Rob Blakeslee: Double Yellow

Glenn Astarita

Senior Contributor since 1997

Longtime contributor to AAJ and Downbeat, Jazz Review, EjazzNews, Radio DirectX.

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Published: September 1, 2001

Double Yellow is a 1999 recording featuring Roper performing alongside some venerable West Coast modern jazz musicians. Here, percussion wunderkind Brad Dutz utilizes an arsenal consisting of gongs, cymbals, tablas, chimes and more as trumpeter Rob Blakeslee and trombonist Michael Vlatkovich mince accenting tonalities, with poignant interludes, modern jazz interplay and world beat grooves. Moreover, the band also partakes in sonorous extended note drones, subtly climactic passages, oscillating crosscurrents and indigenous rhythms. Basically, the musicians’ pursue some sort of transcendental aura in conjunction with their largely unclassifiable methodologies and cascading soundscapes. Double Yellow brims with contrasting notions intermingled into a rather quixotic presentation, although a sense of mystery tends to hover atop the proceedings as though the listener might be sequestered in a sacred ruin during the still of night. While it will not be suggested that the band is serving up a religious mantra, the music, whether vibrantly performed or quietly mystifying, rings of power and substance. Recommended.

Track Listing: The Admiral Remembers Wild Times On The Isthmus; Lamentations And Dirge Of The Huskies; Convergence; Abandon The Ink; Aurora Borealis; Ice Flow; Guardians; Sentrys; 90 degree

Personnel: Rob Blakeslee; trumpet & flugelhorn: Brad Dutz; percussion: William Roper; tuba; voice, shells, wine glasses, gong: Michael Vlatkovich; trombone & claps

Record Label: Thankyou Records