23/01/2024
this new year, this Friday, new music from Tyler Blanton "References and Irreverances" on Destiny Records.
New release coming this Friday from 🙌
On References & Irreverances, Blanton’s fourth leader date and his second for Destiny Records, the New York City-based vibraphonist bottles such feelings in a flight of eau de parfum concentrations. His panache for striking the right mood is reflected in quirky titles like Brooding Linda Evans and Person Hole Cover. That said, such descriptors are merely doorways into listeners’ own ways of connecting to the material at hand. The latter tune, for example, despite its nod to an all-too-canny George Carlin bit about the absurdity of our linguistic revisionism (“manhole cover” being no longer politically correct), has little to do with the ex*****on of the concept in musical form. If anything, these vignettes of popular culture and personal experience are like sparks fanned by Blanton’s eminently cognizant bandmates. This is clearest in West Highlands, a nod to his West Highland Terrier that hits the ground running. Pianist Gary Versace takes an early solo in this opener, showcasing his own gift for telling it like it is in a culture that too often curtails that impulse. The rhythm section of bassist Joe Martin and drummer Rudy Royston sinks its teeth deep enough into this groove to reach bone, throwing Blanton’s brilliant interweaving of clean and gritty textures into relief.
