The Alchemist

The "alchemist" in question is Miles Davis and it was not necessary for the trombone and alto flugelhorn virtuoso Scott Reeves to let this "revelation" escape to imagine it ...

Surprising album, this one by the Chicago musician and bandleader who soon joined the activity of performer to that of teacher at some of the most renowned North American art academies, in all New York City Colleges and Juilliard Schools. This is because fate would have it that it would see the light only a good fifteen years after the concert in which the six tracks that compose it were recorded and then because it represents one of the happiest outputs of Reeves at the head of a small group: Russ Spiegel on guitar, Mike Holober on piano, Howard Britz on bass and Andy Watson on drums.

Refurbished by another alchemist of sound like Brian Montgomery, the record refers (New Bamboo, Shapeshifter, The Alchemist) to the futuristic Davisian sounds of the late 60s and more generally to the sophisticated atmospheres that Gil Evans' arrangements had given to the works of the trumpeter in that period; where the ballad Without aTrace winks at bossanova and the reinterpretation of the standard All or Nothing at All masterfully crosses swing and bop dynamics. An exhibit that HAS the brilliance of novelty
Elio Bussolino