, and is a good choice to end this disc, with the snappy drumming of Matt Jorgensen, the simultaneous weaving lines of the horns, the tasty comping and meaty solo of Searles, and the muscular foundation laid down by Sparks.