The Road to Trantor

... incredible tenor renderings seem to catalog the history of the tenor sax, invoking shades of Lester Young and Dexter Gordon...
All About Jazz

While composing for his newest recording, saxophonist Carl Schultz realized he was visualizing rich cinematic landscapes as his tunes were taking form. Likely related to his rereading of Hugo Award winning science fiction books at the time, it made sense to flesh out a complete narrative for the compositions to take, thus The Road to Trantor, the soundtrack of an epic tale that exists only in the mind of Schultz. Armed with a concept, some electronics, and an ensemble well-versed in evocative, highly creative explorations, Schultz, guitarist Tim Wendel, keyboardist Adam Benjamin, bassist Zack Teran, and drummer Alwyn Robinson create an expansive album of modern jazz that unfolds in the dramatic arc of a mesmerizing saga well-told.

"...the interplay of this dynamic is on full display, and from this conviction comes cohesive, melodic, intricate, expressive and compelling music." Bird & Beckett (SF)

Production Info:

Produced by Tim Wendel and Carl Schultz
Recorded by Loren Dorland
at Mighty Fine Productions, Denver, CO
On September 6th and 7th 2023
Mixed by Tim Wendel
Mastered by Stevin McNamara
at Crystal Mountain Studios, Ashland, OR
Cover design & layout by John Bishop

Reviews of The Road to Trantor

Paris Move (Thierry De Clemensat)
From the very first listen, The Road to Trantor feels like a time machine. For those who lived through the 1970s, the echoes are unmistakable, a return to the lush, exploratory sound world of progressive pop and early fusion, when synthesizers were not just instruments but portals to the future. The keyboard textures here recall a lineage that bega ...

Jazz Weekly (George W Harris)
Playing tenor sax and flute, Carl Schultz creates a kind of soundtrack to an as yet unwritten science fiction move on this creative and evocative album with Tim Wendel/g, Adam Benjamin/p-key, Zack Teran/b and Alwyn Robinson/dr. As expected, the intergalactic themes are, well, spacey, as Wendel and Benjamin go where no man has gone before on "Journe ...

Jazz2Love (Editor)
Like a smooth, quenching claret, The Road to Trantor is saxophonist Carl Schultz's vision of something that audiences will find aurally scrumptious. He refers to his creation of all original material as "a soundtrack to a science fiction movie that only exists in my head." The compilation is more comparable to classic 1950's ballroom dance meets ...

All About Jazz (Jack Bowers)
Saxophonist Carl Schultz composed The Road to Trantor as the soundtrack to a science fiction film. The kicker is that the film exists only in Schultz's head. When writing each song, he tried to envision the scene in which it would be used. In that sense, the music is thematic, even though the themes are known only to Schultz. In charting his sin ...