COMPOSERS: Paul Grabowsky
LABELS: Warner
PERFORMER: Paul Grabowsky
CATALOGUE NO: 5046-71706-2
Many discs take the simple option of having a band which may or may not play together. Paul Grabowsky, the Australian pianist and frequent soundtrack-composer, made Tales of Time and Space on a New York visit which had him hiring Scott Tinkler (trumpet), Branford Marsalis (soprano sax) and Joe Lovano (tenor sax) for his horn team.
None of the tracks feature all three of them. What distinguishes the disc is Grabowsky’s writing: out of nine themes, there’s hardly one of them that doesn’t hook the ears with a graceful melodic twist, a surprising harmonic shift, a chattering rhythmical conceit.
Listen to what he asks Tinkler and Marsalis to do on ‘Tailfin’: if they thought this was going to be an easy gig some out-of-towner was paying for, they may have been surprised. Lovano does his usual, Marsalis is full of pep, but if anyone takes solo honours it’s the little-known Tinkler.