Take The Mitsu

If you like beauty and dynamic interplay between two masterful jazz improvisers, Take the Mitsu is a disc for you. These two musicians display great sense of melody and explorative harmonic interplay while creating a very entertaining and listenable set of music. Mark Buselli a Flugelhornist, Trumpeter and arranger from Indianapolis, Indiana, co-Leads with Brent Wallarab one of the finest Big Bands in the country today. (please see BWJO.ORG). This disc is a contrast from this work, where fans and listeners of Mark's music, get a chance to hear a great artist explore his introspective side.
Frankly, he does this as well as anyone you'll hear in Jazz today. His playing is extremely conversational, harmonically rich, and yet possesses a beautifully spontaneous musical approach to improvisation. A couple of tracks that absorbs this commentary is the second and third tracks, Bhutan and Syncretism. These tracks were recorded with the goal of creating free jazz, improvised in a spontaneous manner. The strength of these tracks are the way Buselli and Sifferlen make the listener feel as though the music was composed as to compared instant reactionary music. You can tell these two have mastered a dialogue in the years performing together. (Which they have in Indianapolis at the Chatterbox Club!) As a contrast to Buselli rip the hide off Benny Golson's Stablemates, here Buselli shows he equally inept at tackling difficult harmonic progressions. Bravo!!

Claude Sifferlen, a brilliant pianist, and is a veteran of ensembles such as Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Richard Davis and Milt Jackson. You will dig his unique harmonic approach to both soloing and comping on this disc. He's not afraid to explore the upper side of chordal structures, thus giving improvisers room for much harmonic exploration. He's also rhythmically solid. The time feel between Buselli and Sifferlen is truly special on this disc. You do not miss bass and drums. As the orchestrations on piano are full, beautiful and interesting.
5 Stars to two wonderful musicians who should consider a follow up to this wonderful contribution to the Jazz canon!