It's nice to go back to where it all started,pure and simple. This was highly demonstrated in Tom Stewart's new CD First Time Over. As soon as you start to play this CD, the atmosphere creates a wonderful sound of expressionism and creativity. These sounds were a 'cleansing' to my ears. Neuenschwander (bass) and Boyadjiev (drummer) create a solid background of flowing color, while Stewart creates the topping of the cake. I was impressed that they had not used any musical enhancements. The music was exuberant!
You will find a lot of bands the have this same clean style. This group however, especially shows an immersion in true color and texture that catches your ears saying, "This is wonderful". The ballads here are delightful, and are in perfect melodic harmony. For example the song Maybe Next Time, Stewart uses great chording. This along with his solos, are second to none. I am very pleased to hear such emotion expressed in this CD.
This is Stewart's forthcoming CD, go buy it! It's like no other sound you will hear throughout your different jazz adventure. I give it a 4 out of 5 on my jazz-o-meter.
